Things of Which I May Not Speak

We watched Whip It a couple of weeks ago, and it was fun. It’s about a misfit teenager, played by Juno’s Ellen Page, who takes to the violent, extreme sport of Roller Derby. Much to the chagrin of her parents. It’s a quintessential sports movie, with the loser sports team coming from behind to win the great championship, and love, and acceptance. It’s everything that Eastwood’s Invictus wasn’t.

Yeah, I’m comparing a roller derby movie to Invictus, and I’m saying roller derby wins.

But the real feature of this movie is that it’s the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore. And she shows she’s got it where it counts. Every major character in this movie is female, and the point-of-view shows. It’s a movie by women about women, but it’s hard hitting and takes no prisoners. The reason it’s worth pointing this out is that this is extremely rare in Hollywood. This year we have two examples—Whip It and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, which might clean up at the Oscars.

[P.S. Manohla Dargis at the New York Times did an extraordinary piece on the lack of women filmmakers in Hollywood.]

This was one of those weekends.

It was a long weekend. Six movies since Friday night. Can you decipher them from the title of this post?

Continue reading ‘A Six Movie Weekend: A Room with a Khan, Do(stana) the Right Thing, No Impact Thief’ »

This week’s pick is actually two versions of the same song—Mad World.

The original is by ‘80’s pop rock duo Tears for Fears, and sounds exactly like you would expect an ‘80’s pop hit to sound. Synthesizers and percussion, and a pace meant for dance.
Continue reading ‘Music Pick: Mad World’ »

I’m just going to put down my initial thoughts about the movie that I just saw, Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan. I don’t think I can review this film, in any traditional sense. It is too full, too much going on, too many good things and even more bad. So I’ll just talk about things that left an impression.
Continue reading ‘Initial Thoughts: My Name is Khan’ »

Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Ten years ago, Ram Gopal Varma could do no wrong in my eyes. He was coming off a run that included Rangeela, Satya, Kaun?, Mast and Company. And, under his production banner, he had started to nurture a new era directors of thrillers and comedy. He helped usher in the current style of Hindi cinema—the edgy thrillers and the broad comedies.

But then he went off the deep end.

Bhoot, Naach, Sarkar, RGV ki Aag, Sarkar Raj have been not just disappointing, but downright bad movies. This year’s Rann is fine, but is this the same person who made Satya?

What happened?

Part of my trouble with his recent movies is, in his own words, his “framing”. On his blog today, he has addressed this issue:

Film related people either say my frames look very unique or they say that they are too exhibitionistic or they say that they are unnecessarily bizarre and some even say that they are ridiculous. [..]

If Urmila’s swaying hip in “Rangeela” is being framed in a certain specific composition, a one inch zoom out or a one inch zoom in and a little pan here or there can both spoil or enhance the effect. Urmila’s swaying hip is the content and the way I particularly want to see it will be my frame.

My problem with all of that is, in the words of one of his characters in Naach:

Different banaane ka matlab ye nahi ke kuchh bhi bana do.

His camera shoots from beneath a glass table, or partially obstructed by some equipment. His shots aren’t set up—I’m disoriented, I don’t know which characters are in a particular scene. In a scene with other characters, all of a sudden I’ll see Abhishek Bachchan and wonder if this is the same scene or have we moved on to the next one? And then Abhishek will be speaking to Aishwarya and Aishwarya’s face will be bright but Abhishek’s will be dark. Why? He is speaking, I am looking at him, but I can’t see him clearly. His face is dark. This is deliberate, but it’s drawing attention to itself. Why make the viewer work so, so hard? Continue reading ‘Where Have You Gone, Ram Gopal Varma?’ »

The steamy shower, the shadow behind the shower curtain, the raised, knife-wielding hand, that shrieking soundtrack and a screaming Janet Leigh have not only become legend in film, but also legend in parody. It has become so recognizable in modern times that when it is parodied I can sense young people nodding their heads in recognition even when they have no idea about its origins.

Alfred Hitchcock is as old as feature films themselves. Born in 1899 in London, Hitchcock was 26 when he directed his first film. His first “Hitchcockian” film, however, did not come until 1927 when The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog was released. With strangled blondes and young men falsely accused of crimes, it was a pre-cursor to many Hitchcock movies to come. By the time he was 30, he was on to his 10th film- Blackmail- which was one of the first sound films out of Britain. At the age of 30, he had moved to the United States and was working for acclaimed uber-producer David O. Selznick. The Hitchcock style had been established and was now being fine-tuned. Continue reading ‘On Hitchcock, Psycho and the Auteur Theory’ »

I’m not sure who the audience was for this film, but what a gorgeous, gorgeous movie.

Based on the much loved, but seven sentence long children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are is the story of a troubled kid Max who runs away from home and sails to the land of the wild things. Here, he declares himself king of the wild things. The wild things are like childish adults, or precocious kids. They need a leader, or a parent, and Max fills this need. This is the plot, but this is not the movie. Continue reading ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ »

I am an unabashed Shahrukh Khan fan. Twenty-two years ago, my whole family would sit down to watch Fauji on Doordarshan for only one reason—this fresh-faced actor named Shahrukh Khan. With My Name is Khan on its way this month, I thought I’d run through my favorite SRK performances of all time.
Continue reading ‘My Name is Shahrukh Khan’ »

Dr. Green, how can you diagnose someone as an obsessive compulsive disorder, and then act like I have some choice about barging in here?

In my head, many characters provide live commentary to my life, one of whom is Melvin Udall (played by Jack Nicholson in As Good As it Gets)

At times, when I’m irritated, I can hear him say:

Never, never, interrupt me, okay? Not if there’s a fire, not even if you hear the sound of a thud from my home and one week later there’s a smell coming from there that can only be a decaying human body and you have to hold a hanky to your face because the stench is so thick that you think you’re going to faint. Even then, don’t come knocking. Or, if it’s election night, and you’re excited and you wanna celebrate because some fudgepacker that you date has been elected the first queer president of the United States and he’s going to have you down to Camp David, and you want someone to share the moment with. Even then, don’t knock. Not on this door. Not for ANY reason. Do you get me, sweetheart?

Or when somebody is being horribly optimistic about a terrible situation:

It’s not true. Some have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes with boats and friends and noodle salad. Just no one in this car. But, a lot of people, that’s their story. Good times, noodle salad. What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but that you’re that pissed that so many others had it good.

Or about the people I love:

I might be the only person on the face of the earth that knows you’re the greatest woman on earth. I might be the only one who appreciates how amazing you are in every single thing that you do, and how you are with Spencer, “Spence,” and in every single thought that you have, and how you say what you mean, and how you almost always mean something that’s all about being straight and good. I think most people miss that about you, and I watch them, wondering how they can watch you bring their food, and clear their tables and never get that they just met the greatest woman alive. And the fact that I get it makes me feel good, about me.

And I’ll leave you with this: Continue reading ‘Melvin Udall and the Voices in My Head’ »

So I’ve given myself enough time to catch up with some of the movies of 2009, but not quite all of them. This was a lean year for me—I’ve seen fewer movies in 2009 than any year in the last ten. So, to name a few, I haven’t seen The Hurt Locker, Where the Wild Things Are, The Informant, An Education, Precious, Bad Lieutenant or Whip It. But I intend to. Of the ones I have seen, here is what stands out:

The Most Fun I Had At the Movies Award: Inglourious Basterds
Runner Up: Watchmen

Most Thought-Provoking Award: A Serious Man

Best For All Ages Award: Coraline
Runner Up: Up
Second Runner Up: Ponyo
Third Runner Up: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Best Sign-of-the-Times Award: Up in the Air

The One They’ll Be Talking About For Years Award: Avatar