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Intouchables (2011)
Why all this hype ?
I'm not new to French films, and I've seen some really excellent french films with great acting like "il y a longtemps que je t'aime", "Incendies", "La vie d'adele", e.t.c. But I'm sorry I cannot include Intouchables in this list. It was an just ok film with ok acting with ok story. Nothing great about it.
I've also seen tons of world cinema (English, European, Asian, South American, e.t.c) in my life. And honestly I do not understand whats all the hype about this film and why does this have 700,000 people rating in 8.5 in IMDB ? I really don't understand.
Chernobyl (2019)
The Comrades of Chernobyl
Since many months, I have been reading about the rise and fall of Communism across the world in the last century, which is when I came across this film.
Though I had heard about the Chernobyl disaster, I had never read about it or seen any documentary of it, and this was the first series or visual representation of it that I saw. It was impressively made. Thought I initially wondered why the dialogues were in English instead of Russian, I later realized it was an HBO production. However I would have loved to see a russian language production, but I guess due to the controversies surrounding this incident in the Central Committee, State and Council of Ministers in Communist Soviet, I guess we will never get to see a Russian made series about Chernobyl (or maybe I'm wrong, and I'm not aware).
Anyways, it was a pretty impressive show. And I almost felt as if the radiation was hitting me while watching the show, and I felt like I was in Chernobyl physically. It was wonderfully made, the dialogues and locations and sets. And I never knew that officials and people of high positions address each other as "Comrades" in a Communist Government. This was something new to me.
I would recommend this mini series (5 episodes) to everybody.
Tumbbad (2018)
A rare and brilliant product of the otherwise useless hindi film industry
Usually films like this which are 90 to 100 minutes in duration, without any songs, and with brilliant stories, come out only in Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada and Tamil, and I've seen tons of such films in these languages.
But this is definitely a first in hindi film industry. I'm glad that hindi cinema has started to mature. Its been 10 or 15 years since I watched or endorsed hindi films. However if more movies like Tumbbad come out, I'll definitely start watching hindi films again.
Tumbbad is a fantasy thriller with ominous overtones, and some great screenplay. This is the type of Indian film that I would recommend to my foreign friends in other countries.
All those other clowns in hindi film industry who call themselves "Bollywood" and dish out nonsensical crap, and think they own the industry, etc, need to learn how to make a film, by watching this.
La casa de papel (2017)
Over rated and over hyped nonsense
First of all, I like spanish movies, heist based dramas, and themes based on people's revolution or resistance against the government, e.t.c, as long as the creators treat the audience's sensibilities with some level of respect and intelligence. That is not the case with La Casa de Papel. And for all the people who weirdly think that Season 1 and 2 were brilliant but only Season 3 and 4 ruined the show, let me tell you one thing - all 4 seasons were as dumb as anything I've ever seen.
Here is what we have - Robbers on a heist printing their own money in the bank, Robbers stealing the national gold reserves from the bank, Public loves the robbers and consider them heroes (oh boy !!), Robbers fall in love with hostages, hostages make love to robbers, robbers make love to robbers, Hostages become robbers, Chief of police investigating the case falls for the robbers leader's charms and decides to run away with him, becoming a fugitive herself (boy oh boy !!), Police teams with an IQ of a high school student are made to handle the case in all 4 seasons, and every battle won by the robbers against the dumb police is portrayed as a "larger than life, world-class" victory. I got sick and tired with the nonsense after Season 1 and through half of Season 2, and the only reason I kept watching Season 3 and 4 was to see whether there might be any tiny iota of intelligence and maturity from the police team (which would've calmed my nerves a bit !!), but sadly NO. I gave a 3 star rating only for Najwa Nimri (although her presence was only in few episodes of Season 3 and 4). If not for her, I would've rated a 1 star.
Spare yourself from this nonsensical money heist show which insults the audience's sensibilities. If you really want to watch action and adrenaline, which is atleast sensible and realistic, and treats the audience as someone with above average IQ levels, watch the series "Fauda" en Netflix, which is the story of undercover agents in Israel and Palestine, depicting the conflicts and on-going crisis between Israel and Palestine.
Fauda (2015)
The best action thriller classic of this year
Before Fauda, I hadn't seen many Israeli shows or movies before. Recently I watched Unorthodox in Netflix. This sparked an interest in me to watch more jewish based movies. I picked two more - Shtisel and Fauda. Shtisel is an orthodox jewish religious drama taking place in hassidic communities in Israel, and I loved it for the brilliant acting. On the contrary, Fauda portrayed the Israel-Palestine conflict based on the life of spys, secret agents and elite defense units who infiltrate West Bank, Israel and Gaza. I binge watched all 3 seasons of Fauda. Great acting, great action, great script and screenplay. I request people to watch Fauda in the original hebrew and arabic audio, with subtitles, so that the experience is more authentic. Do not convert the audio to english or spanish in Netflix, as it robs you of the experience.
Kalifat (2020)
Great theme but Poor script and screenplay
Season 1 : The main character (Fatima, a woman cop in Sweden) isn't trusted by her colleagues, and she single-handedly co-ordinates with another Swedish woman named Perven (who is stuck in ISIS territory of Syria with her terrorist husband and baby), to gather information about terror attacks in Sweden, in exchange for rescuing her.
But it turns out in the climax that, the swedish police department knew about the terror attacks all along, but didn't want to tell the Fatima as they considered her incompetent and useless (which I feel she actually was). This is the worst ever script written for a thriller.
Finally in the climax, when Perven and her baby are about to escape, Fatima calls her and tells her to go back and save another young radicalized girl Lisha from Sweden who went to Syria. Perven begs her to drop this plan, but Fatima doesn't listen. Perven goes back only to find out that Lisha isn't interested to return to Sweden, and Lisha rats out Perven and her husband to ISIS terrorists, who kill Perven. (Seriously, I wish the dumb Fatima herself had died, instead of the brilliant Perven).
In the end, Fatima ends up rescuing only the militant husband (i.e, the psychopath who had called his wife Perven unclean and anti-muslim, after Perven was raped by his friend Ahmed, who Perven killed during self-defense).
The series is a disgusting turn-off. I gave 4 stars only for Perven, as she was the only sensible character amongst all other dumb characters in the whole season.
The Invitation (2015)
Prefer Coherence to this
Do you want to watch a bunch of old friends meeting up after many years for a dinner get-together at a house in L.A, with something weird going on in the house and in the neighbourhood ? Then please watch Coherence instead, and avoid watching The Invitation. Coherence is one of the most brilliant science fiction films I've seen in a long time. It released 2 years before this film, and is a 1000 times better than this film, and had a similar premise and background as this film, but with a brilliant scifi story, screenplay, mature and sensible acting. The Invitation is no match to that masterpiece, however I'm giving a 6 to this film only for the huge potential it had and the eery atmosphere it set up. But the screenplay and narration of this film is totally messed up.
Thelma (2017)
A wonderful film for the senses
I like films which are open-ended where there are unexplained events and the viewers are left to conclude who was right and who was wrong. I also love films where the protagonist is a bit confused, cannot take decisions easily, quiet, etc, cause I relate to those kind of characters the most. Thelma falls into both these categories and was a wonderful film to watch. I was earlier watching an Hungarian film called On Body and Soul, and while reading the reviews for that film in some website, I was recommended Thelma. I must say I'm glad I watched Thelma (thrice actually). Each time I saw this film, it threw different perspectives at me, and I connected with different people on each viewing. This film is definitely to be seen multiple times for a deeper understanding.
I'm giving a 10 for the completely different experience and fascinating screenplay. This is my kinda film.
The OA (2016)
Waited till the end that something was gonna happen
After watching some marvelous Netflix series like Black Mirror and Stranger Things, I happened to chance upon The OA. Having seen some of Brit Marling's earlier good films like 'Another Earth', 'Sound of my voice' and 'I origins', which all belonged to the inter-dimension, re-incarnation genre, I assumed this series too would be an interesting sci fi thriller.
But I'm sorry to say Brit Marling let us all down with this heap load of BS with poor characterization and poor script. I don't mind watching slowly paced movies as long as it keeps the viewer engaged all along, but this one was a total let down. After every episode, I was forcing myself to want me to like the series, but at the end of the 8th episode, I was totally frustrated with the way the story was played out with zero plot. The audience have been taken for idiots, nothing else.
There are only 2 things I liked about this series - 1. Jason Isaacs's great acting, and 2. The fact that I discovered a nice piece of music 'Majical Cloudz - Downtown' from one of the episodes.
In short, this was a waste of time for me.
La vie d'Adèle (2013)
Brilliant and Intense emotional drama with staggeringly mesmerizing performances from the actresses
This film changed my life. It changed the way I viewed love, emotion, passion, relatonships and life. I initially assumed it would just be another "lesbian" film, but at the end of the film I was simply flabbergasted by the performances of the cast...especially Adele. The movie contains some of the most realistic, subtle, honest and mind blowing performances I've seen in ages.
The movie showcases the journey of a young, teenaged girl Adele trying to determine her sexual identity. Adele is confused, dates men but realizes she is faking it, is kissed by a girl from her class but is later rejected by her saying it happened in the spur of the moment, dates another woman and passionately loves her, but after feeling ignored by her gets confused and dates a man but still loves her woman, then breaks up, is lost, is alone, she cries, she discovers life, she copes up with life.
Every moment in the film is pure, honest, subtle and sincerely engrossing. There are many fantastic scenes which simply draws you into Adele's life, like the one where she walks by Emma for the first time on the street, the scene where she goes to the gay club and Emma "rescues her", when she kisses Emma for the first time, when she is crying alone, the breaking up scene, the restaurant scene where she meets Emma after a few years. But there is one scene which simply blew me away. When Adele is confused about her sexual identity, a girl from her class gets intimate with her. Thats when Adele realizes that she likes women more than men. But when Adele tries to get to kiss her the next day, she is rejected. The frustration that Adele went through at this moment and her expressiveness was one of the best I've seen.
Emma was equally good, but Adele steals the show. The scenes where Emma just stares and admires Adele are fabulous. I have to say that the sex scenes are brutally honest and raw, and pulls you deeper into the film. It was definitely needed for a film like this.
The restaurant scene at the end simply puts Oscar winners in Hollywood to shame. I've always considered European actors to be brutally raw, perfect, sincere and much better actors than their counterparts from other countries. But I must admit, Adele's is the best I've seen in ages. You think of an emotion known to man, and you will see in Adele's face at some point nor the other in the film.
People who think same sex relationship based films are only a sexual showcase will have a different opinion after seeing this film. As a human being, I felt it was my duty to write this review. Even if one person on this planet sees this movie after reading my comment, I will consider my duty accomplished.
And oh, the movie is 3 hours long...but at the end of the movie, you will feel that only 30 minutes have passed by.
This movies goes into my hard disk. Stored in blu ray format till I die.
Ciao.
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Easily the most amazing piece of film-making in recent times
Was searching for "psychological science fiction" movies in google, when I stumbled upon this gem by the Wachowskis. The first 10 minutes got my attention and I immediately realized (at the 11th minute) that this is one of those movies which I will see again and again. It is difficult for me to say that I understood the film completely, but you do not always have to understand a movie to admire it (this is not a math test), sometimes the emotions that you go through and how the film makes you feel can make you a crazy and ardent fan. I respect and adore films which present a new thought process especially about the 'dharma', 'karma' and 're-incarnation' that spans centuries. This is one such film.
As you might have seen the character names listed in IMDb, the same actors are re-casted as different characters in 6 different periods of time (whether or not the same person re-incarnates again repeatedly is entirely upto the viewers perspective). It is impossible to identify some of the actors in their characters, till the credits roll in the end. As for the performances in the film, everyone has given their heart and soul - that much I can say Tom Hanks, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving and the lot. The complexity, length, multitude of story lines and dynamic editing are stupendous and is one of the best movie watching experiences in the last couple of decades. (Try to watch with headphones if possible to enjoy the nuances in background score).
I do not wish to reveal much but this movie has got everything (science fiction, drama, history, spirituality, romance (straight and gay), revolution, soul, god, battle, humour, satire. I've already seen the film 3 times and each time it was a totally different experience and each time I discovered something new about the film (and about myself). I will definitely see it more number of times.
You will not regret seeing this film, even if you don't understand it.
Cheers
Ship of Theseus (2012)
Same premise has been more interestingly made in films before.
After reading news reports that this movie will create a revolution of sorts in independent cinema and stuff like that, I went to see it last night. The premise of focussing on the lives of 3 people (who have/will be) obtaining a person's different organs through transplant - is very similar to Seven Pounds, and in fact Seven Pounds was way better in what it presented to the audience. This film is trying to question if the recipient of an organ transplant inherits any characteristics from the donor, but leaves it to the audience to frame their own spiritual, religious, emotional conclusions - which maybe new to people who grew up on Shah Rukh Khan films, but not to other broad-minded and rationally thinking individuals.
Even though some of the dialogues in the 2nd story of the saint were pretty captivating, I never understood its relevance to the ship of theseus ? In fact most of the thoughts worded in this film can be found in any spirituality/karma related texts or books written by swami vivekananda or in fact the bhagavad gita itself.
As I said earlier, people who have been spoon-fed with mindless action and romance films may find this film different, but honestly the matured audience can opt for some better films to see.
Unbreakable (2000)
Larger than life
Unbreakable is a film which takes you through a different path each and every time you see it. Rarely do we come across films with underlying themes that force the viewer to sit and think why he is here, whats his role in this world, why was he born, is there any meaning and purpose to his life. Unbreakable does exactly that.
The theme is simple - if there is good, there is evil....if there is strong, there is weak....if there is intelligent, there is insane....that is how the world is...that is how it WILL be..and that is exactly what we must understand as humans, and choose our path accordingly. I've never seen a better film with such brilliant, thought-provoking themes.
I don't want to reveal anything else about the movie. Get the DVD, and sit down and watch the movie without any disturbance, you'll fall in love.