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 – 10th
January 2014 is the day.
Showing posts with label Oscar Isaac. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oscar Isaac. Show all posts
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Drive
This one is a very tricky one to review. Because once you have seen Drive you will know that there can be only two kinds of people. Those who loved Drive OR those who hated Drive. There can be no in-betweeners. Now one can argue for the sake of arguing that s/he found it OK but that would probably a giveaway for the seasoned movie watcher that actually, you have probably not seen the movie.
And if you find it difficult to believe what I am saying, you need to put yourself upto watching Drive. And don’t worry. It will not be too much of a risk that you will take. Because if you come from the latter group of people, you would just walk out of the hall without batting an eyelid. The first few minutes have very little spoken word – in fact that’s how the rest of the movie is as well.
I am going to go out on a limb and question why Drive was not nominated for a screenplay Oscar this year. You had the likes of Ides of March which I thought was one of THE most over rated movies last year. But the striking effort of Hossein Amini (screenplay) to convert James Sallis’ 2005 novel to the screen has been overlooked by many. It is an art to just say what is required and leave the rest to imagination and Amini (Shanghai) does just that. I thought this was the best aspect.
And then there is the courage that Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn gets to the table in terms of going ahead with the screenplay. The courage to make the right cuts. The courage to leave a lot unsaid and give the audience credit for its intelligence – much as the world is moving towards spoon feeding. I thought Refn did a fabuous job and would have been in the running for a nomination. BAFTA acknowledged it, the Academy didn’t. Tough luck for Refn.
And why the academy thought that Drive was not good enough to make the top 10 for last year can make it to Reader’s Digest’s “Mysteries of the Unexplained” easily. Firstly, they had only 9 nominations and Drive could easily have been the 10th. More importantly, they had Terence Malik’s Tree of Life that made it to the top 9 and Drive didn’t. Weird I tell. But then, I am no one to comment on why Tree of Life made it. Maybe there was a subtle, higher than life message that I missed.
Closing off with remarks on how Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan who were amazing in the lead. Gosling has definitely come of age over the past year of two. And Mulligan could have easily pipped Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) for a nomination. You may or may not like Drive as I pointed out earlier but my verdict would still stand @ 8 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2772212761/
And if you find it difficult to believe what I am saying, you need to put yourself upto watching Drive. And don’t worry. It will not be too much of a risk that you will take. Because if you come from the latter group of people, you would just walk out of the hall without batting an eyelid. The first few minutes have very little spoken word – in fact that’s how the rest of the movie is as well.
I am going to go out on a limb and question why Drive was not nominated for a screenplay Oscar this year. You had the likes of Ides of March which I thought was one of THE most over rated movies last year. But the striking effort of Hossein Amini (screenplay) to convert James Sallis’ 2005 novel to the screen has been overlooked by many. It is an art to just say what is required and leave the rest to imagination and Amini (Shanghai) does just that. I thought this was the best aspect.
And then there is the courage that Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn gets to the table in terms of going ahead with the screenplay. The courage to make the right cuts. The courage to leave a lot unsaid and give the audience credit for its intelligence – much as the world is moving towards spoon feeding. I thought Refn did a fabuous job and would have been in the running for a nomination. BAFTA acknowledged it, the Academy didn’t. Tough luck for Refn.
And why the academy thought that Drive was not good enough to make the top 10 for last year can make it to Reader’s Digest’s “Mysteries of the Unexplained” easily. Firstly, they had only 9 nominations and Drive could easily have been the 10th. More importantly, they had Terence Malik’s Tree of Life that made it to the top 9 and Drive didn’t. Weird I tell. But then, I am no one to comment on why Tree of Life made it. Maybe there was a subtle, higher than life message that I missed.
Closing off with remarks on how Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan who were amazing in the lead. Gosling has definitely come of age over the past year of two. And Mulligan could have easily pipped Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) for a nomination. You may or may not like Drive as I pointed out earlier but my verdict would still stand @ 8 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2772212761/
Monday, 4 April 2011
Sucker Punch
Trailer seen somewhere in December 2010 when I was down under. If I remember correctly, I had called out as a movie that I really want to see coz it was extremely slickly made. Well Sucker Punch released weekend before last on the 25th March 2011 right in between World Cup frenzy in a cricket crazy country and I guess loads of people didn’t even know that it had released. Thankfully, it survived for a week more for me to catch up with it a couple of hours back. Director Zack Snyder, picks up from where he left off with 300 and Watchmen – and before anyone of you correct me, yes I know he made Owls of Gahoole as well but that wasn’t in the same genre. This one is in true Graphic Novel ishtyle… or should I say Graphic Movie style.
A girl, who doesn’t have a name per se but everyone calls Baby Doll (Emily Browning), all of 20 years old, loses her mother. She is now left to take care of her sister. But her step father has other ideas. He is extremely upset that his wife has left them a last will and testament that bequeaths all their wealth to her daughters. The only way he can think of avenging this is by raping Baby Doll who manages to run off and lock herself up in a closet. But the sick step father now goes after the younger sister – who one can imaging would be all of 7, maybe 10 years old at the most. Baby Doll would do everything to save her sister including shooting her step father and that’s exactly what she tries to do. But misses and the ricochet strikes her sister instead. Distraught with killing her own flesh and blood, she runs away but is soon caught by the cops and remanded to the Lennox Mental Asylum where her father pays a couple of grand to the nurse, Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) to “take care” of her. In an attempt to cope up with her fears of the asylum Baby Doll puts herself into a make believe world where 4 other inmates become her closest friends – Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung). She imagines herself being held at a dance bar owned by Blue and helped by the lead dance instructor, Gorski (Carla Gugino). Each time she is asked to dance, she imagines herself in a war like situation where she confronts her apprehensions and fears all in a quest to get out of the asylum.
Snyder starts his movie on the tune of “Sweet Dreams” sung by Emily Browning in a very haunting manner. And then he keeps the music coming through in every single frame. One of the best parts of the movie is the music which is a superb blend of metal and new age rock if I could call it that. The metaphorical references of our inner fears in the form of several high intensity wars and the use of special effects to bring the concept alive are both simply superb. The cinematography is also excellent. But where the movie falls woefully short is the appalling acting talent on display. With the exception of Scot Glen – who plays the role of the wise man – no one else seems to have any aptitude for acting. The stand out disaster is Vanessa Hudgens – stick to High School Musicals Ms. Hudgens. The rest of the cast barely manages to make it through. All in all, its an entertaining flick to say the least. After about half an hour you begin to think that it is just a soft porn action flick – which it is coincidentally – but the Fx is simply amazing which manages to get this movie a SciFi classification as against a Soft Porn one. Parental advice strongly recommended. 6 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi107256089/
A girl, who doesn’t have a name per se but everyone calls Baby Doll (Emily Browning), all of 20 years old, loses her mother. She is now left to take care of her sister. But her step father has other ideas. He is extremely upset that his wife has left them a last will and testament that bequeaths all their wealth to her daughters. The only way he can think of avenging this is by raping Baby Doll who manages to run off and lock herself up in a closet. But the sick step father now goes after the younger sister – who one can imaging would be all of 7, maybe 10 years old at the most. Baby Doll would do everything to save her sister including shooting her step father and that’s exactly what she tries to do. But misses and the ricochet strikes her sister instead. Distraught with killing her own flesh and blood, she runs away but is soon caught by the cops and remanded to the Lennox Mental Asylum where her father pays a couple of grand to the nurse, Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) to “take care” of her. In an attempt to cope up with her fears of the asylum Baby Doll puts herself into a make believe world where 4 other inmates become her closest friends – Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung). She imagines herself being held at a dance bar owned by Blue and helped by the lead dance instructor, Gorski (Carla Gugino). Each time she is asked to dance, she imagines herself in a war like situation where she confronts her apprehensions and fears all in a quest to get out of the asylum.
Snyder starts his movie on the tune of “Sweet Dreams” sung by Emily Browning in a very haunting manner. And then he keeps the music coming through in every single frame. One of the best parts of the movie is the music which is a superb blend of metal and new age rock if I could call it that. The metaphorical references of our inner fears in the form of several high intensity wars and the use of special effects to bring the concept alive are both simply superb. The cinematography is also excellent. But where the movie falls woefully short is the appalling acting talent on display. With the exception of Scot Glen – who plays the role of the wise man – no one else seems to have any aptitude for acting. The stand out disaster is Vanessa Hudgens – stick to High School Musicals Ms. Hudgens. The rest of the cast barely manages to make it through. All in all, its an entertaining flick to say the least. After about half an hour you begin to think that it is just a soft porn action flick – which it is coincidentally – but the Fx is simply amazing which manages to get this movie a SciFi classification as against a Soft Porn one. Parental advice strongly recommended. 6 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi107256089/
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