Over the weekend, I watched 3 critically acclaimed films:
- Danny Boyle’s ‘Trainspotting’, and
- Multi Oscar nominated ‘Very Long Engagement’
- David Cohen’s multi oscar winning Fargo

Very Long Engagement – From the director of Amelie – the lesser said about ‘Very long… ‘ the better – it may have gorgeous cinematography, wonderful production values and great direction – but it was damn boring! I just couldn’t sit through it – it was dull, uninteresting and lacked any real ‘story’. It was a story of a young handicapped woman on a determined search of her lost lover during WWI. An okay sort of story, but the script just didn’t have any hooks to pull you in – it has characters who just walk into the story and disappear. Maybe Amelie was an one hit wonder for this French director.

** (2/5)

Trainspotting – I loved the idea of Danny’s “28 day’s later”, and I was sorely disappointed by his debut film – superhit ‘Trainspotting”. Another boring story of 4 junkies and their pathetic existence. The only saving grace was Evan McGregor’s acting – which was wonderful. I donno whats in this movie which was so darn good that it was Britains biggest hit.

** (2/5)

Fargo – It came out in 1996, since then there have been so many TV shows with the same story. A cash strapped husband planning his rich wife’s kidnapping to milk money out of her millionare father, and things go terribly wrong…blah blah… it was so jaded. Even an ordinary episode of Law & order or CSI:Miami is on the same lines. And the tag “Based on a True Story” is bogus – and it ticked me off. But the saving grace, as with all the films above, is fantastic acting. William Macy, Steve Buscemi and Frances McDormand were just fantastic!

*** (3/5)

Another rehash of Hideo Nakata’s Japanese Horror flick following the heels for Ringu and Grudge. Hideo Nakata who has great success with creepy modern day horrors, meaning, you don’t see his characters locked up in a vampire infested 18th century castle in nowhere land – but his character carry cell phones, live and work as normal people do in present day America or Japan depending on which version you see. Nakata’s trademarks are all over the place including the end that is not really an end. Rain always plays a dominant factor, so no wonder both Ring and Dark water has some ties to the Emerald City (Seattle).

Story: Recently divorced Dahlia lives in New York, being priced out of the sky high Manhattan market, she moves to New York’s industrial suburbs with her daughter. Needless to say, the place reeks and smells of dark creepy characters. And mysterious things happen and yada yada yada, few artificial thrills (more like sound effects) we come to the story. A misguided flash back later the last act picks up the tempo, and ends with a nice little ‘touch’.

The casting is perfect, Jennifer Connelly as Dahlia, always perfect John Reilly as apartment manager Mr. Murray and little cutie pie Ariel Gade as Cecily. Fancy aerial shots, fake dirty sets, and an ever present green cast shows all gloss and polish of a Hollywood production trying hard. The movie is built up good, and sometimes is fairly well done. But as usual the movie falls badly when the moviemakers take logic for granted. Like this, A dark stormy night, creepy sounds, a lone staircase, lights are out, you are alone, you hear spooky laughter in a dark narrow hallway at the end of it there is a menacing door, a door which the manager tells never to open. Now, unless you are stupid, you will wait till morning or call someone to go along with you or at least take some precautions – but Dahlia goes alone, ignores all the sound effects we hear, so we keep asking “Why? Why does this director, who till now has build up a realistic characterization, wants to throw it all away for cheap thrills?”

Maybe it’s the way B grade horrors work.

*** (3/5)

IMDB Tagline: Fight and you’ll never survive….. Run and you’ll never escape

This is one gun happy film, both hard hitting and brutal in its portrayal of Rio’s slum gangs. Starts out as a total mess, where you find it hard to recognize who is who or what the heck is going on. But slowly the characters come out in the front. This is based on a true story in Brazil (I missed that part) so the whole movie had me going “Man, that is unexpected, who would have thought that would happen” but apparently true life is a much better and shocking screen writer.

Some of the scenes will shock our muted sensibilities, some scenes will ring hollow if only it was not based on a true story. But life is hard, very hard for these kids – and they respond back by violence, truckloads of it. Hard work, Money, Power, Loyalty, Vanity, Friendship are all easily substituted for a Gun, with it, you have it all. “Without the cold hard steel, you are a human football, the lowest vermin in the human food chain” – thats its underlying message.

The movie is shot with some extreme camerawork you will ever see. Handheld shots, follow focus, super saturation, swipes, PIP, key contrast with racy editing and pulsating music – this movie technically has it all. It offers a distinct visual signature – maybe coz it is taking us into an unknown territory.

This movie makes it to the top 24 fo all time movies – but it doesnt rate so high for me. But definitely worth a look.

*** (3.5/5)

Maria full of Grace follows Maria, an innocent flower girl, as she steps into a dangerous world of drug trafficking. Before you conjure up blood soaked gun throttling mafia gang buster – no, it has none of that, what it has is a simple story of a strong willed girl surviving some of her darkest moments. The script is full of rich 3 dimensional characters, wonderful acting and some taut editing. Writer/Director Joshua Marston has scripted Maria’s character so well that we feel her anguish, feel her apprehensions and share her little joys.

Story: Maria is a small town girl, who supports her family single handedly. After a minor tuff with her boss, she storms out of her job only to find her family unsupportive of her decision. With pressures mounting on her from all sides (her unexpected pregnancy) – she does something dramatic – she agrees to smuggle heroine into United States as a drug mule. The rest of the story will keep you guessing.

Catalina Sandino Moreno is exceptional as Maria Alwarez in her debut feature. It is not surprising that she was nominated for the Oscars (The Oscar eventually went to Hillary Swank for Million Dollar Baby). Technically speaking – Camera is mostly handheld, and doesn’t do any gimmicks. Music is obviously South American and the background score is perfect. Debutant Writer/Director Joshua has taken time to flesh out the characters fully before jumping on to the rollercoaster of the main story. It works very well till the climax which turn out to be the weakest link of this otherwise wonderful picture.

**** (4/5)

‘Saw’ is a nail biting Indie thriller set in a single room with just 2 principle characters. One of the sleeper hits of 2004, this Australian film helmed by 27 year old debutant director James Wan, manages to keep you guessing with its riveting screenplay.

Written as an ultra low budget flick ($22,000) it got the attention of Hollywood thanks to it script. Luckily Lion’s Gate films, unlike ‘Ring’, didn’t muddle it with Hollywood ‘touches’ and unnecessary special effects. They let the film makers make the film as they intended.

As an implied terror film (much of the violence happens off-camera) it makes you more nervous. The script is very simple but has enough twists to keep your heart rate up and more importantly it plays well with your pre-conceived notions and stereotypes, then manages to outsmart you in the end. The climax is so well shot that it reminded me of Se7en (1995) and Usual Suspects (1995) but not anywhere near Se7en’s complexity nor Usual Suspects’ suavity, its still a tribute to be compared favorably with those films.

Story: Two principle characters are chained to the wall in a industrial complex bathroom with a definite purpose – they need to kill the other one to survive!. They are ordinary men, so they find it impossible to kill each other off, instead they form an alliance and try to outsmart their captor. Unlike the thrillers where we see the movie from the detectives point of view, here we see it from the victim’s point of view. It does have some sillyness usually not associated with mainstream movies – like stupid puzzles, confusing continutity and forced characterization (why does the cop go bananas?)

Technically the film is adequate. Camera is almost exclusively handheld, no expansive establishing shots, no fancy cranes/trollys. But sometimes circular camera movements are overused. The white balance seemed a bit off as the film consistently had a green cast (maybe due to fluorescent overhead lighting). Car chase scenes are shot in a static car with camera shaking (indie!) – but is effective. There is no recognizable faces except Danny Glover. One of the principle actors is one of the writers of the movie. The villain has done a good job in ‘looking’ like a villain. So no great shakes here. Music compliments the onscreen tension very well.

Direction: Debutant student director James Wan shows a lot of promise. He shows mastery in underplaying terror. He shows a natural penchant for timed terror, much like M Night, where you know something is about to happen, and you wait and wait for it, thereby heightening your anxiety. Its not a horror movie per se, as it is widely publicized – its a decent serial killer thriller.

Watch it.

**** 4/5