Film-watching 2006 (2)

Taken me ages to write another one of these collection of short reviews, but having finally done with it, feels great. So here they are…

Crash (2005): ****

Its hard to point at, but definitely something bad inside you dies everytime you watch Crash. Quite a thing to say for a movie as exaggerated and as cynical of people as this is. But what the director doesn’t forget in the process is, to pay a homage to humanity. We as humans are capable of doing some of the nastiest crimes, utter some of the harshest words and yet its the same us who do the kindest and the most charitable of deeds without as much a shrug. Its one befuddling contradiction-one that can’t be resolved by any amount of debate. Is it the circumstances? The people around us? The genes? Or the upbringing? Crash tries valiantly to capture this contradiction in a microcosm of a racist LA, and succeeds.

If ever there was a book published called “The Encyclopaedia of Racism”, even that would have found itself wanting of content and emotion in front of this 110 minute video crash course. Boasting of a screenplay that’s written solely to focus on nothing but racism, the film captures almost everything–from confused communication and everyday stereotyping to victimisation in a criss-cross tale of 15 characters who experience everything from bitterness to fear to paranoia to relief thanks to each other in a span of two days in the chaotic racism-infested LA. Or so Paul Haggis would have us believe.

Its a daring attempt at film-making, but one that really leaves one wanting for more. The characters and the situations they find themselves in, despite the criminally short time-frame awarded, are real and raw with a capital R. To boot the awesome concept and direction are the realistic dialogues and an unforgettably moving background score which transports the viewer into the pain and anguish unfolding on-screen, minutes into the movie. The cascade of situations where each of them “crash” into each other brings about some of the most viscerally gut-wrenching yet totally identifiable sequences ever seen on the silver screen. When one sees a racist cop molesting a decent black woman and the same cop saving her life hours after that, its an eye-full sight of irony and humanity. Ditto when one sees a Persian shopkeeper shooting at a Hispanic locksmith and the latter’s daughter leaping that very instant on to her father, or when an otherwise cold and vexed wife of the District Attorney hugs her housemaker–possibly some of the most uplifting scenes you’ll ever see.

A deeper look and one realises that none of the sequences in this collage of a movie are there for their sentimentality value alone. Like the scene where a young cop ends up killing a black guy even though minutes ago you saw him getting disgusted over his racist partner who molested a black woman for no reason. Its a powerful scene where you, the audience, is as shocked as the shooter and the realisation of racism running unconsciously through one’s psyche is laid bare in just a few seconds of a lone close-up shot. Crash has a liberal dose of such intelligently crafted scenes yet not for a single second one’s aware of the manipulation thanks to the emotional punch the film carries from the opening shot right to the credits.

The picture just wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the splendid work each and every actor has pitched in. Towering above them all though, for me, was Sandra Bullock whose 15 or so minutes as the perennially irritated and pampered Jean in the movie filled me with so much respect for the performer in her that no amount of Miss Congenialities, Speeds and Two Weeks Notices could ever have. Thandie Newton, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe and Terrence Howard are all in full form, each stamping their presence on every second of their screen time, yet managing to remain true to their characters. For eye candy, there’s Jennifer Esposito as possibly one of the most drop-dead gorgeous female cops EVER and for humour, there’s the rapper Ludacris babbling on about how buses have big windows so white people could smirk at the coloured people travelling in them and how its more respectable to loot a white man rather than a “nigger”.

Cerebral and emotional, topical and jaw-droppingly original, this Racism for Dummies is one “crash” course you can’t afford to miss.

Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were Rabbit (2005): ** and 1/2

For the team that gave us the awesome Chicken Run five years ago, this new kiddie fest telling yet another fable of a braindead inventor and his dumb hound is a disappointment. Unlocking the mystery of the monster behind the local village’s garden destruction, the film packs in as much humour and action as an episode of Teletubbies. What saves the day however is the character of sensible Gromit whose mouthless face with nothing but the huge button eyes to express is a visual treat. Watching him head-slap, frown, roll his eyes, arch his eyebrows and getting doe-eyed is the sole reason why you don’t press the black square on your remote 30 minutes into the film. Then there’s the claymation. The ample usage of “real” objects means watching even mundane stuff like vegetables getting pulped out is quite cute. And there’s seemingly an awful lot of effort to make every character, every artifact look just that- cute in a made-from-dough, pinch-and-dent-me way. A shame then, that there just isn’t enough content to justify all the painstaking effort put in the visuals. The film just doesn’t pick up, the tired dialogue just doesn’t have that crackling British wit and except for a few puns and innuendoes here and there, it all ends with a funny but decidedly average showdown. Watch-it-and-forget-it affair!

Chicken Little (2005): ***

With every critic panning it left, right and centre this short and cute 3D animation came as a cute surprise. It packs in a lot of old-world cheese and charm reminiscent of Disney together with the wit more at home with today’s CGI animations. And it manages to do both of this, in style. If you are into contemporary Hollywood, there’s simply no way you can miss out on the terrific spoofs on almost every modern-day alien-invasion blockbusters. The best part is they never stop coming. From Signs to War of the Worlds, the chicken here loves to poke at everything alien. Even otherwise, if you look beyond what is essentially a non-stop spoof collection, the story of a chicken out on a rescue mission alongwith 3 (too cute and) nutty friends manages to grip you. Alien-invasion is new ground for CGI animation anyways and its good to see the cutie-fluffy things doing exactly what they should be doing with the genre–having fun. Just watching them playing baseball, dealing with pieces of sky falling, getting abducted by aliens, rescuing each other… its a non-stop roller-coaster that had me in splits every second minute.

Except for some cheesy, Disney moments when the chicken who everyone, even his dad, love to not believe in takes the centrestage (In true Disney fashion there’s also a song with a sulky chicken little roaming everywhere). So yea, if you are anywhere in double digit age, this redemption angle isn’t something that’ll choke you, but other than that its an hour and a quarter of fun you wouldn’t mind having.

Enigma (1999): ** and 1/2

Another of those movies that I always found on the library shelves staring at me but just couldn’t be bothered to pick up. Am a self-confessed hater of everything historical, but with so many copies on the shelves, so many fiesty Kate Winslets staring at me, no sir, I couldn’t help having a peek at it. The conclusion then–its not a bad film by any stretch of imagination. But neither isn’t a very good one. Set in a British code-breaking center circa 1943, i.e. the Second World War and following an intelligent genius (employed to break the then suddenly-changed Enigma code used by the Nazi U-boats) whose lady love has suddenly vanished, its a tale with a good enough sweep of espionage and codes in that era. But that’s a given as its adapted from the famous Robert Harris’ book. What’s worrying is that all the characters are flat. The cliched love triangle enmeshed with the history (which by the way, is grossly inaccurate anyway) is a yawn really and there really aren’t any “real” surprises in-store. What saves the day however is the awesome Winslet whose enthusiasm to go beyond the sketchy character and infuse humour doesn’t go waste. No, she isn’t the fiesty lady that’s pasted on the DVD cover, but a fat, geeky sidekick of a ball who lights up the screen everytime she enters.

Sideways (2004): *

Yet another film I was gutted to hate. And indeed, I actually ended up hating it. Alexander Payne is like the most unbelievably overhyped contemporary film-makers who, sadly the whole media is hell-bent to profess as the next best thing today to Charlie Kauffman. The sadder part, however, is that the movies he makes aren’t even average. They are crap. About Schmidt was crap. Sideways is a truckload of that, and more.

I wouldn’t have bothered rating or reviewing it, but because I knew what was coming thanks to About Schmidt, the film became bearable enough to watch. Its fun when you watch a movie only to tick away everything you don’t expect it to be. Like I didn’t expect it to be a realistic tragicomedy revolving around two men in mid-life crisis. And it wasn’t. I didn’t expect it to be even remotely as funny or remotely as profound as its projected out to be (the DVD cover is slapped with countless 5 stars by acclaimed newspaper critics, who should really be kicked hard, shot dead and have publicists written in their obituaries). And it wasn’t. I didn’t expect it to tell anything substantial in the two long hours it ran for. And it didn’t. You see the trend here? There’s a difference though. Just when you think the director couldn’t have done any worse than About Schmidt you are greeted with utterly stupid and done-to-death sequences. Like the car in which the two lead guys travel is purposely banged into a tree to cover up one of the guy’s bandaged nose (which apparently is a gift of this Asian girl who he was f*cking hard for days and who found out about his engagement).

The only really “funny” bit in the movie is sex. There are some very un-appetising sights of ungainly obese people having sex, of dialogues like “spank me hard”, of nude men running behind guys who banged their wives last night. And then there’s this bit about wine, which for those who care to listen, is some sound advice on Pinots and Cabernets and Merlots, which is the only reason I gave the movie a star. So, that’s really Sideways has on offer.. some juvenile sex humour and some “Wine-drinking for idiots”. Any takers?

Cypher (2002): *** and 1/2

Apparently, if you swear by sci-fi and you haven’t heard of Vicenzo Natali, you should hang yourself. Now. Or rush to the nearest DVD store to rent this movie. Exactly what I did. And boy, what a treat. Watching this is like playing Sudoku. The twists, the turns, the thrill, the revelations—the film hits you hard every 15 minutes. Although the premise of an unsuspecting man finding himself amidst the labyrinth of corporate espionage in his new job isn’t something that’ll set your heart racing, but slide in the DVD and get ready to be puzzled, re-puzzled, re-re-puzzled and then un-puzzled in the climax.

Its smart as hell, but sadly not swanky enough. Because Vicenzo Natali is no Spielberg, the production values are a bit naff. Though the camera angles and close-up shots are intelligently chosen to mask the tackiness, its still visible. The good news is that the terrific script and brilliant acting (Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu) are enough to forget about the visual hiccups. Fiendishly clever, this futuristic thriller is right up there with the Minority Report.

Maybe Baby (2000): ** and 1/2

Directed by the famous author, Ben Elton, this is a small British film about a couple who are trying their hardest to conceive a child with the husband also going through a writer’s block (a pain when you have to submit a fresh script to the BBC). In true British fashion, the dialogues and the acting is excellent throughout. Its the terrific, smooth verbal acrobatics that separates a good British comedy from a nasal American one (ouch! that hurt, didn’t it?!) and Maybe Baby is good proof of that. Again, not a modern day classic, but a harmless, little film chronicling a struggling couple in a tragicomedy format, and excelling in that. The climax isn’t exactly how you’d expect a typical romcom to end, but that’s where the charm of this film is.

Some Bollywood, for a change:

Rang De Basanti (2006): **

There are some bad films for which I just can’t give a cold shoulder and huff the whole experience all away with a wave of my hand. And that’s because I am bloody p*ssed off with the film-maker. Exactly what was he thinking when he wrote the final 20 minutes of this movie. For the uninitiated, it sports of a braindead climax where four modern-day guys bump off the country’s defence minister after their friend crashes alongwith his MIG aircraft (fitted with cheap spares thanks to corruption in fund allocation etc for which the minister is held responsible). The hot-blooded quad then surrenders in a radio-station where they all get brutally shot and bombed at by a police force behaving more like some counter-terrorist unit. And then comes the absolute disgrace- the film-maker goes in a self congratulatory mode and we see TV stations playing messages of “inspired” youth. He wants the audience to believe that some kind of revolution has been started. Given the success of the movie and the moolah its raking, the audience has taken the bait and everyone’s coming out of the cinema, adrenalin-filled, ready to kick some ass. Almost everyone seems swept by the idea of making the corrupt politicians stand in a line and shoot them, stab them, smack them, slap them.

I won’t start a monologue here on how things work in real life, and how worrying it is when I switch on the TV and see young kids coming out of cinemas playing RDB and shouting at the Star News camera how “cool” DJ was in killing a minister, but what I can’t help and ask is whether this film even deserved to be made? I mean, for sure, adults can see through the whole allegorical sham of killing, but what about the young teenagers?

What’s more worrying is that the film’s a big hit. And why not–its shot stylishly, it had the most hummable music, some terrific acting, fairly relatable urban characters (don’t we just love them since DCH) and some really good flitting between past and present. All of which sucks you into the on-goings so badly that when the godawful climax plays, you are bound to justify the heinous crime the lead males commit. And don’t even get me started on the parallel that the writers create of this dumb and frivolous mini-gang with the likes of Bhagat Singh and Rajguru. You continue to applaud the fantastic cinematography of the scenes of the bygone era and how neatly they sweep through the numerous events until it slowly dawns that something more shameful is about to unfold on screen. And it does. The readers who have seen the movie know what I am talking about. The climax is just bizarre. More bizarre than Rakesh Mehra’s whole of last film (Aks) put together. But then for someone who made Aks, its not a surprise that this is his idea of New-age patriotism. What’s really upsetting is someone as intelligent and as perceptive as Aamir Khan being a part of this mess.

As for me, I’d rather re-watch a Swades, a Yuva or even a Nayak than coming anywhere near this ideologically flawed (for want of more demeaning words) and repulsively stupid film.

Phew… this is turning out to be one monster post. I guess I’ll save up the rest of my mini-ops for the next batch.