DR: French faves of last year

The two movies I am writing about in this post have a lot in common. Well having something in common is what made me put them in a Double Review. They are both the movies which garnered the most hype overseas, in the UK and US especially. They have been nominated for a huge slew of awards and have won a lot. They are both reflections of the main issue of the plot. Just dealing with the present and a small period in the lives of the characters, not much of the past and end with a hopeful future.

I Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime)

She was the woman Hugh Grant ignored during the four weddings and a funeral and the lover of English patient and Jeremy’s Clarkson’s idea of the most beautiful woman. Kristin Scott Thomas is wonderful and talented actress who has played a varied set of roles and easily one of finest of the contemporary English ones. With her beauty and talent it’s surprising she hasnt moved to Hollywood. In a way it has been a blessing with her dabbling with a lot of French cinema and this I believe is one of the best of her efforts. ‘I loved you for so long’ is a story of a woman who has just been released from prison and has to live with her kid sister who she hasnt seen in 15 years. It shows how Juliette Fontaine (Kristin Scott Thomas) is moving into normal life after such a long stay in prison and at the same time finding love of her sister at a time when she thought all her family has disowned and abandoned her. Juliette is a very strong woman who can take whatever life throws at her and yet inspite of all her strength she cant forget her past. It was an amazing performance by Kristin Scott Thomas and she along with the Elsa Zylberstein, actress who played her sister give the movie its special place.
In many ways this movie reminded me of Rachel Getting Married, where too the elder sister has had a bad past closely related to the family and her life has gone into a disarray. The younger sister who has had to deal with the trauma associated and who builds her life around it and yet makes something out of it. During the movie they bond and resolve their issues, with the younger sister alleviating the pain of the elder one. ‘I loved you for so long’ might have not the overall brilliance flow of Rachel Getting Married but it really stands out as a heart-touching movie due to the lead performances.

The Class (Entre Le Murs-Between the walls)

When a movie wins the Palme D’ Or at the Cannes film festival and attracts praise from critics world wide it definitely evokes an interest in you. And when the subject matter of it is quite commonplace you get even more piqued as to how it turned out so praiseworthy. It has metacritic rating of 94 and also features in several critics' top ten lists. After a long wait, I got to watch the Class and I must say i was underwhelmed. I understand the nuances and the beauty of realism and all but I fail to understand why this movie stands apart?
The Class is a semi autobiographical account of François Bégaudeau’s former job as a literature teacher in a Parisian mid-school. François Bégaudeau starred and scripted the movie after the novel he wrote in 2006. He shows us the rich and overwhelming diversity of a class in such a school and how each student has such a baggage of their low income background, identity of their place of origin and religion along with the usual issues which every other teen has to deal with. It makes a volatile atmosphere and yet somehow its is short of exploding. This drives most teachers crazy and they have their limits which makes the task of reform and education more daunting. Any slip on their part, like I see in most western societies, is met with the harshest rebuke. I don't understand how education is possible at a place when the teachers mind. body and spirit are tied down by the system and the students are living with closed minds. How can education happen in such hostile environment?
The movie flows really well and it is quite commendable that it does for there are no concrete plot points along which the movie is woven around but its just a series of well knit snapshots of a class of students in particular year attending this particular subject. There is not a moment where you are bored during watching this seemingly plain movie because of the vivaciousness of the characters(read students) involved. You never once get that we are in a movie and people are acting and saying out lines written for them and in this too the movie is commendable! But what is it that makes it tick and so brilliant I dont comprehend. It maybe my being an amateur or just absence of the right perspective. Whatever it is this is my final say. The Class is a lovely film dealing and a very interesting watch but doesnt really excite you at any point of time during the film or makes you think about it at later which is the whole basis for a great movie.

Spanish Film Festival: More reviews

On the third day of the film festival, my second, I got to watch two totally different films both set in the present unlike 13 roses. They were Fermat’s Room and Seven Billiard Tables. It was fun watching two thoroughly yet differently entertaining films back to back

Fermat’s Room (La Habitación de Fermat)

The movie,as everybody else would mention in their review, starts with the line, “If you dont know what prime numbers are, you can stop watching this movie”. Quite a bold statement and kinda nonsensical too because the movie is not laden with heavy mathematical jargon or thesis. It is just a thriller woven around a few mathematicians. 4 mathematicians who donot know each other are invited to a secret meeting to solve an mathematical puzzle and each of them is given a pseudonym for use during the meeting. They are asked to drive to a certain place and find a Car with a pda telling them where to go. After a while they find themselves in a room at a warehouse. Their host Fermat has to leave due to some circumstance and they are left to solve certain problems the pda gives them. The trick here is they are solving for their lives. Each time they arent able to give the answer within a time frame the room begins to shrink. What they do from then on forms the rest of the story. 
The movie is a standard thriller wearing a mathematician’s moustache. It is very easy to follow and has all the cliches associated with a movie of this sort. A pretty girl, a scape goat, an ambitious young man, some one out for revenge etc. That doesnt mean I discredit the way it is made. The premise is decent and the performances are pretty good. It would make a nice movie to watch on a weekend night.

7 Billiard tables (Siete mesas de billar francés)

7 billiard tables was by far my favorite movie of the lot during the Spanish film festival. It starts out more or less the same way as Volver (starring Penelope Cruz) did and plays out in the same way showing a strong single woman who generally lives in the city having to go back to her hometown and family and in doing so reviving and enthusing spirit into the lives of people around her.
This is the story of Angela who gets a double blow of the death of her father and the truth about her cheating and conman of a husband. She goes back to her roots and tries to resurrect her father’s billiards hall. This is the also the story of how a man has wrecked the lives of three other people, living selfishly and always serving his own interests at the cost of others’. This man, ie Angela’s father is not even alive during the movie and yet holds an iron grip over the people involved. As the movie goes on they try and let go. Every character is well carved and thoroughly examined and each person in the story is very likeable.
The movie sails through the story and the viewer is pulled into the life of a middle class spanish household. Unlike the usual dramas the movie has several light moments and I had a great time smiling and laughing at the situational humour spread through out the film. The end kind of fizzes out but overall the movie is delightful to watch. I would love to see more movies like these but yeah that is because I am a sucker for dramas on urban middle class with severe issues.

Double Review(DR): Bolt and waltz with Bashir

Well this is quite a special post. This shall be the last one in the series of posts dealing with this years Oscars. Yes, I did drop the ‘Oscar Road’ tag due to the reviews being past the dead end sign. Also this deals with two movies belonging to my favorite genre: Animation. I am a big fan of animation movies and believe they arent given their due credit. We had reviewed two of the three oscar nominated animation movies ie Wall E and Kung Fu Panda in the last episode of our now discontinued podcast. Check it out @ http://toomuchcinema.wordpress.com . Here I talk about the remaining two animation movies nominated for the oscars this year.

BOLT

Bolt is a marvellous movie about a dog with superpowers, er… Well who thinks he has superpowers. He is only a TV actor. Well this is not a spoiler because the viewer is told after the brilliant action sequence at the beginning. He is close to a young girl who is his co star and is made to believe she is his real owner. He gets transported to somewhere else by mistake and the movie is his journey back.  The movie is has some good animation, great characters(ie girl, the cat and the hamster) and good plot. It is very hilarious and has all the stuff you expect from an animation movie. Yes! Exactly all the stuff you need, making it at the same time the reason why people trivialise animation and love it. The reason it made it into the oscar list is because its strong moral plot, some great voice acting and its funniness. Ofcourse when Wall E and Kung Fu Panda are in the ring, you cant expect a Bolt to win. Do watch it because it is oodles of fun and if you, like me adore animation (you better do!) you will enjoy every moment.
Rating:7/10

Waltz With Bashir

When it comes to animation, all things Bolt is Waltz with Bashir is not. All things Waltz with Bashir is Bolt cant dream of. The slurry of emotions this ‘Waltz’ drowns you in will send an innocent dog cowering for help underneath the kitchen table.Waltz with Bashir takes animation to its next level something like what Wall-E and japanese stuff but on a different plane. Though the subject matter is different it is kinda similar to last year’s Persepolis. Animation in these two movies has been used to depict the surreal and complex emotions and graphical interpretations hard to capture in live action. Not saying they couldnt have been but animation makes it more easy and even more vivid. Surreal and Vivid being the key words here. It is made

Waltz with Bashir is the story of a man who is trying to recollect his past and meeting various people to do as he is unable to on his own. He was part of the Israeli army which took part in the 1982 lebanon war and cant remember any of that period. The movie gives you insight into what happened then and the ugliness of war. I gasped, was shocked, laughed, swayed and rolled as the movie went on. As i said the surreal and vivid imagery taunt and treat you as well as you can dream. Dream again being the key word. The movie is almost a dream, it deals with dreams and you wonder if you are dreaming after a while. It is a truly trippy experience which you must have.
Such the strength of the movie that I forgot to sell you its attention grabbing trivia. It is the first Israel animation movie released in theatres and won the Palme’ D Or at the Cannes fim festival and also the best foreign movie at the Golden Globes. The crew did an excellent job in making the movie and the brilliant soundtrack it is accompanied with only adds to the effect. I will keep going on about it but I shouldnt cos you need to feel the surreal and vivid dream like experience on your own.
Rating: 9/10
p.s: Oh i forgot this is a documentary of sorts. I might have forgotten to mention many things. But I wont make an effort to say anything else.

Double Review: Seth Rogen smoking weed and making a porno

Most people remember first seeing Seth Rogen in Steve Carell starrer '40 year old virgin'. After the success of Knocked up and Superbad, he is in huge demand thesedays and has just finished an epic year being credited in 6 movies including Horton hears a who, Kung Fu Panda and Step Brothers. However the biggest movies were the ones he starred in namely Pineapple Express and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. This post shall chiefly deal with these two movies.

Pineapple Express:


Basically what this movie is a Judd Apatow movie. This man who has directed movies like Knocked Up and 40 year old Virgin has now carved a genre for himself much like Kevin Smith (of who we shall be talking more about later). All his movies deal with a loser protagonist who has a lousy job,loves weed and no real girlfriend and nothing really going for him at the start of the movie. Through a delightful concoction of co-incidences and mishaps he end up in a difficult situation and keeps getting thwacked but somehow ends up at the top by the time credits roll. We saw it in Superbad, Knocked Up and kinda in 40 year old Virgin too.


Pineapple Express is no different. Dale Denton(Seth Rogen) is the weed loving, sub poena serving, clueless in life hero our tale who has just seen a murder happen. He understands that he can be easily tracked down because the murderer is the sole supplier of the weed called Pineapple Express which his drug dealer(Saul Silver) has sold only to him. Now Dale and Saul are on the run and the comedy of errors ensuing is the rest of the story. The drug dealer's role is played by James Franco (famous for his green goblin jnr role in spiderman) and is definitely the best aspect of the movie. Franco's portrayal of innocent yet brave, grandma loving, good natured hippie drug dealer was brilliant. His body language and diction were so cute and hilarious. I am looking forward to see him performance in the oscar nominated 'Milk'. Seth Rogen is just wearing his second skin and these crazy antics arent anything new for him. I dont know about others but right now I am tired of the typical Seth Rogen roles. Its about time he takes up different roles. I dont think I will be able to stand another such performance as a gullible weed loving loser by Seth Rogen. The movie has its plot turns and twists, all of them very whimsical but only some funny. It ends up being a tollywood movie for its 'bring it on' climax and bullet wound victims who survive for hours and go home happily. The bromance is one of the key plot aspects as in any other Apatow movie(remember Superbad?)and if you like that you wont be let down here either. However the movie aint so great and can be watched if you want a few laughs.

Rating: 6/10


Zack and Miri Make a Porno


Zaack and Miri is no different for Seth Rogen in terms of the character he plays. However he takes away the Apatow make up and wears Kevin Smith make up. Kevin Smith has made another trademark film of his filled with loser characters who can never get enough of the f word, barely making a living and having brilliant ideas from time to time and making it big at the end. Zack and Miri (Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks) are two high school best friends who live together as they dont have any close relatives. They are broke and dont have enough cash to pay utility bills. To get past their cashstrappedness they decide to make a porn film with the help of a friend. They arent lovers or have ever dated each other and very predictably that is going to change by the end of the movie. Everything you can expect from movie in which boy and girl are best friends, people who are broke and starting out a business venture happen and there is hardly any innovation in the plot. Kevin Smith who has given us wonderful movies like Clerks and its sequel, Chasing Amy and Dogma has made this movie with his eyes closed. I was disappointed with the lack of depth and the Kevin Smith brand of humour in this movie. Though the expletives remained comedy was missing. I am not going to talk about Seth Rogen's lacklustre performance. The supporting cast was decent. Elizabeth Banks did a decent job as Miriam Linky, aka stinky linky who is desperate in getting laid. oh wait I dont know what she does in the movie except hang out at the coffee shop. Kevin Smith has never been so careless in the plot aspects and writing of the film. I hope Smith does better the next time.

Rating: 5/10