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Reviews
The Willoughbys (2020)
Put one more movie in your catalogue of feel-good movies.
Based on one of a funny satirical book by Lois Lowry under the same name, Kris Pearson's animated movie 'The Willoughbys' is now streaming on Netflix. This is a story of four siblings who are abandoned by their parents for having childish needs like food, sweater, love and taking in an orphan. Thinking that they'd be great off themselves, they decide to orphan themselves. Guess how did it turn out for them? Well, nothing like you or they would have thought.
This movie is one of the very few animated movies that do justice to the genre Comedy throughout. The side characters, Nanny and the commander Melanoff feel like a necessary balance to the cynical kids. They are intimidating but kind to the kids. The narration by a despondent blue cat keeps you on the edge of your seat, may it be the disclaimer in the beginning or through all the tragic scenes as the movie advances. The movie is funny and delightful with great visuals, may it be a factory scene at Melanoff's or at the unclimbable Alp. It is a treat to watch with all its rainbow-tinged cinematography and cartoons as pretty as some shiny toys popped just out of a box. The best part of this movie is its film score, may it be the heart-warming song 'I choose', lovely music during the stirring scenes or the upbeat hip-hop that adds all the more fun to the chaotic scenes. The music keeps you engaged in a way you won't even know. If you haven't read the book and expect nothing from this movie, trust me on how this movie has a lot to offer. This uplifting dark comedy is a must watch.
About Time (2013)
One of its kind.
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Fantasy, Drama.
'About Time' is the story of a man who at the age of 21 discovers that all men in his family could time travel and he lives the rest of his life changing things that didn't go well as he wanted them to. This includes, getting his first girlfriend, helping Harry, finding his true love, Mary, making everything go perfect between them in multiple trials, saving his sister from an accident and then undoing it, meeting his father even after he died and everything in between these. Richard Curtis, well-known for his heartfelt movies like Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jone's Diary and much more, did an extremely pleasing work with this movie too. This was the kind of rom-com that had equally-balanced humor along with romance. The background score of the movie made watching the movie as if I was star-gazing. I could just go on and on for hours. Tim (Domnhall Gleeson) was the main character. Mary (Rachel McAdams), Tim's Dad (Bill Nighy), Mom (Lindsay Duncan), Kit Kat, his sister (Lydia Wilson), Uncle Desmond (Richard Cordery) and few other supporting actors made the cast for this movie.
Tim and Kit Kat were the kind of siblings everyone of us has; pulling legs and watching their backs at reasonable phases of life. Kit Kat helps Tim get Mary when he once lost her for his friend, Harry, while Tim made sure he was there for Kit Kat when she met with a terrible accident after having a huge fight with her boyfriend, Jimmy, with whom she sort of had an abusive relationship and also made her undo all her wrong partner choices with his time travelling ability. He was also there to make Kit Kat feel good when she said- I am the faller of the family, and felt miserable.
Uncle Desmond was a very sweet character to go with. I fell for him when he told Tim when they all knew about Tim's Dad's cancer-
'At your wedding he said he loved me. That was the best day of my life, so this is probably the worst.'
It showed how much he loved his brother.
Mary, on the other hand, was an assistant at a publisher and did reading for a living. She was an insecure woman who is obsessed with Kate Moss. I like how Mary isn't shown a perfect always-feel-good character. She almost had me when she told Tim's Mom-
'Well, I'm very insecure.
I, um, I've a very bad temper sometimes.'
It almost felt like a personal attack to me.
The best supporting actor is ofcourse, Nighy, who played Tim's Dad. His character is a wise above middle-aged man. He guided Tim on how to use his time travelling power in the real sense to live life to the fullest. He had all the qualities a son would look in his father, so much love and care, and also a bit Dad-humor. Tim, the main lead, was a kind man. He loved his family and his wife and kids. He always wanted to do everything perfect by going back in the moment again and again. But, by the end he realizes, that's not how you live, live life to moments, and you won't ever have to travel back to correct things. The movie has a mixed ending, sad and happy. Tim's dad dies, but eventually the family becomes fine. For the happy part, Tim and Mary live happily ever after with three of their kids.
I had lost the thing I always had for happy endings, but I found myself falling for it this time like a kid. Suddenly, I could believe in all the happiness that just exists and might cross paths with our lives at atleast some point of time.
The heart of the movie, is ofcourse, father-son relationship. In all, it's a sweet-sour movie that provokes questions and leaves you in happy-tears at the end.
The Shape of Water (2017)
I couldn't find a reason to rate it 9.
After watching this movie, I couldn't resist myself from falling in love with Guillermo del Toro's direction and screenplay skills. I feel contrite about not knowing this man and his movies before this one. About the story, it weaves an unusual romance and thriller between a mute girl, Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) and Amphibian Man, called the 'asset', a creature from the water. (Doug Jones) Elisa works as a cleaner at a secret government laboratory along with Zelda Delilah (Octavia Spencer), a co-worker and a friend who's also shown as her interpreter. Elisa lives next door to Giles. (Richard Jenkins) Giles is a struggling artist. Giles and Zelda are the only people Elisa has in her life. The movie is set in Baltimore, in '62. The story progresses as one day a creature, the asset is brought in the laboratory under the custody of Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), a US Colonel who thinks of this creature as an affront to God. Dr. Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg) is considered in the laboratory to study this creature. He along with Zelda and Giles helps Elisa who has by now fallen in love with this creature, to take asset out from the laboratory as Strickland wants to vivisect this creature instead of giving time to the Dr. to study it. She keeps asset with her and decides to leave it in the canal when rains begin. A night before, Strickland knows about it and starts searching for Elisa. Zelda warns her about it and thus she runs away with asset near the canal and they both jump into the water while the narrator shows their perplexed happily ever after. About characters, Elisa was an overhanging character. One character that I can never forget. She is portrayed as a mute and an orphan girl. She finds herself incomplete. That's the reason she starts finding love in the asset when she looks at it for the first time. After that, she starts bringing him eggs and plays music for him. When she comes to know about Strickland trying to harm asset, she makes a plan with Giles to take it with her. She keeps it in the bath-tub and visits her often. Toro then shows their intimacy where the movie gears up. Giles, as a character is a resentful oldman, but a great friend and Elisa's confidant. The movie also has an element of humor, when Zelda talks about her husband or when Giles and Elisa watch TV in his appartment. Strickman, on the other hand is a very intense character and an arrogant Colonel. After Elisa, he is the second best character written. All the characters, no matter how minor, were well written and better executed. Toro's par excellence directing skills and Sally's acting that transcends beyond voice is something that makes this movie stand out of the usual Hollywood boxes. Doug Jones's glare aptly justifies the most striking dialogue of the movie- 'When he looks at me, he doesn't know I am incomplete. He sees me as I am.' Doug hadn't much to do than make sublime eye contacts which he did profusely well. The movie will surely bring back some memories of 'The Beauty and The Beast' and 'King Kong', but trust me, this movie is a lot more than what you think it is. You can watch all the Elisa-Asset scenes a trillion times and still fall in love with them again and again. This is the kind of movie that remains with you for the rest of your life. This movie is just magic and romance beyond all norms.
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)
Watch at your own risk.
For someone who has always loved Pokémon throughout his childhood, this movie was a bit on the disappointing side. The movie had nothing of the sort like every Pokémon fan has lived with through his childhood, but instead shows a story of how Tim (Justice Smith) and Pikachu team up to find his Dad after his pronounced death. Tim as a character was well crafted, but the supporting cast didn't have much to do. The movie would have been a huge disappointment had it not been for how Reynold portrayed the back-stage of one of the most loved and acclaimed character of all times, Pikachu and some of the twists, though majority of them being already anticipated. I would wait for the sequel already announced by the makers in hope that they do all the justice to one of the most celebrated animated series of our childhood.
Photograph (2019)
Batra lands right again.
After being impressed by Ritesh Batra's Lunchbox and his style of cinema, I knew that this man is going to have something unique in his every movie. The movie stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra and Farrukh Jaffar in major roles. I don't think that the casting could have been better. One thing about the cast though
-I personally found Jim Sarbh's role a little insignificant for an acclaimed actor like him.
Regarding characters, Nawaz was not disappointing with his acting and did what he always does, an above average justice to his character. I consider Miloni's (Sanya Malhotra) character to be the best written amongst all and also well executed by her. The one actor who took her character on another level only with her acting was Farrukh Jaffar. It was a treat to watch her. Until her, I could never believe someone acting beside Nawaz subjugating him. If there has to be a single reason to watch this movie, it is her acting and her comic timing and dialogue delivery.
The story doesn't droop on a classic romance, instead shows a story between a struggling road-side photographer and a CA student from an upper-middle class Gujarati family, two completely different worlds. The story shows how sometimes people can want only so much from life and yet that can be completely different for different people. Ritesh Batra is known for developing characters that are relatable to a mass somehow, and this time too, he created such character, Miloni. She is a soft-spoken, a yes-girl who has no opinions of her own, who is pulled from her dream of becoming an actor and peer pressured into doing CA. A lot out there, right? I also liked how smartly Batra ended the movie. Ben Kutchins did a great job with his cinematography showing beautifully the slums and the fast-running city together. Some stills from the movie were really outstanding. In all, this movie is not a Masala Romantic, but is appealing in its own way.
There can be only two reasons to not have liked this movie. One, somehow the detailings to the characters were incomplete and second, the movie was bit slow at a few places. Had it not been compensated by exquisite acting, the movie wouldn't have turned out to be the way it did. Otherwise, I would recommend this movie to every cinema lover who understands Batra's poetic and eccentric film-making skill.