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12-07-2022, 05:45 AM
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#122 |
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Power Member
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Mahesh Narayanan's Ariyippu (Declaration) getting direct OTT release. This film premiered in the Concorso internazionale (international competition section) of the 75th Locarno Film Festival on 4 August 2022, where it was nominated for Golden Leopard.
Starts streaming on Netflix from 16th Dec 
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12-12-2022, 06:53 AM
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#124 | |
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Blu-ray Baron
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12-16-2022, 08:49 AM
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#126 | |
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Blu-ray Baron
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Over the last week, I finished watching this 6-Ep mini-series called The Devil's Hour on Prime. It's a sort of Silence of the Lambs meets Sixth Sense meets Groundhog Day.
Social worker and single mother Lucy (Jessica Raine) balances her work of counseling assorted abuse victims with a troubled home-life, having a son Isaac (Benjamin Chivers) who is curiously devoid of any emotion. While husband Mark would like dearly to get Lucy back in his life, he is far less enthusiastic about his son, who with cruel sarcasm he refers to as a "psychopath in the making". Jessica also has a senile mother who watches television with the power off and talks to people that aren't there. And oh, it appears that Lucy wakes up every night exactly at 3.33am (as evidenced by a glowing purple bedside clock, who could sleep with that ridiculous glare?). On another track detective Ravi Dhillon (Nikesh Patel) and his cop buddy Nick Holness (Alex Ferns) are on the trail of a random series of murders, which hint at a diabolical serial killer. These two tracks are frequently interrupted by a series of scenes set in an interrogation cell where a bruised Ravi and Lucy are talking to a rather sinister and murderous looking character called Gideon (Peter Capaldi). The overall tone of TDH is what I call "Netflix Dark" - the characters have intense obsessive personalities and dark secrets, the crime scenes are gruesome and no one is allowed to feel happy for long. That said, it is at the same time not misanthropic and does have a sense of humor which goes some way to making it less miserable. For most of the season, the narrative jumps around in a manner that is distracting without making itself clear. Individual episodes have some strong moments but there are also seemingly random dream logic segments. It is in the final episode that the underlying concept is revealed for which the clues had been previously strewn before. Without going too far into spoiler territory, this is where the Groundhog Day element dominates in a more far reaching way than in that film. It is of course a significant stretch of the imagination, and renders certain characters and sub-plots as less important than they initially seemed. How much that conceit appeals to you is a matter of individual taste. I thought it was decent, and they did go for a bold downer ending. On the whole, cliched and contrived for sure, but still nicely polished and frequently effective. Fans of mystery/horror dramas can check out, and it's only 6 hour long episodes. |
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| Thanks given by: | ketan (01-06-2023) |
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12-19-2022, 04:12 AM
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#127 | ||
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Blu-ray Baron
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12-19-2022, 04:30 AM
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#128 | |
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Blu-ray Baron
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Last night I (ha!) caught Prey on Hotstar.
This new feature in the Predator franchise actually goes back in time to the 18th century, when native Americans lived as hunter-gatherers. Our feisty heroine Nara (Amber Midthunder, what a name!) is eager to do her ritual hunt, but held back by her family (though not in a brazenly chauvinistic way). When news comes of a lion attack, Nara insists on joining her brother to hunt it down. It soon turns out that the lion isn't the only predator around and, armed only with their stone axes and bows, they need to tackle a far more formidable foe. I think the best thing about Prey is that it doesn't spend too much time building the mythology. It can be viewed as a standalone, which, given that I'd previously only seen the Schwarzenegger and Adrien Brody movies is how I watched it. The predator here is shown as a more primitive creature, scaled down in terms of weaponry and armor to more evenly match his earthly opponents (he's still a tough bugger, physically imposing, and packing a a hand-mounted shield and targeting explosives). I didn't quite get the climax where Nara manipulates his head gear targeting reticule - I guess I didn't pay enough attention where I should have. On the whole, it's breezy and has a fair amount of action. The CG for the animal characters is not as convincing as say Jon Favreau's Jungle Book, but if you can suspend your disbelief it's not a bad bit of timepass. |
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| Thanks given by: | ketan (01-06-2023) |
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01-09-2023, 06:17 AM
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#131 | |
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Blu-ray Baron
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Saivam - Hotstar
Me and mum have mostly been watching Masterchef 2022, but that's nearly come to an end now with just the grande finale left (I know the actual competition is long over, but we watch around 2-3 episodes a week, so please don't spoil it for us). I'd be happy for any recommendations of family-friendly series which don't require a lot of keeping track. Something like Panchayat would be nice (not necessarily the same setting, but that vibe)
Anyhoo, For Movie with Mum night on the weekend, I picked a title a friend had heartily recommended as a simple, very clean and wholesome entertainer, available on Hotstar now - Saivam aka Vegetarian (2014). He was partly right. It was simple, clean and wholesome. Entertainer? Well... Veteran actor Nasser is the agrarian patriarch of a large family spread across multiple locations, which only meets up at their village home during festivals or other important occasions. So, as they roll in one by one, Nasser is obviously overjoyed at the prospect of seeing the family together again. Apparently, Nasser is a strict (but just) patriarch that the rest of the family slightly fears. His punishment for any trangression of rules seems to be "murga ban jao" (this has greater resonance in the plot). I suspect in this family, even armed assault or murder could be forgiven after a "murga" punishment. Nasser's grandchild from the son that lives with him is Sara Arjun, who exudes so much goody-goody cuteness, diabetic viewers are in danger of going into a coma. On the other hand his grandson from a Dubai-settled daughter is a total a*sehole. I was wondering if this was going to be a "Desi upbringing = good kids, urban upbringing = brats" homily, but thankfully there are other urban characters not like this brat. As to why he was pampered to be such a dick can probably be explained by the very Indian tendency to deify sons over daughters. Anyhoo, the film tries to generate a good deal of humor in the interaction between the rural and urban members. When the brat asks about wi-fi in the house, the family servant (George Maryan channeling Goundamani) points to the various Waifus (wives) in the family; that not satisfying the brat, he offers to go to the market immediately to purchase some wi-fi for the young master. There's also the track of adolescent Lufthudeen who has a crush on his cousin (Twara Desai), but finds himself stymied every chance he tries to get her alone. Meanwhile his own younger brother gets to smooth-talk with the girl (and even name drops Abhishek and Aishwarya as an example of older woman couples). Most importantly there's the murga aka rooster. He's called Paapa (baby). All the farm animals in that house have names. The irony is that the family is heartily non-vegetarian. Sara is very attached to Paapa, and the affection seems mutual (early scenes show Paapa repeatedly scampering off to Sara's classroom). So when some ill omens remind Nasser that Paapa was originally promised as a sacrifice to the village deity, Sara resolves to save her fowl friend from the whole family by means fair or foul. What happens next forms the rest of the movie. Saivam has the bones of a cliched but pleasant family experience. The bare script is fine and the casting is quite good (I appreciate that they have actual adolescent actors and not obvious adults dressing in "college fashion"). But the treatment is too broad. Sara's character is so angelic, it becomes cloying and never rings true (she even hides her bruises so as to not worry her grandparents, which little kid does that?). The a-hole kid is an unmitigated brat, with no dimension. A multi-threaded sequence in the middle where the family goes out in multiple groups to hunt for the missing rooster carries promise, but ends up an overlong noise-fest. So while there were good moments, I did not find the film enjoyable on account of its fumbling on the little details and textures that give personality to a story of this type. Last edited by ravenus; 01-09-2023 at 06:22 AM. |
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01-15-2023, 03:30 AM
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#133 | |
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Blu-ray Baron
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After a legit great movie (Tomu Uchida's Fugitive from the Past), the second one I watched yesterday was a glorious trainwreck.
When I saw the poster for Naane Varuven (roughly, I'll Myself Come) it looked like one of those standard Dhanush lovable gangsta movies he does to keep his hold on the masses, and that is what I was expecting when I put it on for Movie with Mum night. At least it's only 2 hours, I thought, which struck me as surprising short for a Mass Hero movie. Color me wrong because the movie is such a bizarre, hilariously awful mish-mash of unlikely elements - it's like The Conjuring meets A History of Violence meets The Most Dangerous Game, but put through the popular masala filter (meaning, "HERO" songs serenading grisly murders, and Yogi Babu). This movie makes Jagame Thandhiram look coherent, but with all its awfulness is more fun than that one. Don't blame me if it makes you reach for your barf bags, but there is a certain morbid curiosity that carries this one. |
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| Thanks given by: | bermuda (01-17-2023) |
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01-20-2023, 05:39 AM
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#134 | ||
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Blu-ray Baron
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Really sorry to disturb y'all from all the movies you've been watching (
 ) but this is happening (on Prime):Saw the first episode last night and this seems promising. 4 Musketeers of the low-budget campy flick genre - Vinod Talwar, Dilip Gulati, Kishan Shah and J Neelam - have been commissioned to make a film each, and in the process, the series will also look at their work and pay tribute to the genre. The heart seems to be in the right place. Great to see the B/C/Z-movie regulars like Raza Murad, Shiva Rindani, Vinod Tripathi wax eloquent about their experience of these movies and their appeal to the public. I am most impressed right now with Vinod Talwar's pitch - he also seems the most prepared of the lot. Let's see what happens. P.S. loved the shot of Kanti Shah looking entranced by his own movie on the screen. Reminded me of that absolutely terrific part played by Willem Dafoe in one of the best scenes from Mr. Bean's Holiday. This one: Last edited by ravenus; 01-20-2023 at 05:45 AM. |
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01-29-2023, 06:05 PM
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#135 | |
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Blu-ray Baron
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Mukundan Unni is probably the most amoral protagonist seen in an Indian movie. I can see where the comparisons to the Jake Gyllenhaal movie Nightcrawler come in. This movie has issues for me - I thought it had a great ending near the scene of a bus accident, but it goes on for another 20 min unnecessarily dotting i's and crossing t's. Still, I would suggest giving it the look see.
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02-09-2023, 10:57 AM
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#138 | |
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Blu-ray Baron
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Gamak Ghar - Mubi
A short while ago I took a Mubi introductory sub (99rs for 3 months). Till now I'd only watched some short films on it, but last night I saw the feature length Gamak Ghar (Village Home) aka GG.
Achal Mishra's film, although scripted and acted, is closer to an anthropological documentary than a fictional feature. The titular house located in rural Bihar is home to a large extended family we first meet in 1998. In this segment presented in a 4:3 frame, we see this joint family getting together for a festive occasion in the summer (a baby's naming ceremony). The children revel in their games, men play cards or run errands, while the women share in the domestic activities. In their casual conversations and interactions we see an ease that comes with familiarity and affection. Cut to around a decade later (2010), the screen space expands to 16:9. It is autumn and the house is a little emptier now. The family patriarch is long gone, and several of the children are settled in other places. Even the mother is convinced to shuttle between her children's families than manage the village home by herself. The grandkids are glued to their electronic gadgets and prefer Maggi to the more rustic snacks. Conversations are more formal now, and small disputes arise. But there is still an attachment, at least with the adults, to their original home and they look with fondness at records and old memories. Skip approximately another decade to 2019 with an even wider frame of 2.35:1. In a wintry haze, the house lies decrepit and forgotten, save for a wizened caretaker. It appears that the family no longer convenes here. Like some aged relative abandoned in a pilgrimage location or a dog left behind in the shifting, it waits forlorn for signs of its family's return. There is a moment of redemption towards the end when we see it undergoing renovation with the purpose of returning it to its former glories. But who knows what it will all come to? On paper, GG sounds like a dry preachy exercise about the gradual erosion of family values in the modern age. But the very naturalistic and understated manner in which Mishra (as writer, editor, producer & director) has executed his script, it comes across as very real. The conversations are natural conversations, not purposeful dialog. While always perfectly framed, the camera sits non-ostentatiously, like an eavesdropper. You could be easily fooled into thinking this was a documentary put together from actual footage capturing the interactions of a real family. Featuring several long takes with a stationary camera, It's not the most action packed of films. But once you align with its rhythms, GG is a wonderful time capsule and a warm study of a social structure defined in a specific cultural milieu. I was quite engrossed in it. Last edited by ravenus; 02-09-2023 at 11:02 AM. |
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02-11-2023, 02:15 AM
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#140 | |
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Senior Member
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This guy is back with his second feature Dhuin which is also streaming on MUBI
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