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A movie and book review blog

  • Reading films, watching books,....
  • Mind candy in the dark
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Aug 26, 2004

Marooned in Iraq

Most of the Iranian or Iraqi movies I have watched lately has a documentary quality, this one is no exception. It is a story of an old Kurdish folk singer crossing the border during Iran-Iraq war, to rescue the woman he has loved all his life. His two sons accompany him in the mission, although the last part of the journey he completes all by himself.

Bahman Ghobadi, the director of the movie has succeeded in bringing the aspects of Kurdish life that are unknown and scary to the rest of the world, the situations that Kurds face it daily. The homeland of Kurds, Kurdistan is spread across four countries, most of the times at war at each other. Every time there is a war, Kurds are the first casualty, most of them had spent the majority of life in mountain camps, the roar of fighter jets is their everyday radio, at one time chemical weapon strikes against the Kurds were so frequent that chemical scarring and deaths were common as flu and orphaned children comprise a large section of population. The film tries to touch all these aspects, weaving it in to the story. I'd say it is more of a documentary with some entertainment value. And with all these atrocities against Kurds, it comes as no surprise when Mr.Ghobadi says Kurds have more amateuer film makers per capita(even the cab drivers save up to buy 35 mm camera to make films!) than most other countries!

Aug 25, 2004

Corky Romano

A slapstick comedy starring Chris Kattan. It's kinda entertaining, cliched scenes and jokes abound, along with the facial muscular contractions performed by Kattan. Its funny for a mindless evening when you are stoned and almost on the way out.

Aug 24, 2004

The Terminal

Tom Hanks is one of the best actors to come out of Hollywood in the last few decades, this movie is a feather in the cap of this amazing actor. Viktor Navorski is an East European visitor to United States who gets caught in JFK airport with a cancelled entry visa and an invalid passport as his country ceases to exist after an uprising.

I am thankful that Spielberg didn't pursue the romantic angle between Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones and spoil the film. There are holes in the story if you try to analyze, but then who cares, it had some very interesting characters and great acting with Hanks leading the crowd.

Aug 23, 2004

Very Annie Mary

Its one of those fairytalish English movies with an undecipherable accent - of course it takes place in a picteresque Welsh village. Annie Mary is played by Rachel Griffiths who has a perpetual comic look on her face like Minnie Mouse which makes the film interesting. A simple film with a fresh innocence.

Aug 22, 2004

Along Came Polly

This is my kind of chick flick, if it was a chick flick. Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Alec Baldwin and Philip Seymour Hoffman make up the cast in this John Hamburg comedy. Although in a very short role Hank Azaria will have you in splits with his French accent. A good movie to enjoy in the company of friends.

Aug 21, 2004

Teen Deewarein

After long a Hindi film, a Nagesh Kukunoor one at that. It seems to be on a different track than his earlier movies like Hyderabad Blues, Rockford and Bollywood Calling. The opening shot is an almost exact copy of Shawshank Redemption, the rest of it luckily is not.

Naseeruddin Shah is an actor par excellence, with his effortless acting he proves it once again in this movie. Jackie Shroff is okay, Nagesh Kukunoor is good, so is Juhi Chawla. Gulshan Grover is a much underrated actor, he shines as the police officer in charge of the prison. The dialogs in this movie made me aware how Indian English is a world apart from the kind of conversation we have here in US. The long drawn sentences between two people, the heavy content laden words used in India now seems kind of dramatic, like reading prose.

Aug 20, 2004

The Village

Shyamalan's best film to date, he seems to have created a genre all by himself. Another movie which tells you not to worship the very earth so-called pompous all knowing film critics walk upon. It'll definitely break the stub off all you self-important people. But if you are one with a streak of impishness, I assure you, you'll love it. Life's not all that scary, you know.

Other ++++

+ M.Night’s Shyamalan’s cameo appearance is one of the best done by a director so far (amongst the ones I have seen)

+ Bryce Dallas Howard is real hero material (oops heroine)

+ Mind blowing camera

Aug 19, 2004

Interiors

The DVD cover says Woody Allen, wrote and directed this film. No, it couldn't have been you, Mr.Allen. It's a film for those 'extreme-artsy' types which definitely I am not. Diane Keaton is one of my all time favorite actresses but she seems so not like herself in the movie. All in all a slow one which takes some patient to sit through and devoid of Allen's hallmark wits.

Aug 18, 2004

American Splendor

A documentary/feature film about the creator of a comic called American Splendor - Harvey Pekar. The way the movie is shot like it is the storyboard of a comic book, a refreshing change. Although Harvey is an ordinary person like all of us, the film does not bore one as one would expect the story of a hospital file clerk would. Harvey Pekar is the common man with a 'comic' genius who manages to strike gold, the American dream.

Aug 12, 2004

Children of Nature

An Icelandic film centered on two inmates of an old age home which switches back and forth between reality and dream(at the most crucial points). Two childhood sweathearts meet in an old age home and decides to run away to their old village, now abondoned by all its inhabitants. Its an ok film, 'am not particularly impressed by it.

Aug 9, 2004

Aug 6, 2004

Capturing the Friedmans

A very good and an acclaimed documentary on the Friedman case that took place in Long Island in the early eighties directed by Andrew Jarecki. It is an interesting case-study of an American family falling apart, when the head of the family, the father - Arnold Friedman is accused of paedophile charges and to the horror of all horrors, his youngest son, Jesse is also accused of the same charges.

There is a wealth of home video material which went in to the making of this documentary because of Arnold Friedman, a home video enthusiast and later his eldest son David, who decides to document the whole trial process. Arnold Friedman had definite paedophile tendencies but he denies having carried out his advances to children anywhere near the home he lived, in his computer class or the suburban community which turned his main accusers in the case. But its Jesse who takes your sympathy, wrongly accused for a crime he didn't commit, then spend 13 years of his prime life behind the bars and come back to the society at the age 31 with a label as a child molester. Even in the most dysfunctional family, nobody could have had it worse. A very rivetting and objective documentary, justifies its Oscar nomination.

Aug 5, 2004

Magdalane Sisters, The

A harrowing tale(s) of escape of three young woman from a conventwhere they were enslaved against their choice. Or it'd be wiser to say they had no choice to speak of. This Irish film by Peter Mullan is a window to the rest of the world, of the inhuman practices meted out by Catholic nuns to young women/girls kept in their convents. It is not a prototype for Irish catholic convents of the 40-50 years back, but such institutions definitely existed.

These girls come in to the convent for various reasons, some of them gave birth before marriage and their families disowned them and put them in to the care of sisters. One of the girls was raped by a cousin of hers and her family to escape the shame forcibly sent her to the convent. At the convent the young women are made to work for a laundry the nuns operate for commercial purposes. Its like an emotional boot camp with no doors for escape. Human rights violations happened whenever and wherever the authorities got drunk on authority, either in the name of politics or religion. This film is a proof and its triumph is the ultimate escape of the girls, although it is not what I'd call dramatic.

Ladykillers, The

Starring Tom Hanks, as The Professor, Ladykillers is the story of a casino heist which almost succeeded but for a lady. The lady in question,Mrs Munson(played by Irma.T.Hall) is a god-fearing, church junkie with a passion for gospel music. This is not exactly the best movie Coen Brothers have ever made, but its passable, funny and reflects the amazing range Tom Hanks has. Irma.T.Hall fits like a glove in to her character and so does the portrait of her husband hanging over the fireplace.

Aug 3, 2004

From Dusk till Dawn

Directed by Quentin Tarantino twister in one night. You start watching a gangster movie of two thieves - George Clooney and Tarantino himself, halfway through the movie Tarantino decides that his thirst for blood cannot be quenched by mere handfuls of blood splattered by some shots in the head fired by these vily gangsters, so he turns the movie into a vampire thriller.

So he brings in Salma Hayek, who has to play a seductress turned she-vampire. In true Tarantinosque style the movie has blood, blood, blood and more blood and gore. In between all that there is a plot that travels from US to Mexico in an RV. Not bad, but take it only as pure entertainment, nothing beyond that.

Aug 2, 2004

Master and Commander

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, is definitely not my kind of movie. It was okay, but it created an Oscar flutter, I can't imagine that! It is a good education about the times when sailors were like astronauts in the sixties or computer geeks of the late nineties, when sea was the final frontier, before it gave way to space and the internet.

Russell Crowe fits the role as the captain of the English, other performances are okay, it seemed a bit put together for the movie kinda script, a tad rehearsed perhaps. If you want to see a real movie of sailors and the life at sea I'd still suggest the German submarine classic, Das Boot.
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