Parasite (2019)

Given how illness affects me and how disorienting and difficult movie-watching gets at that time (see my post on ‘Bharat’ for instance), I have decided to stay away from movie-watching at the theatre to the extent possible when I am ill. In my latest episode, I couldn’t sit through ‘Tanhaji’ with its selfie references – the only movie we watched in the theatre - and we left in the interval. I was upset at taking medication outside of home, and felt the CCTV would capture this. Which is true, but the act wouldn’t have been as disorienting on a normal day.

Anyway, Oscar season in 2020 arrived and the sibling asked me more than once if we could watch ‘Parasite’ at the theatre. I did not want to take a chance, and kept postponing the plan. Finally, I watched the movie on Amazon Prime last week in the afternoon, with sub-titles. I can see why the movie won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and still can’t figure out how it got the Best Picture award. It has won numerous awards, so perhaps critics and others can see something in the movie that I cannot - I did prefer 'Joker' on the whole.

I loved how the families were chosen for the leading roles (especially the sister in the poorer family), and how authentic the settings looked especially in the sequences involving torrential rain. I couldn’t fully relate to either family though, and the constant reference to unsavoury smells from the poor left me sad even as I recollected the odour emanating from cabs in Gurugram. What also left me upset was the way art therapy is portrayed in the movie. Trauma-driven mental illness in the rich kid could have been portrayed differently. How different? With more compassion (even for the rich) and letting go of black comedy for a bit. Art therapy doesn't see financial status. Why link it to that? There are differing views on this though.

I also learnt about this dish called Ram-Don (a made-up word for Jjapaguri in Korean) and the role it plays in the movie. MasterChef watching-exposure means I can watch non-vegetarian food getting cooked with more interest than before, and if I had been a non-vegetarian, I would have been tempted to cook this dish myself.

I thought the sex-scene in the movie was done well, and there are several opinions on how uncomfortable the audience felt on watching it. If anyone is hiding and watching others have sex, it is bound to be uncomfortable and privacy endangering, and can bring up several emotions – and this is exactly what the Director wanted the audience to experience.

Watch the trailer here. It is interesting to see who is the parasite.

Gaslight (1944)

I haven't seen Gaslight yet, and the movie is known to me because of the reading I have done on gaslighting. It is severe psychological manipulation that leaves its victims reeling, and sometimes the only way to survive it is to cut all contact with the manipulator.

Recently, I noticed an automatic like for the Ingrid Bergman page on Facebook -- I had liked the Wikipedia entry on her life earlier. I am happy to see this photo from the page -- she looks radiant and happy at winning the Oscar for her performance in Gaslight.

Inside Out (2015)

My colleague recommended this movie to me, and I convinced the sibling to come along to watch it. I have got so used to watching movies on my own now that watching one with company feels increasingly unusual.

Bringing psychology live on the big screen and doing a great job of it isn’t easy. Great books that deal with complex ideas get lost in translation. Experiences that overwhelm in real life don’t come across as convincing. Yet, some movies manage to bridge the gap. Inside Out is one of them.

Set in the world of an 11-year-old girl, Riley, the movie deals with the basic emotions – Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Anger and Fear, and how they affect her. Watch the movie to see how they interplay, how the concept of core memories is shown and how core memories can get affected repeatedly. Watch also how each emotion is given importance, particularly relevant in a world that’s obsessed about finding happiness in everything.

I later took a quiz, and was assessed as ‘Joy’. Not entirely surprising, since I do manage to pick myself up and remain optimistic. Yet, the moments of disgust and anger that I experience also shape me and I am thankful for them.

This is the official trailer. I expect the movie to pick up an Oscar in the first quarter of 2016.

Black Swan (2010)

Post its release in India, this movie had been heavily recommended to me by the sibling and my earlier boss. I have the habit of deliberately delaying watching some movies, and Black Swan was a ready candidate. My reason was that the storyline felt creepy and I was not in the right frame of mind to appreciate it.

Last week, a sanitized version played on one of the TV channels (I have forgotten which channel). When I say sanitized, it means that the sex scenes were abruptly cut and the creepy scenes where Natalie Portman’s character Nina tortures herself had mostly been removed.

The movie had me hooked.

Natalie’s character is a ballerina who seeks perfection in her work , and is unable to let go of herself while she seeks perfection. She gets the prestigious role of playing both the white swan and the black swan in the ballet titled “Swan Lake”. As she trains for the role, the audience gets to see the manner in which she chooses to let go of herself, her complicated relationship with her mother, her responses to fellow ballerinas Lily (Mila Kunis) and Beth (Winona Ryder), and the hallucinations she suffers from.

Picture courtesy: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/blackswan/


I cringed when I saw the petite Nina (who looked like she wouldn’t hurt a fly) tear out her own skin – why would she subject herself to such pain? The horror of it all struck me when I saw that she doesn’t remember inflicting pain on herself, for she is in the midst of a hallucination when she does so.

Nina’s performance as the black swan in the play is a class act. The movie doesn’t glamorize the hallucinations – she dies as a result of them.

What struck me was that ballerinas have a professional shelf-life similar to that of sports players – both professions rely heavily on physical dexterity. They have to maintain their weight much like Formula One drivers. The pressure to achieve a lot in a comparatively short span is quite different from that experienced by professions driven by mental dexterity, to put it mildly.

The movie also reminded me of my post on neuroticism.

Theories of negativity

I find that in its various forms, neuroticism is highly infectious - just like optimism - and is best stayed away from, unlike optimism. Hence I am surprised when actors choose neurotic characters to play. Does it have a simple explanation – "This role will help me win awards!” Does neuroticism increase when one repeatedly plays extreme characters?

I watched parts of this movie when the sibling and my Chinese DVD player were both around. There were also mentions of doomsday with reference to the recession. Over a year later, things look different. The sibling is away, the player has been replaced, and the recession is doing selective rounds of good byes.

What remains the same is my opinion on Wall Street – it is a must watch – and this line, “The most valuable commodity I know of is information”. Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, is a man who believes greed is good and if something is waiting to be exploited, one must. Charlie Sheen plays the young trader who looks up to GG, and gets carried away in the process.

The manner in which Douglas played GG got me thinking of Gail Wynand.



In the movie The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Sean Penn’s character is obsessed with integrity in a convoluted fashion. The obsession leads him to leave one job after another, resulting in tumultuous times in his personal life for there is little integrity in reality. He lands his latest job by saying that he is married when he is actually separated, and performs incredibly well. However, he ends up losing his job - it was a non negotiable pre-condition that married men would be employed as salesmen as they look more stable. He then wires into his head that President Nixon is responsible for all that has happened to him and from there on, things go downhill.



What about dealing with the insane negative? Nothing less than a superhero would do.