The Monuments Men

In all the years of movies about World War II, we have never ever heard about The Monuments Men.  It is indeed surprising that such a wonderful story was the world’s best kept secret till September 2009 when Robert M Edsel published his book - The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (http://www.monumentsmen.com).

Inside Llewyn Davis

All Coen Brothers fans in the house raise your hands!!!! And once you have done that, check your list of movies to confirm that you have seen Inside Llewyn Davis.  A few of us (about a 500 I am guessing) were lucky enough to see the movie at the Mumbai International Film Festival.  For the rest, PVR Director’s Rare has been kind enough to release it after several delays – 10^th January 2014 is the day.

Monster's University

Just the other day, I was lamenting about how 2013 has been a watershed – pretty much – for the animation segment.  There were hardly any good movies that were released to date.  And one could have only hoped through the trailers that Tarzan was good.  But coming up before Tarzan to put a smile on my face – Monsters University!!!

The Hangover 3

At the outset, I would like to apologise for this delayed review of a movie that released 2 weeks back.  A friend asked me if it was similar to Hangover 2 and whether he should watch it.  I hadn’t seen HO2 and so decided that I would take this opportunity to watch HO1, 2 and 3 and then review all 3 together.

Trouble With The Curve

When Clint Eastwood is involved in a movie, you can expect it to be nothing short of intense. And first time director Robert Lorenz should not have been a stranger to this fact. Lorenz has assisted Eastwood in several of his movies – Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River to name a couple. So it would have come as no surprise to see Eastwood, all over his movie at the end of the day – not just as an actor but also as a director – Trouble With The Curve seems to be directed more by Eastwood than Lorenz. And I speculate that it is not because Lorenz is Eastwood’s protégé.

Bo Gentry (Joe Massingill) is a teenager who is THE most talked about baseball player in recent times. He has been hitting the right notes with the press and the big home runs in the college leagues. Rumours are that he is going to be the first pick in the upcoming draft for the Red Sox. But the people at Atlanta Braves believe that they have a chance of pipping them.

The Braves’ best scout, and arguably one of the best in the business, is Gus Lobel (Eastwood). Gus is not the most popular of all scouts in recent times because of his crabby behavior – people get senile and crabby beyond 60 is what I have heard. As if that were not enough of a worry for him, technology is taking the game into the computer and scouts are no longer the “in thing”.

Complicating it further is Gus’s rapidly deteriorating eyesight. Thank goodness for this daughter Mickey (Amy Adams) – named after the inimitable Mickey Mantle – still is concerned about his well being albeit reluctantly. So when Pete Klien (John Goodman) who is Gus’ boss, asks Mickey to accompany Gus on his latest road trip, she is caught in two minds. The first one that asks her to stay back and work harder than she has for the past 7 years so that she makes partner. The other that tells her to join her dad on the road; for what its worth, he is her father.

The movie carefully peels the layers on a complex relationship between father and daughter. It adds the nuances of how traditional scouts went about their lives and their roles in identifying the best of the best. It builds a case for that age old adage – you cannot sit in air conditioned cabins and decide who is a better player. No substitute for being right where the action is.

What works further for TWTC is the strong star cast. Eastwood, Adams and Goodman are as always superb. And there is this young man who I have firmly believed is a far better actor than a singer. He answers to the call of Justin Timberlake. Now why would Justin sing when he can act so well. I see a few nominations here – Screenplay, maybe movie, all 4 acting nominations. Will it win any? Not sure. What I am sure of though is that you should not miss it. 7.5 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2083383/

Argo

I have always respected Ben Affleck as a director in comparison to Ben Affleck the actor. Most movies where Affleck has been in the lead role have exposed his weakness. I can think of probably one movie where his performance as an actor was quite controlled and well executed – Valentines Day (if I remember correctly).

But the minute our man dons the director’s hat, he seems to be much better placed. I thought The Town was slow but it was quite well made. There was an effort to paint a picture with each character and the overall story. Ditto with Gone Baby Gone. Both were very intense movies.

I have heard that both Affleck and Matt Damon – the young guard of Hollywood about 20 years back are great thinkers when it comes upto cinema. Screenplay and direction. With Argo, Affleck has definitely taken himself to the next level – both as a director as well as an actor.

Cora Lijek (Clea DuVall), Mark Lijek (Christopher Denham), Kathy Stafford (Kerry Bishé), Joe Stafford (Scooty McNairy), Bob Anders (Tate Donovan) and Lee Schatz (Rory Cochrane) owe their lives to one Antonio Joseph Mendez (Ben Affleck). Tony was or should I say is an exfiltration expert of sorts – someone who specializes in getting people out a particular troubled country and take them back home.

Why does he need to do that because the 6 of them are holed up @ the house of the Canadian Ambassador to Iran – Ken Taylor (Victor Garber). This is after the revolutionary Iranians take the US Embassy Hostage on the 4th November 1979. Our 6 diplomats escape just in the nick of time and find their way to Ambassador Taylor’s house after being rejected by a couple of other embassies.

Along with Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) and Academy award winner John Chambers (John Goodman), Tony hatches a plot to make a sci-fi movie – Argo. It would be set in a middle eastern location. To ensure that there are doubts which creep up, the team does everything that a movie maker would have been expected to do from the script to the director to press releases to posters – the works.

Argo differs from most other espionage movies on two major counts. Firstly there is a distinct addition of humour that makes it easy to watch. There are almost no action sequences but enough and more of edge of the seat drama. Other than these 2 aspects there is a stunning start with a background of the revolution which grabs you by the scruff of your neck and pushes you down to your seat.

Great use of fade in and fade outs at the appropriate moments. Some really good camera work there. The use of 2 audio tracks overlapping like when the Iranians are proclaiming that severe action will be taken on the hostages and the Argo screenplay reading is being done for the press – superb!!! The screenplay is fantastic.

My prediction – Argo should get nominated in the top 10 of the year. It would get a nomination for screenplay and just maybe (an outside chance based on the Hollywood movies that I have seen this year) a nomination for direction for Affleck. If none of these work out… Argo Fuck Yourself  (watch to understand). 8 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1537319449/

And read the article on the Canadian Caper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Caper

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Now pause for just a few seconds and look at the string of names that dot this movie. Lets start with Stephen Daldry. He has directed 6 actors to Oscar nominated roles. At least one of whom has won an Oscar (The Reader – Kate Winslet). He has directed 4 full length features starting with Billy Elliot and all of them have been brilliantly made. The Hours and The Reader were the ones in between – before he made what I would guess is his best effort to date with Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

And then we go onto multiple screenplay Oscar nominee called Eric Roth. Look at the list of movies he has to his credit. Benjamin Button, Munich, Ali, The Insider, Horse Whisperer & the mother of all – the one that got him Uncle Oscar – Forrest Gump. But the amount of meat provided by Jonathan S Foer’s 2005 Novel of the same name was sufficient enough to give yet another brilliant effort.

After these 2 big names one cannot help but look at the star cast and be quite certain that you are in for a really good movie when you look at names such as Tom “whatever I touch turns to gold” Hanks and Sandra “why was all that talent hidden to date” Bullock. And lets not forget some more stunning names – so what if their roles were not the most meaty – Viola Davis and John Goodman to name two.

But honestly, despite these big names, what will win your hearts in this super poignant drama will be the performances of one 14 year old who plays a 9 year old and another at the other end of the spectrum @ 82 years of age at the time of release. Thomas Horn plays the role of the young Oskar Schell who loses his father Thomas (Tom Hanks) thanks to a maniac who masterminded a couple of planes into an identical pair of landmark buildings in New York.

Oskar happens to walk into his father’s closet, over a year after the “worst” day and finds a key inside a blue vase. Thinking that it is a message left by his father, he decides to track down the lock that the key is meant for. He traces down over 400 people with the surname of Black across the 5 boroughs of New York. As he goes through the gut wrenching activity, he meets a variety of people and also makes friends with someone who is staying with his grandmother who is called The Renter (Max Von Sydow) for lack of any other word.

Ensure that you carry as much of tissue paper as possible for this guaranteed tear jerker. Not only because of a brilliant storyline but also because of some stunning performances – one from a teenager and another from an octogenarian. 8 on 10 for certain.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2238291481/

The Artist

One of the best parts about writing reviews – other than watching some stellar movies of course – is the research that I have to do before and sometimes after the movie. And the number of interesting tidbits it throws up is just amazing. I came across a dime a dozen interesting facts and figures while researching for The Artist. However, the one that is bound to get repeated over the next few weeks, leading upto the big day – 26th Feb 2012 – is the 1927 movie titled Wings which is the only silent movie to have ever won an Oscar for Best Picture. An effort that The Artist is touted to soon emulate. Now lets see why people say that shall we?

What shall we say, goes into making a movie? Theres firstly a story that needs to be interesting enough to hold the audience’s attention for about 90 minutes or thereabouts. And the story should have 3 parts – The start (5-10 mins or so), the body or the middle (60-70 mins or so) and the end (10-15 mins or so) – the ratios can change depending on the movie but not too much. A good movie creates enough excitement in the first few minutes to generate enough excitement in the audience’s mind to want to watch the balance isn’t it?

Lets now move onto an integral part of movie making i.e. direction. The guy behind the camera who is responsible to paint a vision of how the story needs to come to life. The person who is the brain of the project – a leader who is capable of carrying the entire crew with him. The clearer this guy is in his head, the better movie is right?

Forming an integral part would next be the cast – the lead actors (female & male) who need to be capable of translating the director’s instructions into exactly what is expected. There is the support cast who is there to perform a role and must do so to the best of their ability. There is a possibility of some animals in the story and therefore it is important to get some who are great @ following instructions i.e. very well trained.

Lastly there are the support staff i.e. camera men, light men, editors, special effects guys, pre-production people, post production people – all of who need to ensure perfect execution for that perfect movie. Right?

Chances are that if a movie were to score 8 on all counts – unlike a few who score 9+ on some and less than 6 on the others – would be more likely to win awards and accolades right? The artist checks all the boxes at 8 or more. And who says you need talkie to get across a story. The expressions of the actors and the placards which come in between to call out the dialogues more than make up for the lack of spoken word. I could not find a flaw in The Artist at all. If I were forced to find some, I would say, it is just too simple and straightforward – but who says that’s bad eh? I am going to stick my neck out on this one. Close call between The Artist & The Descendants for best movie this year. I would say The Artist just for refreshing our memory on that old adage that a picture paints a thousand words. 8.5 on 10. And not to forget that the Academy will have only one statue to give out against 3 for The Descendants :):):)

So rest at ease folks. It is not for nothing that the Academy has put this one up for 10 nominations. Simply put, it scores more than 8 in all of them!!! Therefore not surprising either that it is @ 126 in the imdb Top 250 movies of all time. I have a grouse though – why not Bérénice Bejo for Best Actress and why put her in the Supporting Actress Category? Nevertheless ….Do not miss this one!!!! It is fantastic!!!

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2003082265/