127 Hours- Movie Review – Brilliance

Last night I  decided to watch 127 hours. After learning about the Oscar nominations it received I was prompted  to go and see what the big deal is all about.  Plus it was the return of the duo of Danny Boyle & AR Rahman who won Oscars in bulk. One confession I would like to make that as much as I hated Slumdog Millionaire, that much I was keen to watch this movie. Because I had a feeling that this will bring me back to be Danny Boyle’s fans list. And yes it did.

127 Hours’ is a gripping real-life account of climber Aron Ralston’s struggle to survive after his arm is trapped under a boulder. It shows five-day struggle of a man to survive in the Great Canyon. The movie is an adaptation of Between a Rock and a Hard Place- true account of Ralston’s having his arm lodged beneath a boulder. Boyle apparently has stuck with the facts and hasn’t added anything in story except the brilliant screenplay and brilliantly convincing performance from James Franco.

The movie dates back in 2003, where Ralston is an extreme sports enthusiast who goes . He goes hiking every weekend and just like every weekend he goes out hiking in the beautiful Blue John Canyon. He doesn’t tells anybody where is going.  There he meets two attractive women hikers who invites him to their party later on. Aaron’s  date with destiny starts with a dangerous climb where he gets trapped. His supply of food and water is running out. With a small  pocketknife with him Ralston begins a five day ordeal where he goes through flashbacks of his life, his dreams about the party, his dream about escaping,  his family,  his childhood, friends and the two hikers he met before getting trapped, importance of people in life and finally cutting off his arm.

Boyle captures the process and the build up to to the moment where Ralston flirts with the idea of chopping his right arm off for a couple days till the finally does it.  Danny Boyle goes into the head of the Ralston and shows every detail of what’s going on in the trapped guy’s head.  From Ralston’s excitement to his desperation, everything has been shown in a brilliant way.

Franco’s performance as Aaron Ralston is brilliant, gripping and convincing. Franco lives up to the life of the adventurer and a desperate man to get out of a trapped place. The way he tries to get free from that boulder to start shooting himself as a TV show host is just superb. The performance is believable and harrowing. I could hear the OOMPHs and Uffs by the women around when he cuts off his hand.  Now I am not eligible to comment on a master like AR Rahman. All I can say he has given a fantastic background score far better than Slumdog. The track If I rise is a fluid mix of many genres, the soundtrack album combines Rahman’s music with pieces by Free Blood, Bill Withers, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Esther Phillips, and Sigur Ros. A.R. Rahman captures the emotional intensity and pace of this film in the sounds he creates. The soundtrack is already being discussed as a clear front-runner for Best Soundtrack at the Academy Awards.

127 hours is a thriller which shows the pain, both physically and mentally of a trapped man. Danny Boyle shows why he is the master of genres with brilliant story plot, screenplay, editing and story telling.  The movie is visually quite compelling which is one of the strong parts of the movie. James Franco’s performance is commanding and convincing which puts up in the list of front runners for Oscar’s.  The movie and the performance will keep you gripped, make you take a deep breathe, a sigh of relief  and yeah not move at all. A must watch for the year after The Social Network.

Rating 4.5 out of 5

See the Trailer of the movie here -

When You’re Strange – Review- Unique and Different

Being a fan for sometime now, I like to see what other filmmakers think about Jim Morrison. Forty years after his death, Morrison still fascinates people. And its not because of his lifestyle, behavior, his songs or his poems but even his untimely death. Morrison alongwith Doors tried to change the world and the society through music and this documentary  ”When You’re Strange” recounts the legacy of the “The Doors” and Jim Morrison brilliantly. Using archival and backstage footage, the film shows all the chaos, change,  and integration of the band’s roots and rocky ride with then-current society.

I always felt I had some view on the band but this documentary gave me a new perspective. Unlike other movies on him, Morrison has been treated like a human being here. The documentary shows Jim as a person evolving over time. The history of the band is subtly told with some of the narrative retells information that the band’s devotees have known for decades, like the origin of the name “The Doors”, a reference to Aldous Huxley’s 1954 book “The Doors Of Perception” etc. There are few information which can amuse new fans like the very first song Robby Krieger wrote was “Light My Fire”.

The film has a choppy, unique structure with quite a lot of symbolic significance. The never-before-seen visuals, Morrison’s on-stage performances and backstage personality etc is extremely interesting. The music suits the whole narration.  The movie/documentary shows a chronological look at everything from the formation of the band in 1965, to it’s first gigs, and first album, to Morrison’s death, after years of alcohol and drug abuse. As the story moves on, we see archival footage of rehearsals, performances, and private moments including a Miami concert resulting in Morrison’s arrest and trial for indecency.

Overall after watching Oliver Stone’s movie about Morrison, I believe this one was a good change and a different version direction wise. The movie has been nominated at a lot of film festivals and was the winner at Sundance.  A must watch for a film student and also for Morrison fans

Rating- 4.5 out of 5

The Doors Movie- A Masterpiece – Movie Review

The Doors- movie talks about rise and early fall of the great Jim Morrison. And I can now say I can’t recall a film that evokes the era of drugs, sex, rock n roll more potently than this.  Directed by Oliver Stone starring Val Kilmer as Morrison & Meg Ryan as his companion, The Doors goes ahead than the time of drugs and sex to Morrision thinking about death and life. The movie shows change in Morrison or “Mr. Moji Rising’ from a fascinated guy to a narcissist and getting involved in psychedelic drugs pulling his group mates in it too.

The movie shows Morrison from his days as a film student in UCLA to his death in Paris in 1971, at the age of 27. The movies boasts of impressive performance by Val Kilmer, who not only looks like Jim Morrison but also sounds like him. It has been written that even the surviving Doors had trouble distinguishing Kilmer’s vocals from Morrison’s originals.Johnny Depp , John Travolta, Bono were also said to be considered for Jim’s role but Val Kilmer was landed and Man..what a performance he delivers.

The film opens during the recording of Morrison’s and quickly moves to a childhood memory of his family. We see a four year old Jim with his parents as they drive by an accident.  Several Native Americans are injured, some dying. In Morrison’s account the spirit of a dying Indian leapt into him – it was his life’s pivotal moment. The film picks up with his introduction to his girlfriend Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan) and his first encounters with Ray Manzarek, and the origin of The Doors: Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore.

Morrison convinces his bandmates to travel to valley of death and experience the mind-expanding effects of drugs. In one of the films mesmerizing sequences where the band trips out in the desert, flying high on peyote. Morrison imagines he sees  his spiritual guide whom her follows him into a cave — the unknown. Morrison believed in a “long prolonged derangement of the senses to attain the unknown.‘The Doors’ refers to William Blake’s quote: “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.”

Slowly as The Doors become hugely successful, Morrison became narcissist as he sunk deeper into an alcoholic haze he begins having several affairs, especially with a rock journalist practising witchcraft. Off-stage Morrison’s prolonged assault on his own psyche begins to take its toll – in his relationship with Pam, with his fellow Doors, and finally with fans. By the time Doors made ‘L.A. Woman’ – their last album – Morrison was smoking 5 packs of cigarettes a day. By 19721 he parts on good terms with The Doors. He flies off with his love interest to Paris where he spends the last few months of his life. One  1971 morning — Pam founds Jim in his bathtub. It is said that the death is due to heart failure.

The cinematography in “The Doors” is excellent which includes some early Computer Graphics, is bold and unique making the film one of the most distinct visual films. The music supports the story telling very well. The movie focussed on Morrison’s habit of self destruction of which not many people approved of. Stone shows Morrison’s madness in such a way that one will start thinking what is he doing. Val Kilmer is simply brilliant in the role of Morrison. He sang all of the live tracks on the film and it’s even said that even Morrison’s own band-mates had trouble distinguishing Kilmer’s voice. Kilmer spent a year dressing like Morrison, hanging out at his old haunts on Sunset Strip. The story is well supported with good supporting star cast and some very good editing which takes the movie to another level as such. This is one of the movies where you don’t recognise Meg Ryan but her character Pam more.

Overall it’s a strong attempt at one of the most difficult subjects to cover, legends and that also like Morrison. And even though it’s not entirely accurate I enjoyed the film. Oliver Stone focuses on the wrong things. Sure, Jim Morrison was an alcoholic with a disregard for authority, yes he was on self destruct mode and burnt out quickly, but he was also a very intelligent, sensitive, friendly and funny person. This is far from the picture most people have of him after seeing the movie. Barring the creative storytelling at places, this film is truly a gem. The USP here is that it is visual-audio as opposed to audio-visual showing the beauty of cinema here. I actually was depressed after this movie..but I didn’t wanted it to end.

Director: Oliver Stone

Stars: Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan

Rating – 4.5 out of 5

The Social Network – Movie Review

I was feeling bad that I couldn’t watch The Social Network at the Mumbai Film Festival, but thanks to my luck, I got a chance to see a special screening tonight. Like a school kid, I was as excited as anyone else to see one of the most anticipated movies of the year. So once in a lifetime there are inventions which changes things. I believe Facebook has been one of these crazy internet inventions.  The Social Network captures the journey of the youngest Billionaire in the world and creating the one of the most talked about online invention I think after Google. My main worry about the movie was will it live up to the hype?? Will it be as good as the Facebook itself ? Let’s see

When I saw the trailer for the movie I was like Seriously? ? but now I think Seriously. The movie centers on Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook. So the movie starts with an discussion which pulls you in it and then you get involved immediately. Zuck  gets spurned by the girl he was dating and goes back to his room, gets drunk, and built a site Facemash that allows people to rank the attractiveness of women. The site gets so much traffic that night that it crashes Harvard’s network. The site becomes an instant hit and Mark is suspended for six months. The brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss gets interested in getting Mark to develop Harvard Connection. Mark joins them but is gets disinterested and decides to create his own social network  with “Thefacebook”. He starts the site with his friend Eduardo and the site goes live becomes an instant hit. The meets Napster’s creator and then his life changes slowly.

The whole story is interspersed with scenes of Zuckerberg being sued in two separate lawsuits . The way the movie moves is very impressive. It is so thrilling and captivating as if you feel you are actually witnessing it and you can’t miss a dialogue.  As the movie tag line says you don’t make 1 million friends without making few enemies, they show the good and bad side of Mark. The film shows Mark Zuckerberg in a bad light too which is why I think Mark didn’t endorsed the film.

The acting is very much believable especially Jesse Eisenberg playing as the founder of Facebook.  He suffers from impulse control and blogs impulsively (like me ). His jottings gets him in trouble time and time again. Jesse plays the character flawlessly. He is argumentative, abrupt, and has his own way of dealing with people. The other supporting cast is equally good. David Fincher does a good job with the movie, and takes out strong performances from the supporting cast too notably Andrew Garfield who is equally good as Zuckerberg’s best friend Eduardo Saverin, who later suffers the ultimate betrayal. Justin Timberlake does justice to his role of Sean Parker- The Napster founder.

In short The Social Network is about a geek who creates a website and finds out what greed and ambition can do. The film is very well edited and keeps on cutting back and forth between locations and timelines to keep you glued. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and Director David Fincher team up to create an engrossing story about a struggle of a geek to be known and belong to people. The movie is one heck of an entertainment.

Rating- 4.5 Out of 5

Turtles Can Fly- Ghobadi’s Masterpiece

I have seen a lot of post-war movies…A lot of children films and a few of of Iranian movies. But haven’t seen something like “Turtles Can Fly“. Directed by Bahman Ghobadi, Turtles Can Fly is a story of few children in a small Iraqi village where a small industrious boy names “Satellite” with his group of small children collect land mines & sell it to the black market. The movie is set in Post Saddam Hussain era. Satellite falls for an orphan  girl traveling with her disabled brother who appears to have the gift of clairvoyance. The siblings care for a toddler, whose connection to the pair is discovered as harsh truths are revealed.

Ghobadi has brilliantly shown issues from a view point of children who live it everyday, who observe it everyday and who is ready to tell the tale to the world. The filmmakers have used children brilliantly to tell the tragedy which helps them tell the tale more effectively. The film has a beautiful storyline with real performances. And the children perform everything with a  charm. Cinematography is serene and breathtaking with the handheld cameras. Scenes are simple yet moving. there is a scene when Satellite installs a giant satellite dish so the town can watch FOX News for war updates. The movie has hidden messages in it. Even the scene when the elders express embarrassment & disgust after catching a glimpse of prohibited channels such as MTV. It shows the under reported world of Kurdish lifestyle.

In his director’s statement, Ghobadi explains what he tried to obtain with this movie: “Just as the world TV networks were announcing the end of the war, I began to make a film whose leading stars were neither Bush, nor Saddam, nor any other dictators. Those people had been the media stars. Nobody mentioned the Iraqi people. There hadn’t been a single shot of the Iraqis. They were mere extras.” And he does that here beautifully. It’s a satire which is dark,  powerful & moving.  Right from the opening scene where we watch the young girl walk in bare feet to the razor blade edge of the cliff hoping she does not fall. The wind moans in our ears, dusty pebbles shift under her apprehensive steps, and her dark eyes search the hollow space behind her. She returns her gaze to the desolate canyon before her, and draws her feet to the precipice sharpened with snow. And no, she does not fall into the careening abyss. She jumps. The director shows in the beginning that nothing in this movie will be uplifting.

The movie is all about choices. Everybody makes them accordingly. Poor kids have nothing to do, nowhere to go, they make a choice of selling land-mines rather than living in misery. Ghobadi make a choice of which we are shown in the beginning & also in the end. Nothing about the film is pretty. But still it will move you. Watch this for a change. A change from every day crap and brainless movies. Watch this and try understanding the underlying meaning Gobadi wants to convey.   A movie as painful but equally beautiful it can be.

Rating- 5 Out of 5