Due to plenty of reasons, could not watch any movie in the past few weeks. Now that I can, have caught up a few of them over the past week.
In the order I liked them....
The Crowd (1928)
This is essentially a simple film. We would have watched almost every sequence of the film in one form or another in Indian films. While there are no surprises in store with regards to the plot, it was
surprising how well it works as a silent film from 85 years ago. After all the core human emotions captured on screen (with good acting on the part of lead actors, I might add) still are valid and can be related to today as they were in the last century.
The movie looks at a face in the crowd, a common man - Johnny Sims. The constant factor throughout the film is how his joys are always experienced as part of the crowd, whereas his tragedies are suffered alone. There is a scene at the beginning of the film where young Sims is happily chatting away with his friends. Then, ambulance arrives and a large crowd gathers at the door step of his house. Young Sims slowly climbs the stairs alone and stands at the top when he is told that he needs to be brave as his father is ill.
One of my favorite sequences in the film happens around the 40 minute mark. Right after the scene where we are shown how Sims are happy despite troubles during Christmas (Johnny and Mary's family do not see eye to eye), we cut to April where they are fighting over each and every trivial matter. Sims is about to leave for his job when the wife, Mary learns that she is pregnant. The emotions shift yet again to one of love and care on the part of Sims. I don't think I'd have loved the 'cheesy' shifts had it been filled with dialogues or was 'acted out'. May be because of the low expectations or may be because I was in a corny, forgiving mood or just may be King Vidor's film is still great after all this time, any way, this was the only satisfying check mark in my book for the week. Others were slightly below it!
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the film as it was a black comedy about a bipolar patient. Though it slips down the slope and becomes yet another one of those cheesy, predictable 'rom-coms' towards the end, I largely forgave it because of what happened before that. Bipolars who woke people in the middle of the night were more interesting than sobered up dancers
But, I just had to de-link the idea that it was nominated for an Oscar or Jennifer Lawrence won one for this role. Somehow, "Academy" and me differ a lot in our tastes. Sigh!
A Moment to Remember (2004)
Let's see...
I hate romantic films - Check
I hate tear-jerkers - Check
I hate cheesy dialogues - Check (at least going by the sub titles)
I especially hate when such films run over 100 mins - Check
With the Director's Cut clocking at 146 mins, there was every reason for me to hate this film. Yet, I ended up sitting through the film, which by itself is an achievement. It somehow just works! I wish to see the original theatrical cut (117 min run time) which may be a bit more tighter in narrative.
The Chaser (2008)
I have watched a handful of Korean films ("I saw the Devil", Vengeance trilogy) which are violent, at times disturbing, yet enjoyable. Chaser is a good film, though not at the level of intensity of the others. What I liked about this film is that the antagonist is just a psycho - as simple as that. Without a back story or glorification of his actions, he felt like a more realistic threat than some other on screen villains. It's slightly more dramatic in phases than I'd have liked, but works well overall.
I did not like "The Yellow Sea" from the same director as much as 'Chaser', though it had lot more axing and knifing.
Foreign Correspondent (1940) - Hitchcock at his usual well paced self. May not be one of his widely known films, but pretty good watch once you suspend disbelief.
A History of Violence (2005) - Too straight forward for a Cronenberg movie, but an interesting one (I don't mind the 'slow' pace at all).
Capote (2005)- Good transformation by Philip Seymour Hoffman into Truman Capote. But, I lacked an emotional disconnect with the movie, especially towards the end.
), but this was totally, entirely something different, which hooked me right from the begining .....
smiley.
