Recently Seen Movies - 12- Page 13

Originally posted by: GrumpyTheCat

I hope you feel it’s worth the wait and it releases soon in India.

I didn’t mention interstellar in my review because this movie is not even 1% of what interstellar was. It’s slow mo with Brad’s closeup 80% with his monologues.

That sounds too bad :o

All these reviews on Letterboxd is perhaps making me more tempted 😃 I want to experience a well-made space film in the theater too.. hmm, I guess my dad will download it and we'll watch it at home.. but it's not fair that such a movie isn't getting a release in our country :(

Few quick updates:

My little bride (Korean)

Sweet romcom about a 15 year old kinda forced to marry a college senior and what happens after that. It's a typical cute story and the actors suited well. They were adorable. Nothing much to say but it was a one time watch. Its quite old release around 2004. so u can guess how cheesy teenage love stories were back then. But your feelings towards characters change from the 1st second to the last moment. The characters grow on you. Especially the hero.

Secret life of pets

suggested by crispsy

Finally saw the first part. I am not a dog person so not that i warmed up to max or the story intially. The animation and few songs were fantastic. There were couple of unnecessary moments which could have been chopped out. Would have loved to see more of the owners. Few animal characters are adorable. Offcourse i liked how chloe walks elegantly even after all the frequent troubles she goes through. Some of the comic moments were great but i wish there was more. However it also serves us an important message about abandoned pets and animal cruelty. Leads are nothing too extraordinary and compared to zootopia it lacks a bit storywise. But overall due to good animation it was definitely a good watch...

How come all animation movies have better music than most films lol.

Photograph:

The movie is an absolute surprise in a good way for me. Although, the movie might be painstakingly slow for some but for me it was wonderful given the premise. The class and cultural differences shown are subtly woven. Dadi , like all of thr recent Dadi characters ,is the comic relief. Very relatable situations and dialogues. There are more silences in the movie.

I wish this movie was made like how Bareily , Dreamgirl etc have been made recently. The confusion and chaos would have a lot of comic sequences .It would have been a great subject for a satirical movie. But , this is Ritesh’s style I assume. Definitely deserves a watch though. The actors have d one wonderful jobs, the direction is flawless and the situations are simplistic and uber real.

The BookShop

What a wonderful little gem of a movie. Tad Slow but worth it. It was like watching the novel unravel onscreen.

Some movies I watched, brief summaries or ramblings, I may be forgetting some things about the films :)

Laurence Always (French Canadian, 2012)

Saw the poster that had this image, and jumped right into it. And, happy I did :)

Set between late 80s to late 90s (I think), story about a man named Laurence, transitioning to a woman and his equation with everything in his life, from the woman he deeply loves to stranger's glances.

A good movie. A lot of memorable scenes that will immediately flash in my mind when I think of this film. Most particularly a scene in a classroom full of students.. Great acting performances. Visually stunning with a great soundtrack Was emotionally engaging for me... Laurence is a beautiful person.

A Heart in Winter (1992)

Loved it. This is one of those films that gives us a peak into dynamics of attraction, courtship, desire.

A movie about a mysterious man named Stephane, who seems to be unemotional or... above all the emotions(it seemed that way to me despite what he tells Camille). He doesn't want to get involved or wrapped up in anything, even in the simplest conversations, he doesn't put himself anywhere.. he just wants to remove himself.. He is someone who just doesn't want to be involved romantically even though he feels for a woman who also likes him.. for reasons known to him.. or for no reason at all. It could be because he doesn't love her enough, or he just doesn't feel that such an involvement is worth all pain and inconveniences that come with any relationship, or as I felt, he is simply above all this, or maybe he just wanted to see if he could seduce her like he said..

Whatever's Stephane may be, I loved the movie. You wonder why he doesn't speak up, what he thinks, what he feels.. and whatever it may be, I too fell in love with him like Camille (the lady protagonist) . One of the most beautiful male characters ever portrayed in cinema.

The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

Woah, such an underrated film. Or, maybe I just love it so much

The cinematography... ❤️ uff. Right from the opening scene.

The story is not very impressive, but it's the direction that makes a huge difference (Coen bro). I love this kind of film-making.. great acting performance by Billy Thornton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8AE-25r3TE

Strangers on a Train (1951)

Love opening scene... but was kinda bored throughout the film or maybe was sleepy. Decent film..

Kaminey (2009)

I loved it.. love the soundtrack.. Love the dialogues, loved the characters, loved the humor.. well-directed.. it has all the elements put together in right proportions that makes it a very pleasurable watch. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Good performances by all the characters..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKF2whlGnr4

Castaway on the Moon (2009, Korean)

SWEEEEET.

Painfully sweet.

The romance between a shut-in and a man who gets shut off from the world (who after a failed suicide attempt gets stranded on a local island that is untouched by the city surrounding it). I love how artfully it's made.. reminded me of the cute quirkiness of I'm a Cyborg but That's OK.

One of the best romantic movies ever! :) ..The ending killed me :p

A video montage of this film in a song...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58hyMeUAa4k

Tape (2001)

Watched this many weeks back, so I may not recall well.

ETHAN HAWKE is one of the most underrated actors isn't he? A very memorable performance.

So, this movie, all shot in one room, with three characters who meet after a decade or something and are forced to resolve a traumatic incident from their highschool... why, what happens, what actually happened.. watch it!!!! :p

An underrated movie.. the way the characters talk to each other, the whole highs and lows of their engagement, the changing tone of the dynamics between them.. I was thrilled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AzZ6Fop4Eg

Like Someone in Love (Japanese, 2012)

I'll just copy-paste a synopsis here ..watched it many days ago..

An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him, he thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home, she offers him her body. But the web that is woven between them in the space of twenty four hours bears no relation to the circumstances of their encounter.

..I loved this movie for the way it's shot.. the first 10-15 minutes at coffee shop is one of the most stupendously crafted scenes ever.. It's worth many re-watches for those first few minutes and the ending. A beautiful movie overall. :) And beautifully directed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0cykyKMvE0

Article 15.

It's a disturbing movie to watch, and thank God it had a kind of happy ending. Must watch for every Indian.

Dear Comrade.

A good , quite lengthy, but an entertaining film. I enjoyed it. Good performances by the leads, Vijay and Rashmika.Nice songs and their chemistry was good too.Vijay D was the star for me.A different kind of love story. Loved the communist parts too.Now wait for it to be ruined by Dharma.

Rangasthalam, now this is how you make a great masala action flick.

It is such a well shot and well narrated movies, not even for a second I felt it was dragged. Also Ram Charan was surprisingly excellent, Samantha as always gorgeous and apt for the role. I really liked the guy who played Ram.Charan's side kick, very well.done character. His brother was also.done in a very good manner. Prakash Raj.and Jagapati Babu are as always seamless.

Oh and Pooja Hedge item.number is hwat.

The Walking Dead S9

I was late to the Walking Dead fandom. A few coworkers convinced me a few years ago and I was hooked. Based on the comic books of the same name, but deviating periodically, the Walking Dead is a very classic zombie series. It featured great writing and some amazing character development. For a long time, it worked, making The Walking Dead one of the most exciting shows.

A couple of years ago things started changing. The show got repetitive. Rick's character got static. Negan's gratuitous violence without a lot of character building put off some viewers. It lost the ability to engage. Part of it may have been showrunner Scott Gimple's divided attention between Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. So at the end of S8, Scott Gimple was replaced by Angela Kang.

The first half of S9 is a trudge. It continues with the same laborious pace and repetitiveness of the previous two seasons. The same character behaviors and the same conflicts. I almost would have stopped watching if I didn't know of the jolt the show was going to get. Angela Kang did the unthinkable. She killed of protagonist Rick Grimes. A few seasons ago I would have considered this a shocking crime. But it was the best thing to do when a character stopped having a growth arc. That death with a time jump gave the show the right infusion to live again.

The second half is almost like a brand new show. Judith Grimes is spunky, spirited, and a whole lot more complex than Carl Grimes was. The rapport between her and Negan is surprisingly well done. Negan not only becomes a sort of father figure to her but he actually develops fatherly affection for her. Untainted by the past she sees the world from a fresh perspective. Carol goes through another evolution settling down as Ezekiel's wife. Tara and Gabriel rise into leadership. Daryl starts featuring again. Michonne is the only one without a reset, but her stubbornness eventually has a great backstory of betrayal.

The whisperers are perhaps the most sinister villains so far. If you reflect into the past The Terminus didn't need to show cannibalism to make your stomach lurch. We don't see a lot of gore but the Whisperers still will make you shudder with their animalistic behavior. We don't need to see the abusive behavior, Lydia's psychological damage is enough insight as to how cruel Whisperers can be. And the heads on stakes don't have the blood-curdling crunch of bashing skulls - but have a far greater impact. Overall the latter half is a key lesson in the fact that good storytelling goes much further than shock and awe visuals.

I do have some gripes though. The highwaymen seemed to be a pointless distraction and cannon fodder. Tara was slowly honing her leadership skills. I would have loved to see her grow into the badassery of Carol or Michonne. The Rosita-Gabriel romance just didn't connect.

I'm curious what Season 10 holds. The Whisperer war will definitely come to head. Some have called for Walking Dead to end on a high with season 10. I will be fine with that. I won't mind seasons 11 & 12 either. Just as long as they don't go the repititive route. And oh please don't let Michonne devolve into a Rick 2.0

SIMMBA (2018)

- Awful. I had to mute most of it and skip just to see Queen Ali Khan's performance (which lasts about 5 minutes)

ARJUN PATIALA (2019)

- The fun soundtrack almost keeps you going but the film is an utter mess. Kriti Sanon shines in every scene which is a joy. Diljit is cute but the screenplay bores..

SONATA (2017)

- I reallllllly wanted to like this film. 70% of the film goes by and nothing happens. Shabana Azmi mouths her dialogues as if she is reading them from a phone with a broken screen. What a waste of talent. It's a short film but felt like 3 hours+.

NOTEBOOK (2019)

- This was surprisingly good. Performances were really impressive. Very surprised. Cinematography of beautiful locations is lovely. Story is a little old school but it's cute enough to keep you going without skipping/muting/checking your Grindr.

Bard of Blood :

After watching Manoj Bajpai one this looked severely fake. If I wanted to watch Jack Bauer, I would watch 24. Emraan is strictly average and Shobita is wooden just like how she was in Made in Heaven. Ruined both the series.

Vineet kumar is phenomenal. He has made me his fan From Mukaabaaz to Sand ki Aankh to this . He nails every role like a boss.