“Certain Women” is a remarkable and ambiguous study of gritty and gumptious individuals, cold-shouldered and unheard by the alienated community. Since director Kelly Reichardt’s camera only watches and listens to the existential threat faced by the characters without ever escalating the dramatic quotient, it demands a contemplative mindset to watch.
Fueled by every possible genre of cinematic independence, the Mumabi Film Festival is here again. A time of the year when every single cinema lover like us gets pissed-off at their respective bosses and bring their ass Mumbai for this grand event. A place where people not only see films but celebrate films. They wait in queues and gossip about their love for films. A place which is more home that you make it out to be. Like a yearly ritual, we wait for this week of cinematic boners and ever enlightening storms. And while every single one of us believes in watching as many films as possible, time binds us to a bear minimum.
Majority of Cafe Society is situational comedy, backed by a familiar but interesting setup. The film feels so much like a story the old man Woody is telling from the yesteryears of his long, mischievous life. If Woody had made this film some thirty years ago, he would have certainly played the lead himself for sure.
Another year, another Cannes, with the top gong going towards I, Daniel Blake, making English film-maker Ken Loach the eighth director who has ever won the Palme d’Or twice (lucky he didn’t go into retirement after all). The film received mostly positive reviews, as did most of the other award-winning films like The Salesman, American Honey, and Ma’ Rosa, but there was the usual booing, jeering, yelling, and perhaps even throwing of rotten tomatoes at the screenings of a number of films, which resulted in a number of varied responses from the filmmakers.