Tenet (2020)

Last year, when ‘Tenet’ was released overseas, I wasn’t sure when I’d watch the movie. Much like with Leonardo DiCaprio, I try watching Christopher Nolan’s movies earlier than later. It is much to my delight that both of them collaborated for 'Inception'.

On Good Friday, the sibling informed me that ‘Tenet’ is available on Amazon Prime, and I sat down to watch it the very same day. I hadn’t looked up the star-cast and was surprised to see Robert Pattinson as part of the cast. He looked much older – it suddenly reminded me of his look in ‘The Lighthouse’, a movie I am yet to watch. The protagonist is played by John David Washington (who comes across as physically very fit), and it was a moment of delight to discover that he is Denzel Washington’s son.

Nolan’s movies show me how geography, physics and cultures can be combined in interesting ways, and it was particularly stunning to watch shots of ocean windmills. I am also a fan of his writing, and while I cannot claim to understand all that happens in his movies, they always get me to think.

I first give you the official trailer. Take a look.

 

I leave you with 'The Plan' sung by Travis Scott. It appears in the trailer too. 

Black Panther (2018)

Place: Mumbai
Year: 2019

Mode: TV

The sibling and her husband are huge fans of movies featuring superheroes, and after watching Black Panther in the theatre, she excitedly recommended the movie to me. I couldn’t watch it in the theatre, but my interest in the movie grew after watching Naomi Osaka gush over Michael B Jordan. 

pls block me 😩

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) October 16, 2018

When Black Panther played on one of the TV channels last year, I watched it. The sibling had specifically mentioned that the brother-sister relationship is portrayed well, and the music is fantastic. I agree with both her points. 

In recent times, there is much debate around the poor representation of Black characters in Oscar nominations, and I was glad that this movie got made and did as well. While quizzing this year, I got to know about another special feature in this movie – that of the presence of Tolkien white guys, a pun on token white guys.

I was happy that I could finally watch Lupita Nyong’o – I still haven’t watched her Oscar winning performance. What I wasn’t prepared for is Chadwick Boseman’s performance as T’Challa / Black Panther, and Letitia Wright’s performance as his sister Shuri. Both characters are written so well, and I was mesmerised with how inspiring they are. Since yesterday, post Chadwick’s untimely death, I am remembering the movie. Actors will pass on, and yet I suspect that the passing on of popular superheroes is going to hurt a lot more.

pic.twitter.com/aZ2JzDf5ai

— Chadwick Boseman (@chadwickboseman) August 29, 2020

Writing this post makes me realise how I have small stories connected with movies, and I hope to be more frequent here. For now, I leave you with the trailer. Do watch the movie – it is a delight. Wakanda Forever!

The Rainmaker (1997)

Place: Chennai

Date: August 2020

Mode: TV

It comes as a huge surprise to me that I haven’t mentioned John Grisham on any of my blogs, given that I have read 6 of his books and watched multiple movies based on his books. I have paid attention to how the best of actors star in movies based on his books (Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, Matt Damon to name three), and after I read “To Kill a Mockingbird”, I can see how it inspired Grisham’s “A Time to Kill”.

All of this is not to say that I have watched all the movies in totality. I watched The Pelican Brief (1993) briefly because I wanted to read the book first. Nowadays, I watch and read in no particular order, and when I found my father engrossed in watching ‘The Rainmaker’ recently, I too spent some time watching it on TV.

I didn’t expect to see Claire Danes play a battered wife in this, and her scenes with Matt Damon are really good. It was a pleasure to watch Danny DeVito too. Via this movie, I got to know about ambulance chasing, and how insurance companies can operate when it comes to claims. Hollywood often portrays corporates harshly (do you remember Erin Brockovich or Wall Street?), and yet it acts as a good reminder of the world that I have temporarily left. After working for as long, that world still scares me. 

I am mentioning the trailer of the movie here. Do watch it.

Ocean’s Eight (2018)

I don’t know how to review movies all that well, but I like noting down the thoughts that occur before, during and post movie-watching. The sibling once pointed out how we weren’t watching Oscar nominated movies featuring top actresses by default, and that was true. The default watch used to be best actor and best picture winners and nominees. This made me confront the bias in my head. I am still not there in overcoming it fully, but atleast I am aware.

When Ocean’s Eight was released, I paid attention to the female star-cast and can’t quite recollect why I didn’t watch the movie in the theatre. These days, I try watching one hour of TV at night and was flipping channels when I landed on Ocean’s Eight. I love watching Sandra Bullock and Anne Hathaway (who somehow makes such a good villain), though I must confess that I liked Cate Blanchett the best, was disappointed with the role given to Helena Bonham Carter and was surprised to see Rihanna in a movie. Guess this is what ensemble casts look like – not everybody gets enough screen-time and yet it is all quite entertaining.

I have watched all three Ocean series movies (11, 12 and 13) on TV and somehow wanted this movie to have some linkage with the series. The main link remains Sandra Bullock’s character who is the younger sister of George Clooney’s Danny Ocean. These heist movies look more attractive than necessary thanks to the star-cast, although if I were being ripped off in the manner they show, I would have different things to say. But then, I’d have to be THAT rich to be ripped off, so all of it is going to remain an unknown experience.

If you have time to kill, do watch. The food poisoning scene involving Anne Hathaway is interesting in the way it is shot. I wish I could comment on the chemistry between the lead actors the way Clooney and Julia Roberts had, or Clooney and Brad Pitt. I didn't find any such chemistry here. Perhaps Blanchett and Bonham-Carter might have shared some.

Onward (2020)

Post my medical review in February 2020, I got back to Mumbai and wanted to get back to watching movies in the theatre. I didn’t think I was ready for ‘Parasite’ yet, and when the sibling suggested an animated movie, I thought why not. Usually these movies have a feel-good ending and don’t demand too much in terms of thinking. I guess this is the world healthy children live in, and there’s no harm in visiting this world as an adult too. Even if one is unhealthy.

My mother, the sibling and I went to watch ‘Onward’. The theatre had more children than usual, and I felt happy. My mother felt the movie was too kiddish, but I loved it. The story of two elf brothers who set out on a quest related to their dead father was exactly what I needed to kick-start my movie-watching all over again. We went to a theatre close to where I stay with the idea that incase we had to return during the interval, it would be easy to do so. What happened was that I could sit through the movie without any discomfiture.

I notice that Hollywood often makes movies related to magic, and the animation and the art is exceptional in them. It leaves me with the lingering feeling of wanting to watch behind-the-scenes work. I don’t know how to review the quality of such movies as I am usually mesmerised at what I watch. Is there more effort put in the movie? I wouldn’t know.

Such movies usually show the principal character go through the hero’s journey and it makes for exciting viewing. The movie has some special moments. It shows the reaction of the two brothers to their mother’s new boyfriend, the independent mother who makes her own decisions, the low self-confidence in the younger brother, and how much the two brothers miss their father. Watching the younger brother draw up a list of things he wanted to do with his father was bittersweet. I also got to know about the magical and mythical manticore.

Watch the movie. It will be time well-spent. At any rate, it isn’t clear when one can get back to watching movies in the theatre, so this acts as a good way of saying, “The last movie I watched in the theatre before Covid-19”

Contagion (2011)

This movie is my third watch on Amazon Prime overall, and comes soon after I watched Parasite. Under ordinary circumstances, I ought to have watched the movie much earlier – it has a starcast I love – Matt Damon and Kate Winslet both star in it. I don’t know if this movie was released in India or how it fared at the box-office, but it is surreal to watch how it creates a world that’s affected by a flu-like pandemic that originates in Asia. It also creates the world of a journalist (Jude Law) who blogs about the truth of the pandemic much to the discomfort of the establishment.

The movie left me gripped for most part, especially the scenes that show ordinary people violating the social distancing norm put in place, the requirement of masks and other medical kits, and the spread in Asia. If this isn’t being ahead of the curve, I don’t know what is. It explains what R naught is (the basic reproduction number) and how a pandemic develops based on differing R naught. It shows an autopsy in more detail – I was not prepared to watch Gwyneth Paltrow’s brain getting dissected.

There are many dialogues that struck as applicable for today’s Covid-19 scenario and I am mentioning three of them here. I feel like validating some of these numbers and comparing myself to the average person metrics, but don't quite know dependable resources to do the same.

“But right now, our best defense has been social distancing. No hand-shaking, staying home when you're sick washing your hands frequently.”

“How fast it multiplies depends on a variety of factors. The incubation period, how long a person is contagious. Sometimes people can be contagious without even having symptoms.”

"The average person touches their face 2- or 3000 times a day. Three to five times every waking minute. In between, we're touching doorknobs water fountains, elevator buttons and each other. Those things become fomites."

Watch the trailer here to get a glimpse of what the movie is all about. If you are the sort who gets anxious after receiving more information about a disease, I’d recommend not watching this movie right now.

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.

An Affair To Remember (1957)

There are some movie titles that act as catchy phrases used in writing. I haven't watched 'An Affair to Remember' for instance, but the words are romantic and positive. No mentions of illness or random goodbyes.

Sometimes, it takes a lot of testing to find out how one survives. I remain confident that writing that stands the test of time is being encouraged by sites like Twitter too. If powerful imagination helps one survive, then there is much merit to see how this can be replicated in chat bot experiences too, without blocking certain types of users.

For now, watch the trailer.

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.

Manjunath (2014)

In 2008, I was briefly associated with the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust and later got to know that a movie is being made on Manjunath. Among other reasons, his story captured headlines because he belonged to an elite institution, and there were people who could speak up for him post his death.

Do take a look at the trailer here – the biopic is being released in May 2014. I still wish biopics made in India do away with the song-and-dance routine and get made in documentary style. 

There are several others who do their duty silently, and do not get recognition. Spread the word, and watch the movie. For Manjunath, and those like him.

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Given how upset I am with news from Woody Allen’s personal life, I had decided to take a long break from watching his movies. On one Saturday, I rushed into the drawing room when the music seemed familiar and Mia Farrow appeared on screen. The sibling was surprised to see how I had figured that it was a movie by Woody Allen without watching a scene - she was just about to switch channels.

I broke my promise of taking a long break from his movies.

I watched the last half-hour of The Purple Rose of Cairo. A movie character steps out of the movie and enters the real world. He interacts with movie buff Cecilia, who is in an unhappy marriage. It took me a while to get used to Cecilia (character played by Mia Farrow) interacting with two men, both played by Jeff Daniels.

What I noticed this time was that while there are strong female characters in Allen’s movies, they get a raw deal by the time the movie ends. I also heard mentions of Leslie Howard (“I could have been played by Fredric March or Leslie Howard”) – the actor who played Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind.

Watch the trailer.

Born Free (1966)

Soon after we came back from Srinagar last year, the then-Yokefellow and I went to a shop in South Mumbai that sold pirated CDs of movies and sitcoms. The sibling had also accompanied us – I was scheduled to buy her birthday gift that day. “Born Free” was one among the CDs – I can’t recollect now whether it was my choice.

The movie is based on a real incident and starred a much-in-love real life couple (Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers) as the Adamsons who raise an orphaned lion cub Elsa to adulthood.  Joy (played by Virginia) wants to release Elsa back into the wild, where she truly belongs. This is not an easy task, as Joy and George go on to discover. Post the movie, the actors became committed animal rights activists and they established the Born Free Foundation. As for the real George and Joy Adamson, they separated - George was apparently interested in lions and Joy was interested in cheetahs.

I’d highly recommend this movie – the scenes with the lions are shot very well, and the music is very good.

After watching the movie, in the course of some conversation, I got this text – “Poor Elsa. I will train you.” I said something related to Simba from The Lion King, and left it at that.

Teaser post: RamLeela (2013)

I have watched all movies directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and have written about Devdas and Guzaarish. I have a half-finished post on Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, and must complete it.

I saw on twitter a lot of praise for the trailer of RamLeela, and watched it today. The opening sequence is from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, and I can point out a few more sequences that remind me of Bhansali's previous work. I am glad that bright colours are back, Deepika and Ranveer look good together, and the background music sounds interesting.

Yes, I shall be watching this movie in the theatre. This year looks set to add yet another feather in Deepika's cap.

Teaser post: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013)

Given my recent track record of not liking any song from the world of Bollywood, this song is an exception. It reminds me of the Kishore Kumar style of singing, and the song is fun. I didn't enjoy watching the sight of wine (or is it champagne?) glasses getting recklessly broken though.



I sincerely hope the movie is not a case of cliches put together, whether from real life or from other movies.

Teaser post: Barfi! (2012)

At this risk of making this blog a series of movie trailers, I am going to make a mention of "Barfi!". There is an influence of Charlie Chaplin here, and the movie is silent in parts.


I have to wait for couple of months before I watch it.

Teaser post: The Great Gatsby (2013)

There's F. Scott Fitzgerald's story, Baz Luhrmann's direction, Craig Armstrong's music, the presence of Amitabh Bachchan and 3D movie-watching experience in offer.

Will Leonardo DiCaprio get his Oscar with this movie?

Teaser post: Shanghai (2012)

I saw the trailer of "Shanghai" when I had gone to watch "Titanic" in 3D. I had mentioned "Titanic" in this post earlier.

The movie looks promising, and the actors are interesting. Abhay Deol is playing a Tamilian (Mr. Krishnan) in the movie, and has got the accent bang on.

Teaser post: Chaar Din Ki Chandni (2012)

While I am hoping that there are no copyright related issues, it is a delight to watch the songs used in this movie.



I enjoyed Tusshar Kapoor’s take on his father’s fondness for white.



The picturizations are peppy, the songs are familiar and much loved, and the actors seem to be having fun.

Teaser post: Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (2012)

Yes, the movie with the extra ‘k’ in the title is set for release in 2012. Kareena and Imran make for a novel pair, and the trailer reminds me of “What Happens in Vegas”.



The music is by Amit Trivedi, and I like what I have heard. While watching the scene where Kareena and Imran compare their assessments of each other’s butt, I felt as though I was eavesdropping into the couple’s private conversation.

As the sibling was saying, Imran Khan plays the westernized rom-com character well. My question is - will Kareena play Julia Roberts and deliver a huge hit?

Teaser post: Anjaana Anjaani (2010)

I usually don’t comment on movies before they are released. Given my track record when it comes to Ranbir Kapoor, it is time to make an exception again.

This is the promo of Anjaana Anjaani. The reference to ‘All is well’ reminded me of 3 Idiots. The dialogue feels clichéd already.

Then, Lucky Ali came to the rescue. He has lent his voice to Ranbir Kapoor for the second time (the first time, it was in Bachna Ae Haseeno), and it works! Come to think of it, the shelf life of playback singers defies expectations. Lucky Ali’s birth year is 1958, while that of Ranbir Kapoor is 1982.



I will be watching this movie post its release on 24 September. Will you?