Films I Watch

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

King of the Hill (1993)

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writers: A.E. Hotchner (Memoir), Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Jesse Bradford, Jeroen Krabbe, Lisa Eichhorn, Adrien Brody

A young boy struggles on his own in a run-down motel after his parents and younger brother are separated from him in 1930s Depression-era Midwest.

Film is set in 1933 Missouri and everyone is struggling as the effects of Great Depression is still very much there. He gets separated from his family and other people he is close with in the motel one by one basically because of poverty. Abject poverty and hunger is not something that we see commonly in films from the developed world and the way the boy deals with it is quite buoyantly. He is quite charismatic playing the main protagonist and quite curiously for a Soderbergh film, the film very much has a Coen vibe to it. The whole sweaty atmosphere reminded me of 'Barton Fink', which also was set during the same time and came out couple of years prior to this. The performances are excellent, particularly from the younger cast members. I didn't realize it was a 20 year old Adrien Brody playing the role of his best friend and mentor, Lester, even though he looked very familiar. Music was done by Soderbergh's frequent collaborator Cliff Martinez, who also has done some terrific work with Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive & Only God Forgives).

Overall it is a great watch and it was Soderbergh's third film after Sex, Lies & Videotape and Kafka, both of which I rate as among his very best. I think he is quite underrated as a director basically because most people remember him for his commercial films like Oceans franchise and 'Out of Sight'. He did have a quite underwhelming body of work beginning from 2001 which lasted till around 2009 after which he was back in from leading up to his so called retirement from feature film making.

Rating: 4/5

Monday, February 9, 2015

Harold and Maude (1971)

Director: Hal Ashby
Writer: Colin Higgins
Cast: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort, Vivian Pickles

Young, rich and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral. Harold's mother with her bourgeoisie lifestyle don't take much effort in understanding Harold and he likes to fake his own death in return. It is not the kind where the kid is trying to get attention. Maude very much has the hippie like lifestyle and thinking when it comes to liberty, authority and attitude. She has a set of keys that her carjacking husband left her with which she uses to take rides in whatever vehicle that she finds fancy. Both Harold and Maude like Hearses very much.

It must have caused a stir when it got released because of the romantic angle of the story between the teenager Harold and the 79 year old Maude. I guess it would have been edgy even for today's audience as well. I very much felt like how I felt when watching 'The Graduate'- must have been great when it got released but haven't aged that gracefully. All this hippie sort of outlook has become very cliched by now but it really shouldn't be used to find fault with this film considering that it got released in Nixon America. It is a very good watch without being all that great and the melancholic music is again something we have got very used to.

It didn't do well either commercially or critically when it got released but developed a cult following gradually over the years. I suspect it must have influenced directors like Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach in terms of their style and quirkiness. I guess one can watch it if you are fans of those directors to see what must have been a landmark film for them.

Rating: 3.5/5

Sunday, February 8, 2015

The Master (2012)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern

A naval veteran Freddie (Phoenix) arrives home from the second world war unsettled and uncertain of his future-until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader, Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman). Dodd is attracted to Freddie initially by the drink that he gives him which is made out of several industrial/household chemicals like Paint thinner. For Freddie it is a case of someone who is actively being interested in him and also it might be a case of him liking an authoritative figure around him.

I had seen it when it got released and found it to be good but requiring multiple viewing to appreciate it more. It took me three viewings to fully appreciate P T Anderson's previous one, 'There Will Be Blood'. I finally got round to watching The Master again after listening to Anderson's interview with Marc Maron in the WTF podcast. When the film got released, most of the publicity it got was because of Lancaster Dodd's character being based on the Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. I am not that interested in that particular comparison mainly because we in India are so familiar with all these God Men/Women like figures and 'Art of Living' fraudsters. So it was better for me to view Dodd as such a generic sort of character and the conflicts that he goes through keeping with his lies is an interesting angle. I do think most of these people are just living their lies rather than actually believing in the kind of shit that they come out with.

Both Dodd and Freddie need each other. Dodd is surrounded by his family members and the cult. Some of the family members like his much younger wife, daughter and son-in-law are very much into the cult either being fully bought into it or as a matter of convenience. His son is of the view that Dodd is just making up shit as he go along and Freddie is also under that impression even though he want it to be the other way. When Dodd's wife warns him of Freddie being a negative influence and not really into the cult, he makes him go through the ridiculous programming process and we see how conflicted Freddie is when doing it. There could also be a homo-erotic angle to their relationship but sometimes they come across as a father-son combo or just friends. Freddie needs him but can't put up with all the other bullshit that comes with Dodd. Dodd needs Freddie to escape from the cult he is surrounded with, at least fleetingly.

Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead continues his collaborative partnership with P T Anderson which started with 'There Will Be Blood'. It is a 'tour de force' acting performance with all three of them earning academy award nominations. Film was shot in 70 mm which has become a sort of fad with Tarantino and Christopher Nolan also joining the bandwagon. They have at least saved Kodak with some of the studios guaranteeing a quota of films to be filmed in the traditional way. To sum up, I still find the film to be something that I admire rather than really love. That was the case with 'There Will Be Blood' also before the third viewing changed it to something that I love. To end it on a tragic note, Philip Seymour Hoffman had his first drink in 23 years at the wrap party of the film, leading to a relapse of his alcoholism.

Rating: 4.5/5

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Kill the Messenger (2014)

Director: Michael Cuesta
Writers: Peter Landesman, Gary Webb, Nick Schou
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Robert Patrick, Jena Sims, Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta

A reporter becomes the target of a vicious smear campaign that drives him to the point of suicide after he exposes the CIA's role in arming Contra rebels in Nicaragua and importing Cocaine into California. Based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb.

The backdoor channel of arming Contra rebels started after the Congress denied the government permission to formally wage a war in Nicaragua during the cold war times. I was aware about this story and Gary Webb after listening to one of Dan Carlin's Common Sense podcast episodes. So I practically knew the entire story upfront. I really don't like Jeremy Renner and think he has such a punchable smug face. So there wasn't much incentive to watch it also because it didn't get an overwhelmingly positive critical reviews. Despite all that I finally took the plunge since it is a genre that I enjoy very much with Michael Mann's 'The Insider' and Pakula's 'All the President's Men' being the high watermark points. It is not a great film by any means but is nevertheless a very good watch with good performance from Renner. The complicity of the mainstream papers like NYT & WP was new information for me and in that regard they very much worked like establishment's mouthpiece like they did when they manufactured the consent for Iraq War through their reportage on imaginary WMDs. The media coverage CIA's shenanigans in Latin America and Central America is used extensively by Noam Chomsky in his book 'Manufacturing Consent'. The difference in this case was that they directly caused enormous harm to American people and as the film points out rather than American soldiers it was the black Americans who were addicted to crack-cocaine who were the victims. The irony of waging a War on Drugs and at the same time encouraging drug trafficking to pursue their interests elsewhere.

The CIA kind of admitted to its doing by releasing a 400 page report in a very cunning fashion during the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal so that it would not get any media attention. Poor Gary Webb, he was found dead in 2004 with two gunshot wounds to his head which was deemed to be a suicide. We are prepared to believe the worst about CIA and US intelligence community after the Snowden affairs. The merit of the film lies more with its documentary value rather than pure cinematic excellence.

Rating: 3.5/5

το χαμένο σήμα της δημοκρατίας (The Lost Signal of Democracy) (2014)

It is a documentary about the un-constitutional shutdown of the Greek Public Broadcaster ERT by the conservative government under the pretext of Troika imposed austerity measures. ERT was funded by the Greek people with payment collected as part of their electricity bills and the broadcaster contributed to the government coffers to the tune of 110 million euros from a revenue of 300 million euros. It made no sense whatsoever when the government took the decision other than it being a fascist act eating away at the core of Democracy in the place where it was invented.

The narrative of German savers being screwed up by countries like Spain and Greece is something that has been going on since the advent of the Euro-crisis. This is wrong on several counts as explained by economist Michael Pettis in his blog: Syriza and the French indemnity of 1871-73 . It was not a case of one country borrowing from the other since the savings from individuals were collectively channeled to other individuals in the periphery through the banks. Both the lender and borrower are responsible for it and sacrifices have to be made by both sides when things go tits up. What has happened so far by means of austerity is that only one of them is being held responsible. Even more ludicrous thing is that it is doing no good but harm for both sides. Suppose a country's GDP is 100 and its sovereign debt is also 100% of its GDP. If the GDP growth is less than the rate at which the debt is growing then it is inevitably gonna spiral out of control. The austerity measures are only gonna put brakes on its GDP growth which is not gonna help anyone.

What is good about the documentary is that it is not painting a picture where ERT is held up as some sort of BBC like broadcaster with minimal problems. They concede that like any government organizations it is also under the grip of clientelism and what not. The situation they compare with is someone taking a boy with a broken arm to hospital where the doctor says that he is gonna kill him to relieve him from his pain. The un-democratic action by the government made the people to rally around the issue to vent their frustrations against austerity. Greece is not a place which is unfamiliar with fascism as it was under a military junta from the 1930s to around the 60s. People there seems very aware about the threat and the parliament shown passing ordinances with only three members present was indeed surreal. It is very good but a disturbing watch.

Rating: 4.5/5

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Kraftidioten (In Order of Disappearance) (2014)

Director: Hans Peter Moland
Writer: Kim Fupz Aakeson
Cast: Stellan Skarsgard, Pal Sverre Hagen, Bruno Ganz
Languages: Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, English

The honorable citizen Nils (Skarsgard) has the job of ploughing snow in the wild winter mountains of Norway. When his son is mistakenly murdered, Nils takes action, which ignites a war between the vegan gangster "the count" (Hagen) and the Serbian mafia boss Papa (Ganz).

It has got a Scandinavian ensemble not just in terms of the nationality of actors but also the characters. Nils is Swedish, Count is Norwegian, his wife is Danish, Papa is Serbian and 'The Chinese' is actually Japanese. Many of the humor in it relies on the characters confusing the nationalities involved and it helps if you as a viewer correctly identifies it correctly. I could spot some of them based on what other Scandinavian films I have watched and the lady in it was in Borgen which is Danish. Each of the deaths are marked by a title card with their name and religion. Religions are denoted by the type of Cross and the sole Jewish guy is given that Jewish Star. I was disappointed that none of them were atheists but I guess the Vegan do count. The title of the film comes from the title cards and is also marked during the closing credits where all the actors' names are shown together and each of them disappearing from the screen in order of disappearance.

It is very funny and exquisite to watch. The snow clad mountain and the confusion that ensues would remind one of Fargo but got to say this one is much funnier and less darker. The whole thing is an in-joke about setting a gangster picture in a civilized place like Norway. Some of the immigrant gangsters are bemused by the way things are in Norway and is evident in the way they talk about the lack of violence and rapes in Norwegian prisons. They also reckon welfare is the only thing that keep people in such a cold and shitty place. The funniest of all is the kidnapped school kid talking about Stockholm Syndrome.

Overall it is just about perfect and a very enjoyable watch which continues to surprise as it progresses. The body disposal technique of Nils is just breathtaking. I haven't seen any other films from the director who seem to favor crime comedies.

Rating: 4.5/5

Best of 2014

Here it goes...

Its been a rather good year.

Pages

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Monday, February 9, 2015

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Wednesday, February 4, 2015