It is a difficult deal for films that attempt to picture the loss of innocence – especially where there are children and teenagers robbed of their basic right to be themselves. These stories agitate and sadden us while imparting what might simply be an uncomfortable social reality. Filmmaker Tabrez Noorani’s […]
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‘The Predator’ review – Uninventive and just plain exasperating
The Predator franchise is one, for some bizarre reason, swifts back-and-forth from singular to plural titles while also not deviating much from their respective subject matters. The first edition that came in 1987 is one that will remain quite a guilty pleasure for many a film lover for just being […]
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‘Deadpool 2’ review – Wittier, sassier, and undeniably better than the prequel
For starters, I am no fan of the first edition of Deadpool which sort of gobsmacked every superhero movie junkie in his gut. Before you know it, the film makes you realize how it was him and not the hackneyed plot or the soupy romantic angle that burnt the screen […]
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‘Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring’ review – a silent volcano
Stillness. How long can you take it? For what period can you be at the same place, doing nearly the same thing? Is seeking worldly pleasures a sin? What are the experiences? What are the bounds that we, as human beings, ought to adhere to? What is forgiveness and who […]
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‘Avengers: Infinity War’ review – an overlong space epic where the villain leads the pack
A magnum opus that contains several of the MCU heroes, complete with overpowering visuals. A villain with an identity and rock solid stakes. The brief for Avengers: Infinity War would be tempting for a screenwriter. How do we include them all and still mete justice to each? Not to mention […]
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‘Call Me By Your Name’ review – a screenwriter’s triumph
Adapted by James Ivory from André Aciman’s novel by the same name, Call Me By Your Name beams with the kind of lyricism that we saw in the movie mogul’s erstwhile films. Ivory’s cinema had simple premises projecting complicated emotions, most often sans gargantuan production values. As a writer, the […]
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‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ review – an angry mother is all it takes
What difference can a billboard make? And three of them? That too along a lonely road leading to the sleepy town of Ebbing in Missouri. Well, it does for Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand). She has lost her daughter Angela over an instance of rape by an unidentified miscreant. And she […]
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‘Lady Bird’ review – Greta Gervik sets new standards for coming-of-age cinema
It’s quite a familiar trajectory in cinema but one of my favourite moments in Lady Bird is when Christine’s (Saoirse Ronan) prom-date Kyle (Timothée Chalamet) suggests that they ditch the event once they’re all up for it. She signals him to drop her off at her estranged friend Julie’s (Beanie […]
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‘Apostasy’ review – a distressing portrait of family ties and rigid orthodoxy
Jehova’s Witnesses – One Christian denomination that’s been generating curiosity in me for long. Even in India where Christianity is a minority and Witnesses even fewer in number, it has always intrigued me on how they indulged in door-to-door preaching and pamphlet distribution, both of which involved pretty direct religious […]
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‘Redoubtable’ review – a stylish retro piece that Godardians will lap up instantly
Michel Hazanavicius’s Redoubtable is manna from heaven for Jean-Luc Godard fanboys. Be it the lead character Godard’s somewhat toxic rebellion or his own erroneous ideas about a Marxist society, the film spectacle the transitional years in the veteran filmmaker’s life. Set amidst the New Wave Movement that took place in […]