Beyond The Hills [2012]
Alina and Voichita had grown up together in an orphanage. They had found solace and comfort in each other’s presence before both of them took different paths in their life. The film opens with Alina returning to home with the hope of reuniting with her childhood friend and starting a new life only to find Voichita leading a completely new life in a monastery with nothing but God at heart. What follows is one riveting…
Brief Reviews: American Graffiti, The Sweet Hereafter, La Sapienza
We have started a new section called ‘Minimalist Reviews’, where we write brief review of random films. In this post, I have reviews American Graffiti,The Sweet Hereafter, and La Sapienza.
Captain America: Civil War (2016) Review: Ants and Spiders Steal The Show
Captain America: Civil War turns the charismatic asshole we have come to love into a soapy unlikable government visionary. Every single character is either going through episodic breakdown or is at the cusp of getting into one. But wait, that won’t restrict them from wording philosophical jargon just for the sake of it.
Double Feature Review: ‘Anomalisa’ and ‘The Little Prince’
The Animation genre has had a great run in the year 2015. Unlike most years, some of the best films of the year were actually animation films. While the subject of ‘Inside Out’ was a groundbreaking one, there was a devastatingly haunting film in ‘The Boy and the World’. Anomalisa was expectedly a Kaufman-esque dream, while ‘When Marnie was there’ lived upto the expectations one has from a Ghibli Studio movie. It was one of…
A Serious Man (2009): Facing the Elusive, Malevolent Unknown
Human mind is often haunted by this age-old question and requests for an answer through prayers or while talking to high priests. The question is: Why do bad things happen to good people? We try our best to be good. We show love to others & yearn for others’ love. We do our jobs & duties, hoping for some recognition from our peers. But, still bad things happen to us. Our beliefs are shattered; frustration…
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia [2011] : A Criminal Fairy Tale
Nuri Bilge Ceylan has rare quality of profoundly understanding the psyche of humans during idle mind phase. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is gorgeously shot crime drama with densely layered characters that grow effortlessly & organically with time.
The Québecois invasion of Hollywood
One of the more interesting phenomena in recent years has been the influx of Québecois filmmakers making their mark on the Hollywood landscape and World Cinema in general. The likes of Denis Villeneuve, Jean-Marc Vallée, Xavier Dolan and Philippe Falardeau have recently emerged after years spent cutting their teeth and honing their craft as filmmakers in “la belle province”. Now, more and more projects spearheaded by some these names are being greenlit while attracting big…
Hunger (2009): A compelling, haunting and devastating first feature!
The film desperately changes from being mute to immensly loud. For the first 30 odd minutes, the film consequently moves through these disarranged claustrophobic scenes of complete silence followed by insane rage. When the snow-flakes or the filthy walls of the prison cell don’t talk, McQuen resorts to brutality; not because he wishes his audiences to walk-away or hide their faces as they cringe their way through it, but because it creates an emotionally relevant…