Review- The Tree of Life

Release: May 27, 2011

Director: Terrence Malick

Writer: Terrence Malick

Cast: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Joanna Going, Jackson Hurst, Fiona Shaw, Crystal Mantecon, Tamara Jolaine, Hunter McCracken, Dustin Allen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seldom does a movie encapsulate you in the breadth of its imagination, the monstrosity of which can never be really put down in words. There are movies that are clever and are so subtle that you need revisions to understand the complexity of the plot. There are other movies where you are equally expected to be clever because there is no plot. Such movies are in effect an assimilation of imagery so vivid and gigantic that you find yourself reeling under its constant thrust. It does not leave a hole in your heart with its tragic depictions, it does not leave you confounded even if you could only scratch the surface in terms of understanding what the craftsman set out to accomplish- what it does however is leave you with a heavy mind. The music doesn’t help either- placed throughout the movie and encompassing every second of it the crescendo and the troughs shake your senses to the core.

Terrence Mallik, in only his seventh movie in a career that spans 4 decades sets out on an ambitious overdrive to cast his thoughts onto the screens. Filmed through the prism of a typical family in sub-urban Texas, the film traces evolution, the big bang, existence and sustenance in a hitherto un-chartered fashion. Through vignettes of dreams, travels back and forth through space and time, thoughts spilled out from an ensemble of characters the two and a half hour epic leaves everything to decipher for the audience.

Comparisons to 2001 is inevitable, not because they share the same special effect director, not because the breadth of imagination each demonstrates is confounding but more so because each deploys same technique to grasp your attention and the after-effects of each is but the same- a heavy heavy mind that seems to have been pushed to a stone-walled premise. So, if it was the chimpanzees dancing around the monolith that pushed you to the brink or the cosmic inter-planetary movements and the volcanic eruptions that befuddled you, the take away remain the same.

A crew-cut Brad Pitt as Mr. O’Brien stars in a contrasting role, assaying that of a disciplinarian, abusive and authoritative father with not a tempered display of affection. Some critics have argued its a villainous role while some have described it as your quintessential father who has to play the role of bad cop to prepare his kids out into the rough rough world. Howsoever you see, which believe me could be quite a few, Pitt does full justice to the role and his fits of anger, frustration and affection comes easy.

Parallels are drawn between lives spanning millions of years, cosmic occurrences with family dining table dramas and human emotions with natural grandeur. The eldest son of the family who grows up to be Sean Penn, the middle aged professional whose dreams are mostly what the film depicts is I believe the strongest and best developed character. Each emotion, which is universal to the phenomena of growing up is elucidated- irritation, love, coming to terms with death, sibling quibbling every stage of growth in a man’s life is visualized through gushing meadows, gigantic waterfalls, solar eclipses and volcanic eruptions.

In one of the scenes, when the children ask the mother to tell them a story from far before, she takes them to a plane ride that was her graduation present. In the very next scene, the imagery is that of the mother floating besides the tree, hands flying and waving. The whole process of birth is depicted through the kid opening the door of an under-water room and swimming with his mother towards the open air. In flashes, the scenes are recreated every now and then, in flashes your eyes widen and pupils contract.

It is an experience more than a plot. Through awe-inspiring visuals the film showcases birth, growth, evolution, emotion, death and after-life. Some critics have derided the non linear style of narration and randomly placed scenes. Its also termed an obsessive self pleasing project. I would not go down that road. Watch it not for entertainment, not for education but for the sheer magnificence of imagination.

Avatar- Movie Review

There are movies and then there are epics. There’s Kubrick and then there’s Cameroon. Stand apart, choke it with technology, splurge like there is no tomorrow add sparkles of ingenuity, flavor it with larger than the larger life characters and somehow manage to insert a story. The result that this odd eclectic mix brings out makes one want to puke exclamations, it makes one want to transcend to another world, makes one see Na’vi what they intend to portray, makes one long for that adventurous journey to the lands of Pandora. Open up the Pandora’s box and transform this splendour to something more than a one-off movie, brilliant for its time(yes!) into something akin to Star Wars, something provoking like Jurassic Park, something curious like Signs and something classy like LOTR. I demand!

While analogies exist and are created, while doubts emerge and are forestalled, while the story drags and you let it drag you you end up loving Avatar for the sheer scale of the project. It ain’t a movie I should say. Its more a project of what the world of 3D has in store for movie goers and watchers and freakers and speakers. Technical finesse aside there is no story line, no character assasination or erection, no one moment of reminiscence and therein lies the beauty of this neo-classical, technical extravaganza.

The year is 2053. Earth is supposedly dead by the ‘karma’ of the energy hungry humans, so much so that Pandora becomes the hotbed for the politics of energy. Sounds familiar? America/Iraq/Afghanistan? Some say that was the logic but what the hell? If that was indeed it I couldn’t care less could I? Avatar takes you to the flying mountains where springs still go down vanishing in the misty air like vapor. It takes you to unimaginable creatures, the likes of which would make Star Wars crumble back, Jurassic park stare enviably. It does at some times become a bit too corny, I should say. Dive in to the world of the director who gave us Titanic. He gave us the movie that made theatre goers in India coo about the lovely Rose, shed tears for the behemothical tragedy, laugh at the antics of cutie Caprio and hope for the couple. Well, the story is just the same. The blue skinned Na’vi with the outsider Jake. You know the story that follows from hereon!

A must watch for people who love what Cameroon stands for. A must watch for special effect(ive) people. A must watch for one and all!

Inglourious Basterd-The Review

Critics have lambasted the movie for its sheer disregard to the issue that is morality but hey if its Tarantino its pardonable right? An audacious show of bravura coupled with some mesmerizing performance by Christopher Waltz relegates Pitt to the background and hogs much of the limelight if not the screen time. Quite reminiscient of the Joker walking away with the acclaim while Christian Bale fumed over? Quite like it. The beginning sets the tone for the rest of the drama to follow which at times becomes pathetically silly yet strangely believable. The characters are woven with characterstic Tarantino fashion with the result alternative history becomes fiction and an out and out grosser.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead-Tread Carefully.
While Col. Hans Landa, played by hitherto unknown actor Christopher Waltz, demeans the Jews, while he sits with Shossana, while he kills the actress and while he makes the deal with the Aamerikens he shines. Gripped to our seats, shifting uncomfortably with every polite gesture, waiting for a deeply disturbing reaction, one is forever in a state of great expectations, and therein, lies the charm of the movie. Pitt starring in his maiden Tarantino flick reminds me of Mickey. Accent modulation is commendable and effective. While stellar performances abound in this movie, the linear plot uncharacterstic of a Tarantino product is justified through its playful dealings with history, alternative history and pure fiction.

Without giving too much away the movie is about Col. Hans Landa and him alone. It basically revolves around a bunch of Jewish-Americans recruited by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) fighting for the allied cause and formed to cause maximum damage to the Nazis. How they do that is pure Tarantino. The methods, the introduction of the characters and the killings are all woven into this fantastic western spaghetti pot-boiler that is bound to keep Tarantino fans loyal for many more years to come and push others to join the cult. When he makes a movie this great he is entitled to his indulgences and his occasional artistry is forgiven. Scenes like the showdown in the Tavern is one where you are bound to be confused as to laugh it out or eulogize the perfectionist that is this man Tarantino. Liberal sprayings of gore, delightful soliloquoys, enticing self-referential dialogue delivery and impeccable mannerisms mixed with violence makes it dandy for all the fans out there.

Oh and I forgot to mention, Hostel director Eli Roth plays the character of “The Bear Jew” with panache and a baseball bat!!

Highly recommended for people with taste for good cinema and disgust for everything SRK stands for.

Rating: 3.5/5

Snatch Movie Review

Guy Ritchie directs like no one else does. Snatch is a hilarious account of the under-world tribe that depicts in no less humorous way the things that are perceived by the common man. While the characters have been selectively hand-picked to provide for the funniest of accents, the dialogue delivery is stupendous at the very least.

The Jargogled pronunciations of Mikey O’Neil a.k.a Pikey the vagabond, the Gypsie and the Brad Pitt, the “Zee” Germans Turkish(Jason Statham) accent, Brick Top’s(Alan Ford) nemesis, Tyrone’s ‘niggerish’ demanour, Doug the ‘Jew’ Head’s business acumen, Boris the Blade’s(or the Bullet-Dodger)(Rade Serbedzija) monstrosity, bounty hunter Bullet Tooth Tony(Vinnie Jones). While there are a host of other such characters that fill the screen with crafty enunciations and sadistic pronunciations the story-line is weak and borrowed. Hats-off to Ritchie the director for carrying off an ensemble of actors with characterstic elan and pompous depiction.

Snatch is a story of a 86 carat diamond that is initially in the hands of Franky-Fucking-Four-Fingers, who incidentally loves to gamble(the depiction, again is legendary), it passes hands to a variety of colorful characters including Tyrone, the chubby get-away guy, Boris the Blade, Brick-Top, the pig, and finally the “dag”. The movie reminds a lot of Ritchie’s earlier directorial venture Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in terms of dialogue delivery, theme and visual style. Franky-Fucking-Four-Fingers talking to Avi is hilarious and well-scripted, so is the narrative style of Turkish who has a side-kick in Tommy who indulges in protection with a Heavy gun that is reliable in that “you can hit him if the wheel fails”.

To say that despite the uncharactersic similarity with Lock,Stock the movie lives up to its reputation would not be going too far. I liked the movie for what it is, with or without Lock Stock. Seldom do I come across a movie that breaks away from the type-cast roles and cliched punchlines. Guy Ritchie delivers like nobody does and is a master at creating situational/incidental comedy with an ironical twist at the tail. The unique part in the movie is that there is not one scene that does not relate to the actual plot and inspite of the seemingly diverse and randomly interjected short-stories, it all eventually connects somewhere in between.

I am including some quotes that I found suitably hilarious and catchy. For more on QQ see here.

Quotable Quotes(QQ):

• Do you know what “nemesis” means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personified in this case by an ‘orrible cunt… me- Brick Top. 
• You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity- Bullet Tooth Tony.
• In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary… come again? – Brick Top
• I’m gettin’ heartburn. Tony, do something terrible- Avi
• London? – Avi’s colleague
• Yes, London. You know: fish, chips, cup ‘o tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary fucking Poppins… LONDON.- Avi

The movie has been a commercial success and has went on to develop a devoted cult following what with the crispy dialogues and muck-raking script. The preface to the movie presents a vivid picture of what is to follow when before the robbery, the protagonist elaborates on the difference between a ‘virgin’ and a ‘young woman’ both impying the same meaning, but when held in the context of Virgin Mary who had to bear a son, being a Virgin it becomes a rhetorical statement.

The soundtrack is secutive and lives up to the movie particularly the bare-knuckle boxing match with the Irish traveller “Pikey”, when the subdued Gorgeous George falls prey to the might of Mikey and Golden Brown (The Stranglers) is brought out. The diamond soundtrack is ticklish and distinct.

Overall, the movie stands out despite a weak story line. The huge ensembled cast is a major thrust to the continuity of the movie and brilliant scripts make the movie a must-watch for the movie buffs out there.

An Inconvenient truth..

The impeccable style and the logistic approach does what many presentations and articles never could. The fact that earth is under duress was long known but the magnanimity of it all struck when the documentary “An inconvenient truth” hit me right where it mattered. The problem of Global Warming and the ever increasing CO2 concentration has led to consequences which if not looked into would lead to a geological change so mammoth and disastrous that humans may become extinct and corpses may walk over earth after the turn of the century. The film in discussion presided over by Al Gore (George Bush’s Opponent in the presidential elections for the tube lights) captures the essence of environmental disbalance and man-made catastrophes.

The slide show including pictures, graphs, animations and predictions were right upto the mark. Al Gore followed a holistic approach to drive home the point and actually succeeded at it. His may not be the most imaginative of ways but the devotion shows through and gasps and raised eyebrows are called for work.

The show was one of its kind in that even the most vehement critique would want to pass this on. Peppered with his normal life the film may be a gimmick but that does not take away any credit from the “President-in-the-running”. Even the most thick-skinned audience would shudder at the thought of ever increasing CO2 concentration. Using data from an array of sources and going back through ages(some made us walk back about 300,000 years!) the presentation is stunning and replete with all the necessary quotations and ironies.

“what gets us into trouble
is not what we don’t know

Its what we know for sure
that just ain’t so..”

or

“It is difficult to get a man understand anything
when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”

The lines catch everyone off-guard and demand the attention that the presentation so very deserves.
He starts with a cartoon animation and then goes on to explain that as glaciers melt, sea levels will rise, eventually flooding land from Florida to Shanghai, Holland to India. In Calcutta and Bangladesh, he
says, 60 million people would be displaced. In Manhattan, Ground Zero
would be under the rising sea.

Using a Frog he depicts how humans react only to stimuli that are sudden when the responses to a stimulus, slow but steady, is ignored.Clearly the man seems well prepared to follow an exhaustive approach that wins over the confidence of the audience. Complete with throwing the ball at Bush’s court and poking fun at the latter’s approach he brings forth the inefficiency and lack of morality for a cause that demands immediate attention.

The film does what many articles and NGO’s never could. Working for a cause as great as this Gore clearly comes out a winner among the allegations of Environmental Fundamentalist and False Hoax Candidate. The film has to reach the masses to make a recognizable impact and schools , colleges and the parliament would be a nice way to start. The film hasn’t even been premiered in India so theres still a long way to go before this piece of finely crafted work carves its way through to its rightful recipient.

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