This past year I was introduced to Mollywood (Malayalam cinema) and was quite delighted to watch several excellent little films (Angamaly Diaries and Take Off were both excellent offerings). I also discovered that there are 2 kinds of Mollywood films: There are the really terrific little arthouse indies, and there are the mainstream action/drama/comedies that feature one, Mohanlal, who's celebrity I will never ever understand. Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum is a Malayalam indie gem that falls in the 1st category. This is a dark comedy about a newly married young lower-middle class couple who, on their way to their new home after getting married, find that the bride's new wedding necklace is stolen by the man seated behind them on the bus, who chooses to swallow the necklace to hide his crime. That's literally what this whole movie is about. Did he steal it? Will they get it back? Watch and find out! 5/5 |
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Moonlight is exquisite. This astonishing film is the second feature from Barry Jenkins (Medicine 4 Melancholy, 2008). Told in 3 chapters Moonlight follows Chiron, a young gay man, from his schooldays in inner-city Miami, through high school, and into adulthood. Moonlight is based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tarell McCraney. This is the most beautiful, and important film of the year. I have never seen anything like this before. From the casting to the sound editing, Moonlight is stellar. Moonlight has won a lot of awards and I predict Oscars this coming February. Moolight is a MUST SEE! DO IT! 5/5 There's a lot to say about Colors. Colors is a mid-80s, Pre-Rodney King LA, gang-themed police procedural starring Sean Penn, Robert Duvall, Don Cheadle, and Damon Wayans. Wayans is playing it all In Living Color against Cheadle's earnest portrayal of Rocket, leader of the Crips. Super weird. Colors is also Dennis Hopper's return to directing after being blackballed twice in Hollywood. This is his first film since Out of the Blue (1980). This is a very stylized movie, expertly shot by Haskell Wexler. I fully appreciated the use of South Central LA's murals, the rawness of the hand held camera shooting on the streets, and all the real people crammed into the frames--Hopper hired real gang members and non-actor residents as extras. Two of the gang members were shot dead, during the course of filming in 1987. I wasn't sure what to expect and thought this would be pretty cheesy and dated. It is dated, but it also is a fascinating movie. It's slightly quaint in it's depiction of the relationship between gang members and the cops. There is a surprising sub-plot where a white cop accidentally shoots and kills an unarmed black man. It's treated quite seriously. Of course, I think it's prudent to take this in context as pre-Rodney King LA. I was also surprised by all the scenes Hopper gives to the two gangs apart from the two cops. While the Herbie Hancock synth score is one of the more dated aspects of the film, the pared down use of score, especially in the scenes where you might expect the score to play heavily, was stunning and well-played. Instead of empathic score buttressing the emotions, Hopper offers sirens and dogs barking. Check it out. 4/5 Two Days, One Night is a film that I ended up liking more than I anticipated because when I left the theatre after the screening I thought, Meh. This is a very simple little French film starring Marion Cotillard. It follows a woman who is on the verge of a breakdown as she faces unemployment. She spends her weekend visiting all of her co-workers to beg them to vote to keep her even though it would mean no one would get their $1000 bonus. Cotillard starts off with the stakes so high it's hard for her to take it anywhere else. In this way the film felt a bit forced and flat. That said, the film stuck with me and I kept coming back to it in the months after watching it in Telluride. I felt every minute of that film and I think that was a project of the film. I am a fan of the Dardennes and recommend all of their films, particularly Le Fils, Rosetta, and L'Enfant. 4/5 Gone Girl is an American thriller directed by David Fincher, and adapted from the novel by Gillian Flynn. Gone Girl is about the aftermath of the disappearance of a beautiful young wife, Amy. The film is essentially a mystery about the events surrounding Amy's disappearance, and the consequences that her husband, Nick, has to endure when he becomes a suspect. This film is absolutely riveting. It unfolds in two parts, one showing the events through the perspective of the husband, and then through the wife's eyes. In many ways this film is about the disintegration of a marriage. Rosamund Pike is excellent as the icy Amy. 4/5 Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, US, 1983) Rumble Fish is one of Coppola's lesser-known films. Rumble Fish was written during days off while shooting The Outsiders in Tulsa Oklahoma and was shot in the weeks following The Outsiders. Both films are adaptations of books by SE Hinton, about young people growing up in the early 1960s. While The Outsiders is a more straightforward adaptation, Rumble Fish has been described (by Coppola himself) as an art film for kids. As a result, the film is crammed with symbolism and literary references. Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, and Dennis Hopper make this film. Keep your eyes peeled for a baby Nick Cage and Vincent Spano, and Tom Waits. The heavy percussive score by Stewart Copeland is intense. This is truly a masterpiece shot in glorious black and white. 5/5 It's impossible to say how many times I have seen Harold and Maude. When I worked at a video store I often put it on repeat during 8 hour shifts. It's my all time favorite and I have to admit that there's nothing that notable about the aesthetic of the filmmaking. For me, this is all heart and soul. My love goes back much further than the video store. It was a favorite as a kid, albeit hard to come by. This is the story of a May-September type, unusual relationship between morbid and depressed young Harold and the much much older fun-loving, eccentric Maude. This movie is super quirky and all around delightful. 5/5 |
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