I only recently became acquainted with the iconic, beautiful, and compelling Indian actress Sridevi--who was in nearly 300 films. She has now suddenly passed away at the only 54. This is a terrible loss, so I'm taking this moment to recommend both Mom and English Vinglish, two of her more recent films. Mom is a rape-revenge thriller, released in 2017. After her step-daughter is brutally assaulted by a gang of men, step-mom Devki takes matters into her own hands. Mom is pretty great, while not for those easily triggered by brutal violence. This is a tight thriller. 4/5 English Vinglish is a little older, released in 2012. In English Vinglish, Sridevi plays the matriarch to a family who underestimates and takes her for granted. Being the only one in her family to not speak any English, Shashi decides to secretly take English classes. This film is so lovely and wonderful. If you don't feel great after watching English Vinglish, I don't know what's wrong with you! 5/5 |
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Mad is about a recently divorced bipolar woman who has a breakdown and ends up in the hospital. Meanwhile, her two daughters are rather selfish and self-centered and unsure of what to do with the mother they are kinda ashamed of, mad at, and a little scared of. This is one of the better psychward movies I've seen. Mad does a really good job at representing mental illness as something people live and deal with everyday, but that it can be a real struggle no matter how "weird" you think a person is. The performances are understated and lovely. I appreciated the care taken with this little gem. Maryann Plunkett is wonderful as mom, Mel. 4/5 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 I love a good boxing picture but, in my opinion, they are tough to pull off. I am already bored to death of the straight-ahead Aristotelian three-act structure, in general. Apply it to the rise-fall-redemption classic fighter/warrior narrative and it's usually snore city. Bleed For This is up against all the same tired tropes and cliches of that dull old boxing movie narrative and, alas, it is also a bio pic. I find bio pics extremely difficult to pull off. Again, they tend to conform to this predictable three-act structure, and the majority of them end up largely fabricated; It's always dizzying just how invented most bio pics end up. Bleed For This is running up against a brick wall, trying to be both a good bio pic and a good boxing pic. As a boxing pic, it is as standard as they come. He rises, he falls, he is redeemed; sorry to spoil it for you. As a bio pic, it falls into all the trappings of cripspiration. This is the story of the working class, New England lightweight boxer Vinny Pazienza, who broke his neck in a car accident but wore the Halo brace, trained against doctors' orders, and made a comeback in the ring! The story is impressive, and yes, it's inspiring. Yet, it still manages to be utterly mainstream about it all. Miles Teller, Ciaran Hinds and Aaron Eckhardt are all terrific. The performances are the truly the film's saving grace. This is no Creed. If you like bio pics and you like boxing pics you will not be disappointed. If you want something fresh, exciting, new that doesn't rely on cliches about the triumph and the human spirit and overcoming disability, you will probably leave unfulfilled. 3/5 If you read my reviews you may have come to recognize that I gravitate towards what I describe as "quiet little films". Here's a lesser known fact about my tastes: I love Richard Gere. Gere is rarely in a quiet movie, he's often cast as bombastic upper-middle class, white-collar douchebags. [That said: Days of Heaven. Do it. 5/5] Time Out of Mind is another stellar, quiet, little film and Gere, going rather against type, is excellent. This is an American drama about an aging homeless man trying to pull his life back together. It follows Gere as he goes about his day trying to stay warm, get fed, find shelter, sleep without bothering anyone, and generally navigate the system. In no way does Time Out of Mind romanticize homelessness. However, at the end of the day, what we have here is another white, hetero, male perspective. As much as I love Gere, and he's wonderful here, this film could reveal so much more about homelessness if the protagonist was a trans youth, a teenage mother, or a veteran... you get the point. I'm in no way knocking the film. Not at all. It really works. 4/5 I will start off by saying that I picked this solely by virtue of it having Adam Driver. I love Adam Driver, and he's great here. This was a strange little movie that reminded me of Todd Haynes' phenomenal film, Safe. In Safe, a woman becomes increasingly allergic to the world around her. Here, a woman becomes increasingly paranoid about the world, slowly shutting out the mainstream in favor of alternatives for childbirth and childrearing. This film treads the waters of vilifying midwifery and such. Here, what begins as a love story devolves into an domestic horror film. Mina, the woman, downward spirals as she desperately tries to keep her baby "pure," by keeping him indoors and refusing to feed him properly. Meanwhile, the husband fights to get his son outdoors, fed and gaining weight. Hungry Hearts is a pretty quiet and slow film with some excellent performances. The narrative is pretty uncomplicated, as we have the basic man = reason in crisis fighting for logic in a world of female insanity. 3/5 |
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