Spotlight [2015] – The People who took on a Blighted ‘System’
Tom McCarthy’s stupendous drama “Spotlight” (2015) opens and ends on the confined spaces of two different institutions – police and press. One silenced a crime, while the other stood alone to shine down its ‘spotlight’. Contemporary movies about journalists have often taken a cynical and audacious look at the profession. Tom McCarthy’s film offers a counter-argument for the worthiness of the investigative journalism; about how it could stand up against an entity that deems itself…
Experimenter [2015] Review : An Unconventional and Refreshing Biopic
Isn’t the word biopic brings to our mind certain elements? An actor imparting an Oscar worthy (or is it called ‘award-bait’?) performance? a characteristic prologue, flashbacks, and epilogue that makes us go ‘wow’? Splendidly filmed & edited sentimental montages? Only few filmmakers transcend all these conventional elements of a biopic, like what Spielberg did in “Lincoln” or Spike Lee in “Malcolm X”. While, few other film-makers totally deviate from the ‘biopic’ rules and remain uninterested…
Here’s Why Steve Jobs (2015) Is Exhilarating & Restless
The actors bring Sorkin’s highly stylized and biting words to vivid life, and it resonates on a human level. Though Fassbender might look miscast in terms of physicality of Steve Jobs, but he combines incandescent aggression with cold calculation, egotistical bully, and control freak Orchestra maestro who knows exactly how to tune his instrument players – be it threatening or manipulating. Michael Fassbender becomes Steve Jobs. By the time credit rolls, it will be difficult…
Anomalisa [2015]: Catharsis on being and love
Why do we pray? Why do we bow? More or less it’s because we believe or at least anticipate that there is someone out there that’s listening. Someone is seeing every crack, fracture and imperfection you have, and is trying to heal. It’s scary to give into that belief, that thought of someone. What if that guy doesn’t has the best intention? What if he truly wants to hurt us? What if he sees all…
The Social Network [2010]: Exaggerated, Dramatic but Brilliant
Aaron Sorkin cleverly confessed that he exaggerated the life of Mark Zuckerberg and wrote something that we may find too dramatic. But Do I complain? Not really, as long as it remains great as a cinematic piece, I don’t. And on a cinematic level, this is one of the most brilliant film scripts ever. The film begins with an aggressively talented Mark Zuckerberg bullying his date, Erica. However he has no clue that he is…
Taxi [2015]: An Awe-Inspiring Iranian Minimalist Cinema
Taxi isn’t just a proclamation of Panahi’s boldness and defiance; it is also a nicely coiled allegory and a biting satire on the limitations imposed on him as well as on many fellow Iranians. While “This is Not a Film” (2011) was diffused with an atmosphere of despair and “Closed Curtain” (2013) laced with righteous anger, “Taxi” is enlivened with bursts of optimism and sarcasm (Panahi even smiles a lot in the film).
Anomalisa [2015]: A heartbreaking tale of human connection!
The Fregoli hallucinates the first person into believing there is no second person. And the third person is on a very thin thread between the the first, the second and the third. Shifting gears to be in the shadows of the first. But they are all puppets in the hand of a handler who is devoid of a natural connection searching for a perfect anomaly. He names her so to make her mortal in a…
The Revenant [2015]: A Beautiful & Bloodcurdling Visceral Cinema
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s ravishingly wild, survival movie “The Revenant” (2015) opens with a shot of a steadily flowing stream, whose currents are disturbed by the steps of men carrying guns. A man chooses his target and the gun sound reverberates through the forest, signaling the impending sense of doom that waits for all the frontiersmen. Arrows whiz past in & out of the frames, making contact with the human flesh; faces are bludgeoned; musket fire…