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Reviews
Civil War (2024)
Alex Garland writes excellent road movies
First of all, anyone who said this movie does not explain the who's-fighting-who scenario are not listening. This movie makes it quite clear. And for those who can't fathom why 2 ideologically different secessionist states would band together in flimsy alliances are simply bringing in their own political baggage into the movie theater. Some have also commented that they don't understand Lee's motivations in the movie but I think they must have missed a single line of dialogue she was sharing with Sammy earlier in the movie. And lastly people have complained about the choice of music. I get this point, but I also understand that Alex Garland is British and they love irony. Most of these twisted pieces of music are simply ironic and that's just British IMO.
Now, about the movie. It is clear that the setting of the movie is 'Apocalypse Now' except instead of the jungles in Vietnam, it is now the American backwoods as well as the urban. The warfare is very well done! The acting is also top notch - Kirsten Dunst has absolutely killed it as Lee as well as Wagner Moura as Joel. Cailee Spaeny and SMH were great as well. It is an INTENSE movie with very effective sound design as well as cinematography. The movie also is a warning for a society that has gone numb with wars in foreign places and are increasingly not heeding the warning signs in their own home.
While watching this movie, I couldn't help but see how similar its structure was to Annihilation and Sunshine, as well as to a certain extent, 28 Days Later. They're all road movies that unfold over a long journey, and that usually results in some kind of self-fulfillment of one of the character, death of some and their trip together. There's usually at least one zoom out shot of something extraordinarily messed up - in Annihilation, it was the shot of the psychedelic fungus growing out of the dead soldier's skeleton while here, it was Jessie trying to crawl out of a pit full of dead Americans with disinfectants on the bodies. There's at least one extremely violent death - be it a bear or some people being absolutely blown away by a speeding car. These scenes of extreme violence are depicted with a sense of beauty that occurs in nature - be it nature nature or human nature. Survival instincts.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Feels rushed in the final-third hour, but completes the Dune saga beautifully.
Denis Villeneuve has indeed delivered a great adaptation with Part 2. I didn't like Part 1 as much because I thought it didn't do much for us to invest in these characters - what had worked was the world building, cinematography, myth building, and art. But it still paled in comparison to Lawrence of Arabia, the story of which Herbert basically retells in the sci-fi format of Dune. With this movie, the story is finally complete, with hopes of a Dune Messiah to actually fulfill Paul Atreides' prophetic arc.
Good things about this movie: (1) Everything is of epic proportions and scale, just like its predecessor. (2) Epic scenes like Paul's worm riding. (3) Art, costume and set design. (4) The constant reminder of the self-fulfilling nature of the prophecy. (5) Zendaya's acting and using Chani as the relatable character. (6) Hans Zimmer's music was a constant throwback to some of his classics like Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. And finally, (7) although Denis being called humorless, there are quite a few funny moments in this movie!
Bad things: (1) the story being so dense and long, Denis and his editing team has had to cut some expectedly epic scenes into shorter fleeting less-than-memorable moments - all Harkonnen deaths, barring the last one, are good examples of such. (2) Rushed pacing in the final third hour of the movie, that left a rather jarring effect of the storytelling on me. (3) Extremely unbelievable dialog delivery by Chalamet and rushed ascendency of Paul in assuming his messianic destiny among the southern Fremen. Also some sketchy exposition after Paul drinks the Water of Life. Sigh.
An epic movie, in all possible ways. Not perfect, but better than most big budget movies.. except maybe Oppenheimer.
Rockstar (2011)
Ranbeer Kapoor and AR Rahman make it last forever
I first saw this movie in college. And then again, 13 years later, when modern Bollywood has improved technical abilities as well as several examples of ambitious storytelling and method acting. While I loved the originality of the story back in 2011, I could not look beyond Nargis Fakhri's acting. What lasted over these years was Ranbeer's acting chops and AR Rahman's music. I have not seen such ceaseless and effortless transition of music and big character development from one scene to the next in Indian movies before 2011 - except perhaps Rang De Basanti.
The negative, beyond Nargis Fakhri's acting and choppy dialogue writing: Imtiaz makes the audience work (this is true for a lot of his movies, except maybe Highway) - maybe that's why his movies tend to have a cult following, as it lasts longer in the memory of those who have worked to understand his vision beyond what he's actually realized on screen. The audience needs to suspend belief to (1) be able to connect Jordan's bumbling fool persona and that of the tortured artist in scenes, when RK is at his peak, as well as (2) to relate to Jordan's attachment to Heer before he falls in love with her.
Positives: What I do find easier to believe and the most powerful and original aspect of the story is that once "he's made it", the only thing keeping him steady and sane is Heer - which is a life that he's leaving behind faster than he can process. My favorite part of the movie is the second half of the movie which takes flight with the smooth transition into Jordan's infamy (Sadda Haq) and his ultimate fall after getting Heer pregnant.
If only Ranbeer didn't act sooo well in this movie, and ARR's music wasn't so good, this would've been a movie I'd have liked to seen remade with more polished edges.
Jubilee (2023)
Jubilee is good drama among several good Indian thrillers
When it comes to making period Indian films in a modern, technically-gifted Bollywood, Vikramaditya Motwane is no Dibakar Banerjee. And Jubilee is no Detective Byomkesh Bakshi. But maybe that's the whole point!
Jubilee builds on the intrigue of proto-Bollywood and does a marvelous job going about it. What I absolutely loved about the show: (1) ACTING: the actors, each and everyone of them, blew it out of the park. Especially, all the leads playing Shrikant Roy and Sumitra Devi, Binod Das, Jay Khanna and Niloufar, as well as Jamshed Khan in however short his role was. They're the ones who bring life to the series; (2) STORYTELLING: very few Indian series are able to divide the entire story into equally intriguing episodic parts, with each having the strength to sustain the storytelling of the entire season. Jubilee does that; and (3) MUSIC: I personally think that the music in this series was not only reverential to the times, but was also relevant in its own right. Something I personally don't think Qala could do, even though it's pretty good in its own right.
Now what I didn't like, or rather the parts I am ambivalent to: PRODUCTION DESIGN. Perhaps this was the whole point, given it being a story set in the film studios.. but I found the set to be too clean and sharp, which made the appearance a little fake and artificial. This was a little distracting to me initially, and I couldn't help but compare it with that seen in Dibakar Banerjee's Detective Byomkesh Bakshi, where the set itself played a major role in pulling you into the story of the movie from the very first scene.
However, that being said, I think the acting and storytelling was big enough to keep you invested till the end in Vikramaditya Motwane's ode to Bollywood history. If I have to compare it with established well-established tv series, Jubilee pulls off a similar kind of slow intrigue of a good drama as did The Crown on Netflix. Hats off, maestro!