Udta Punjab (2016) Movie Review: Grim Realities and Hazy Truths!
When a drug-induced haze appears in front of your eyes, all you see is a ray of stark white light…
When a drug-induced haze appears in front of your eyes, all you see is a ray of stark white light…
Martin Luther King, Jr. once famously said: “Violence begets violence”. While this is certainly true, sometimes violence is a necessity…
We’re halfway through 2015, with July almost arriving, but I waited to finish watching all the possible good films of 2015 before I come up with a list that I totally find justified for my own taste. Here is a comprehensive list of the Best Films from 2015. Do not go bonking if you don’t see Son of Saul , The Revenant on the list or Spotlight in the Top 10. I loved both the films, and they ‘may’ deserve all the critical praise and love from the audiences but I didn’t find them better than other films that topped them.
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 & emotional pain surges; uncertainty confounds us. If you are religious, you want to know if God has any control over this world or if the ‘bad things’ just a series of tests to challenge our faith?
An avalanche that caused no physical damage but introduced serious emotional instability in a marriage was the subject Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure dealt with. It is commendable to see Ruben’s command over his subject; he understands unconscious human behaviour better than most contemporary filmmakers. As Force Majeure grew on me over the time I couldn’t wait to see what he did with his other films. So, the first film I checked out was his 2008 film Involuntary.
The Invitation hides most of it’s characters behind mysterious shadows which don’t peel off layer by layer but are slowly scratched until they are completely ripped-off from their existence.
Guy Maddin is the Janus of cinema, the two-faced God of thresholds, of beginning and transitions, of doorways, and most essentially of lost cinema. His one face is towards the dusk of silent cinema and other towards the dawn of digital cinema. He gazes into past and at the same time leaps into future. In his latest quest, the Knight (Guy Maddin), along with his squire (Evan Johnson), enters the forbidden territory of past to rescue the films of bygone era, films that were burnt into flames, films that were dumped into ocean, or the films that never existed. The fragments of lost films are then collected and encased in an unending spiral of nested stories. Such heavenly keeping is the work of Janus. Alas, for some, it is ugly and frightening.
The biggest gladiator match in the history of comic-book films feels like a stinking turd that jumps from one scene to another without even transitioning properly. At the end of the day when you look at the film it frustrates you and makes you angry. It just feels like that random drunk guy who doesn’t know where he is coming from and where he needs to move next. And finally when he gets his senses he keeps throwing up on his way home.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic character study of a baron anti-hero ‘Daniel Plainview’ (played by legendary actor Daniel Day-Lewis) ‘There Will…