Movie Reviews

This will probably be a little boring but I wanted to get these reviews out there. I've enjoyed watching these movies and one in particular, which I finished watching last night, was one of the best films I've seen in years.

#1. "Water", from India, the last movie in the Deepa Metha trilogy. Absolutely fantastic! A triumph. Set in 1938 India, the story revolves around Indian traditions re. marriage and widowhood. Hindu fundamentalist believe that in life, a married woman is one half his husband's body,....and in death, she is one half his husband's corpse. These widow's live lives of self denial,...an ascetic's life of abject poverty and segregation....an Untouchable, never to remarry, simultaneously ostricized and virtued. Apparently, even to this day, there are over 40 million women living in this manner. The most heartbreaking aspect of this tradition relates to the once common arranged marriage between older men to very young girls,...not uncommonly to girls around 7-9. And in a third-world country with nearly a billion people, it is not uncommon to have 7 year old child widows, doomed to spend the rest of their lives in misery and poverty.
Anywayz, that's the subject. Re. the Direction, WOW. The best way to put it is that this film truly captures the "Beauty in the world and the despair within it,.....and vice versa". The cinematograpy is gorgeous,.... and the camera work, like the soundtrack, is completely unobtrusive...utterly observant. The pacing is hyper patient and without the annoying backdrop of a contrived soundtrack, provides the film-watcher the opportunity to sink deeply into the emotions within the moment. This movie blew me away the way "City of God" and "Amores Perros" blew me away. This movie will win best foreign film without a doubt.

#2. "Volver", from Spain. Nothing epic, just a small story about the lives of several generations of women and their complex relationships. It's one of those movies where by the end of it, you simply want it to go on. The director is soo adept at providing an environment where the viewer soo strongly identify with the characters that you simply do not want the movie to end. And the director reminds me of what they said about Walt Witman,...the uncanny ability to write with clarity about a women's sensibility, but through the adorning eyes of a man.

#3. "Queen", Helen Mirren is simply amazing. Best actress Oscar for sure.

#4. "Notes on a Scandal", with Judi Dench. Sometimes utterly painful to watch. Whereas the camera with "Water" was unobtrusive, the camera work with Notes was unflinchingly shameless. In fact, Shame is the operative word to this film. Just brutally honest.

#5. “Babel”, speaking of “Amores Perros”, director Inarritu does it again with this one. Just spellbinding story telling. 3 Stories, 6 languages, 3 continents, and each paced, shot, and colored distinctly dissimilar from each other. This movie, though not as powerful as “Water” will win best picture. It is easily the most important film in the field.

And finally, #6. "The Pursuit of Happyness", yes, with the incorrect spelling. It was totally Hollywoody, and most of the time completely contrived and utterly predictable, but was for the most part a nicely uplifting film. The relationship between the father and the son was very sweet and totally genuine (probably because they were really father and son). And what I really liked about it was that San Francisco played a major role in the film....it played as much a part as the main characters.

Now for just plain Fluff, my wife and I saw MI3 and actually liked it! It was the best of the three by far. And Pirates of Caribean, Dead Man's Chest was eye-popping fun. Anywayz, gotta get back to work.

Later....