Nolan's Tenet has been released and deemed a dud. Cinema theatres are about to open from Oct 15. Covid cases are still rising. Confined to our homes, Movies and TV are the only window to the external world out there.
Real escapism is needed to escape the reality of our times. Lot of escapism is needed :)
So, with that, here is how I have survived the last few months
Movies
With unemployment more than 25%, do you know how the unemployed youth is spending their time? When you have no work to do, the days are longer and the emptiness in abundance. Fellini's I Vitelloni covers the story of such youth after world war 2 - no work, no jobs, carefree, with limited money, each one finding faults in the society in its own way. This belongs to the 'slice in time' genre of movies - a story of 4-5 friends and how they decide to spend their days and their years. They dance, drink, tease women and are philanderers. They are naive. As with all of us, they do not see any fault in themselves. I Vitelloni captures the times, the wastage of youth, the idiocy of their actions in a very real manner.
4/5 - this cinema was not escapist at all :)
Take a great cast, put it in a great story, characters dying at any moment, add politics, mafia, corruption and an idealist cop who understands the politics of all of it, a hard hitting muscular cop who understands that his role in the system, a media who wants to profit from this shit-show who very well knows that the audience in real world loves this pulp-fiction and lastly a sensual mix from a prostitute who wants to break free but can not - all done in an incredible stylized manner, neo-noir genre is what it is called. The twists and turns come till the last moment. Great film to escape the current times.
4/5
Old Guard is a group of people who are blessed with a gift of immortality, rather a curse, but with a twist that the immortality has an end date which is unknown. What would you do if you are immortal? Living for 500+ years. Seen regime changes, world wars, famines and also all the good things. You still have to hide yourself as the immortality has to be kept a secret. There are interesting things to theorize with this premise and Old Guard does a decent job. By making this into a super-hero genre, it is able to do se with some nice action, albeit with a cliched villain who wants to replicate their immortality in a lab. Charlize Theoren is excellent, action choreography well done and supporting cast holds the fort. Not so loud, not very flashy, Old Guard takes a reserved approach to a super hero genre. All in all, a perfect masala escapist movie .
3.5/5
The worst thing about Ford vs Ferrari is its title. Honestly, this is like Mahabhratha being titled Pandavs vs Kaurava. Once you get past the initial 15 mins of the movie, it is all about the behind the scenes of speed racing - what research is done, identifying risks, research, trial, error, can money buy progress? and how speed racing is an art not some capitalistic tool. Yet, it is what it is - Ford throws money to build the fastest car, but it is not enough. Matt Damon and Christian Bale are excellent. Best part of the film is that it does not take itself too seriously and it also does not make the speed racing very flashy.
3.5/5
Frozen 2 cashes on top of Frozen 1 with a bizarre storyline, too much of feel goodiness and honestly the emotional heartfelt touches seem too artificial even for an animation world
1.5/5
Psycho is actually a masterclass in film making but it much effort to identify the mastery. How is the director trying to show a particular scene, what does this scene signify. Even for those who know the ending, the movie is very taught, it pulls you in though its sheer mastery. The camera effects are brilliant. Hitchcock had a great knack of knowing what the audience is thinking at a given time and then he uses this to deliberately not resolve this. The conflict is within the audience's minds and that I think is the ingenuity of Psycho.
4/5
Is he dead or is he alive? Was that a perfect murder? Who is lying? What is the truth? Les diaboliques was truly ahead of its time in bring such complex plots to screen. The setting of a boys boarding school adds whole level of eeriness to it.
3.5/5
Martian
The Martian is a feel good movie with feel good actors - Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain. This was a re-watch.
3/5
Pyaasa is all about Sahir Ludhianvi and S.D. Burman - it is a movie with damn good songs with damn good lyrics and nothing else matters here. Yes, the plot is there, it is ahead of its times as it shows a red light area, protagonist landing in a mental institution, media trials and what not. The jumps between scenes are not smooth; too many things happen in too few scenes until a songs comes in and adds a depth to a scene that is so profound that - nothing else matters. Above all, its ending is a positive one.
5/5
Homemade is a product of 2020 - a movie made by 20+ filmmakers while respecting social distancing/varying degrees of quarantine norms and made minimally with minimum crew. Some are fairly very creative, some very funny ones. I liked the auto-biographical aspect of Gunindher Chaddha's one - mainly because it has a foray into the lives of Indians in these times. Overall, it has various nuggets to please every kind of viewer, including one where Pope and Queen go skinny dipping :)
3.5/5
TV Series
Laakhon mein ek - Season 1
A good one time watch - reasonably well made series. Although, it has some cliches but some of the lines are good. A honest attempt to capture the lives of people struggling to fit in.
3/5
Homecoming Season 1 & 2
A fantastic season 1 followed by a dud season 2. Sam Esmail is a genius - both Mr. Robot and Homecoming follow the same style of cinema making applied to two different stories. The store delivery is top notch.
Season 1 - 4/5
Season 2 - 2.5/5
Schitts creek - Needs a separate review
The leftovers - Needs a separate review
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