#TheDig #HollywoodEnglishFilmMovieReview #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas

 

Hollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Not as deep as the hole in the ground

Film: The Dig

#Netflix

 

 

Cast: Arsher Ali, Ben Chaplin, Carey Mulligan, Chris Wilson, Eileen Davies, Joe Hurst, Johnny Flynn, Ken Stott, Lily James, Monica Dolan, Ralph Fiennes

Director: Simon Stone

Rating: * * ½

Runtime: 112 mins

Based on a true story, this retelling of the discovery of an Anglo-Saxon burial boat with a a cache of rare artifacts in an archaeological dig in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, in 1939, is emotionally potent but lacks the fluid grace that could have rendered it entertaining.

 

A wealthy, sickly widow Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) with a young impressionable son, hires a gifted amateur archaeologist/Excavator Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes)  to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. The historic discovery they unearth were revolutionary not only because of their period rarity but also because they redefined how history looked upon the "dark ages".  The sophistication of the artefacts showed historians that Anglo-Saxon culture was actually far more developed than had been presumed. The discovery as shown in this narrative acts as a dramatic cul-de-sac between Britain’s rich past and World War II imperiled uncertain future‎.

 

 

To lend some drama to the rather boring proceedings screenwriter Moira Buffini embellishes the narrative with some action. Fighter planes flying in formation over the dig site, a near-death experience, a crash landing, an illicit romance each of which is in turn countered by dedicated British reticence. Carey Mulligan’s Edith Pretty, Ralph Fiennes’ Basil Brown, Lily James' archaeologist Peggy Preston caught in a triangular love story with Ben Chaplain as her gay husband and Johnny Flynn as amateur photographer Stuart Piggott, and the rest of the ensemble cast are competent enough but the overall engagement still leaves a lot to be desired. 

 

The tempo and pacing here are rather studied and given to silences. The lush cinematography and the accurate period design fail to provide the lift to an enterprise rendered listless by understatement.

Johnsont307@gmail.com

#TheGreatIndianKitchen #PicksAndPiquesMalayalamFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas

 

Indian Malayalam Film Review

Johnson Thomas

The harsh, unpalatable truth

The Great Indian Kitchen ( streaming on Neestream)

Cast: Nimisha Sajayan, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Ajitha V M, T. Suresh Babu, Ramadevi Kannanchery, Sidhartha Siva, Anupama V. P., Nishitha Kallingal

Director: Jeo Baby

Rating: * * * ½

Runtime: 100 min.

 

This Jeo Baby film is fast waking up the bucolic Kerala countryside and the rest of India to the reality of Gender Inequality, male entitlement and misogyny in a far more articulate, coherent and strongly evocative manner than any women’s liberation activism ever has. The film has not only garnered rave reviews but also shamed the conscience of many a man seeking entitlement in a traditional setup where the dice is always loaded against the women of the household.

 

 

The subject matter Director Jeo Baby is dealing with, is simple. It’s an expose of the inner workings of a traditional household where the hierarchy is set in favour of the men. Micro focused on the Indian (Kerala)Kitchen, the narrative follows the female protagonist from arranged marriage to rebellion with nuanced manifestation of how the patriarchal setup ensnares and ensures subjugation of women all through married life.

 

 

The film opens into deliberations and processes involved in an arranged marriage where the girl (Nimisha Sajayan) a product of Gulf returned parents is presented to a man (Suraj Venjaramoodu) whose upbringing is pronouncedly traditional, coming from a well-respected Tharawad(family). The boy and girl have a stilted token conversation before both the families informally agree to conduct the marriage. Both boy and girl are mere puppets to their parents aspirations and have been so conditioned that they accept the role of the elders without question. The ceremony done, we see the new car and a box full of heavy jewellery come home to the boy’s abode. The girl gets a reprieve for the first few days as her mother-in-law is kind enough to give her time to adjust to the new normal. Signs of a not so ideal beginning are evident in the subtle demands placed on her by the husband. It may be on the pretext of love but the expectations of servitude from the girl is clear. When the mother-in-law is called away to care for her own pregnant daughter the responsibility for running the household chores rest solely on the newly minted daughter-in-law. And she is game enough to give it a good try in all earnest…But of course it’s a given that she is bound to be faulted for her less than traditional approach - especially when it concerns her attempts to ease the overload of expectations, her attempt to seek out a job and bodily issues with regards to her menstrual cycle. 

 

 

The narrative may be linear but it is stingingly lucid in its attempt to lay bare the double standards inherent in tradition and customs. The signs that could elucidate frustration are all evident in the daily drudgery of household chores that the wife is expected to complete. Stark unromanticised images of women going about their tasks under unviable conditions are visible all through. The chopping of vegetables, grinding of rice and preparations for breakfast, cooking of rice over a fireplace, grating of coconuts, washing of utensils, making tea and sweets, hand-washing clothes and repeat … It’s a series of never ending tasks amplified by a unfixed leaking sink – allowing no rest or respite for the protagonist. The not so subtle taunts and reprimands by the two male members bring things to a boil and the woman breaks free from her shackles with a symbolic show of rebellion. But she is just one in a million. Tradition demands that the next victim be readied to take her place in order that patriarchy stands undiminished.

Even without much dialogue, Jeo Baby pulls off a stirring diatribe against the status quo. He factors in some telling sequences as he builds up an impregnable case for women’s empowerment. Most notable among them are the sequences between father-in-law and daughter-in-law and those between husband and wife. There are no harsh words exchanged nor is there any overt display of anger – just a gentle reminder that her role in the family is entirely servile to the men. With uncomfortable, harsh visuals and all-too-brief taunt-laden exchanges, the real picture of an arranged marriage emerges loud and clear. This film is a must-see for everyone!

Johnsont307@gmail.com

#ThePersonalHistoryOfDavidCopperfield #HollywoodFilmMovieReview #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas

 

Hollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Diversity underlined but lacking in amiable tone

Film: The Personal History of David Copperfield

Cast: Dev Patel, Hugh Laurie, Tilda Swinton, Ben Whishaw, Peter Capaldi

Director: Armando Iannucci

Rating:  * * ½

Runtime: 119 mins

 

This colorful, mish-mashed representation of Charles Dickens’ grand semi-autobiographical novel published serially in 1849–50 and in book form in 1850, reduced to near 120 minute cinematic scale, may be considered a tribute to diversity but it doesn’t quite get the tone or temper of the book right. Scottish writer/director Iannucci has whittled down the wordy tome to an almost anecdotal representation depraved of wit or whimsy. The quirkiness of individual characters fails to lend humor to this rather boring literary adaptation. Armando Iannucci may have meant well with his ‘diverse’ casting choices but that’s also precisely why this work appears so blasé and unbecoming. 

 

Colored individuals portrayed as central characters in a fictionalized mid-19th-century England, may well be heralded as breaking away from the conventions and stereotypes but the believability gets hampered in the bargain. The story is told in the first person. The narrative opens with a well-into-adulthood-David Copperfield, looking back on his life. The opening sequence has Dev Patel’s adult David delivering his story in a theater. David is thereafter shown looking on as his mother gives birth to him. Born in Blunderstone, Suffolk, six months after the death of his father, he is being raised by his mother and her devoted housekeeper, Clara Peggotty. David, in lieu of his close bonding with Clara, gets to spend a few days with her brother and his orphaned niece Emily and nephew Ham but his seemingly impoverished carefree childhood gets skewered when on his return, he finds his mother married to a cruel, dominating Edward Murdstone and his home entrusted to the management of Murdstone’s rather perverse, perfectionist, sister. Unwilling to be tamed, Copperfield tries to forge his own path and in the process comes into contact with some intriguing characters.   

 

Through his novel Dickens allied early personal experiences -his work in a factory, his schooling and reading, and his years in reporting, into a successful money rich novel writing career. While Iannucci and co-scriptwriter Simon Blackwell stay true to those events they fail to lend them a cinematic weightage that could aid the viewer in finding something worthy to be ensnared by. Iannucci’s conventional literary adaptation form (though non-linear) is rather dry and devoid of an emotional connect.

 

Class, and dire economic straits, are glossed over by Zac Nicholson’s picturesque camerawork. The editing is strip happy while the ensemble acting is fairly competent. The souped-up believable production design and luxuriant visuals end-up looking self-indulgent because there is no fun to be had. This rather anemic combination of live theater and classic farce renders a creative, quirky, absorbing classic into an incredibly dull adaptation that fails to capture your imagination or heart. 

 

Johnsont307@gmail.com

#WonderWoman1984 #WW84 #HollywoodEnglishFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas

 

Hollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Unbalanced by over-ambition

Film: Wonder Woman 1984

Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, Lilly Aspell, Amr Waked

Director: Patty Jenkins

Rating: * * ½

Runtime: 151 min.

(Streaming on HBO Max)

 

Director Patty Jenkins’ first Wonder Woman outing was a well-balanced entertainer that was believably put together and offered the audience some high-tension adrenaline gushing moments. Gal Gadot’s belief in the role and its place in the superhero hierarchy was evident and she made the role indelibly hers by living the part of Wonder Woman with equal muscle, grace and heart. She put on such high-end testosterone action finesse that the resultant was singularly bedazzling. She was a regal superhero living much beyond the scale that DC comics envisioned her to be. In this, Jenkins’ second DC comic’s adaptation effort of Wonder Woman, a cold war set spectacle, the Superhero is shown to have come into conflict with the Soviet Union during the 1980s and finds a formidable foe in Cheetah. The arsenal gets more modern and heavier of course and the makers try to go for bigger and better but the attempted over-indulgence only makes the lack of a credible narrative rallying point all the more obvious. 

 

The film opens with a bang. The flashback sequence featuring Diana (Lilly Aspell) as a young trainee warrior in the magical island of Themiscyra competing in a contest that tests her strength and skill with opponents twice her age and size opens our eyes to her valour, tenacity and unflagging fighting spirit. What she learns from that experience forms the basis of our empathy towards this warrior princess whose innate goodness shines brighter than her God-killer-Sword’s blade. That opener is basically the centrepiece of a narrative that eventually flags under the weight of its desire to excel with excess. The tonal and elemental balance displayed in the first outing, gets lost in the battle ground that this outing weighs in with. 

 

The script co-written by Jenkins, Geoff Johns and Dave Callaham, based on William Moulton Marston’s original characters, is about avarice and is set in a time period when people had caught on to consumerism and materialism with a vengeance. Even though the reference point is the height of Reagan-era (“WW84”), the inference that self-seeking behaviour to the exclusion of all else could well be destructive, has relevance even today.

 

The ageless Diana Prince(Gal Gadot) is currently living in Washington DC( The Watergate to be precise) and working as an archaeologist at the Smithsonian, a befitting position for a resourceful linguist with unchallengeable knowledge about ancient artefacts. An emotional and period misfit, she bonds with co-worker Dr. Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) a misfit herself, who eventually transforms into the villain with chameleon like stealth. But that happens only after Barbara gets her hands on a mysterious wishing stone, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) gets resurrected and Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal), a fake oil Tycoon makes his evil desires felt.

 

Gadot of course towers over the unwieldy narrative with a regal power and grace that is magnetic and Wiig manages a transformation that is brilliantly timed. Unfortunately the action set-pieces feel a little repetitive and over-the-top. The story doesn’t feel original either because the linkage to archaeology and ancient wisdom harkens back to ‘The Mummy’ series while some of the other story elements link it to the ‘Superman’ series. The longish, ungainly runtime is utilised mainly for ensuring chaos as the script follows the three main characters and their wish-fulfilment escapades. Despite Gal Gadot’s charismatic screen presence, this second edition fails to bring wonder mainly because it takes a little too long to show-off its flash and super power.

Johnsont307@gmail.com

#Soul #HollywoodEnglishFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas

 

Hollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Film: Soul (Animation)

Cast(voice): Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton

Directors: Pete Docter, Kemp Powers

Rating: * * * ½

Runtime: 100 mins

(Streaming on Disney +, Disney Hotstar)

 

Pixar’s ‘Soul’ is a magical experience – one that manages to reach the heights that ‘Inside Out’ scaled a few years back. This animation film about a musician Joe who has an out of body experience and must find his way back with the help of an infant soul, is a brilliant psycho-social mapping of a human being’s growth processes. 

 

 

Joe’s soul is desperate to get back to his Earthly body but being mistaken for a mentor to 22 (Tina Fey) who has no desire to get her pass to an Earthly body, is an impediment he will have to overcome. Joe will have to convince 22 to get away from the abstract Great Before and into photo realistic New York. 

 

 

The narrative gives weight to an interpretation that could in logical terms be only imaginary. Yet, as an audience, we connect so entirely to this proposition that it becomes altogether enigmatic and philosophical in ideology. What we see and believe in here is a depiction of the soul with thought-provoking poignancy and heft. The animation craft is cutting edge and the story just draws you in. All the technical aspects are admirably high-end.

 

The opening sequences are a little difficult to follow given the heaviness of the subject matter but eventually it eases into a beautifully sublime emotional rollercoaster that makes you realise the value of life itself. Soul is beautifully put-together in that, it sends out a strong message without being overly obvious about its intent. Every facet here is well-thought out and presented in a visually colourful and amiable way - making it meaningful for both, the young and the old alike.

Johnsont307@gmail.com

#Sayonee #BollywoodHindiFilmReview #JohnsonThomas

 

Bollywood Hindi Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Damaged Revenge drama

Film: Sayonee

Cast: Tanmay Ssingh, Musskan Sethi, Rahul Roy, Yograj Singh, Upasana Singh

Directors : Nitin Kumar Gupta & Abhay Singhal

Rating: * ½

Runtime: 112 mins

 

A romance cum revenge drama this one is a wannabe ‘Ghajini’ but without the vibe, smarts or savagery that catapulted the ‘Momento’ into a monumental hit. 

 

 

 

The narrative here is typically slip-shod, loosely connected and doesn’t bother to allow for any empathy towards its lead characters. 

 

 

Recently crowned and crowing National shooting champion, Rajdeep Randhawa(Tanmay Ssingh) is waylaid by a generically chirpy, bold orphan girl Mahi( Musskan Sethi) who apparently is studying herbology but appears to have all the time to steal Rajdeep’s gold medal and deliver it to an ailing kid who dreams of owning one. And before you can say ‘what the heck?’ the twosome become inseparable, the boy’s parents ( Yograj Singh & Upasana Singh) give their consent and Mahi sets off to Russia for her higher studies.  

 

 

Gory stories about the Russian mafia and drug lords have obviously percolated down to Bollywood’s simple minded scriptwriters – so the narrative thrusts forward deep into the Russian underbelly with Rajdeep embarking on a journey to save his love. What happens in Russia thereafter, is beyond unbelievable. Needless to say there’s not much hope of raking in the moolah in such devastating times with such a substandard, unaccomplished product. The songs are hummable but the days of hit songs propelling a movie to super-hit status are long since dead. The story-telling is jumpy and feels like the two helmers literally had to do a tug of war to decide on which sequence to fit into the final cut. Even though the characters here are half-baked and unjustifiably volatile, the two lead actors do make their presence felt. Tanmay has the look of flop actor/singer Vikas Bhalla and Musskan mines Manisha Koirala. Both fail the originality test but their screen presence cannot be doubted. It’s pretty clear (from this abysmal engagement) that Bollywood's talent pool is devoid of ideas worth churning into movies for the big screen!

Johnsont307@gmail.com

 

 

 

#Tenet #HollywoodFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas

 

Hollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Going Loopy with TIME

Film: Tenet

Cast: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Caine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Dimple Kapadia, Himesh Patel, Clémence Poésy Denzel Smith      

Director: Christopher Nolan

Rating: * * *

Runtime: 150 mins

 

 

Mind bending has become Christopher Nolan’s hallmark and with Tenet he not only plays parallel and surround with thoughts but he also goes loopy with Time. Tenet is probably Nolan’s most ambitious (in terms of complexity) with a degree of difficulty that even auteur filmmakers might find too challenging to take on. Nolan has scripted this time-twisting sci-fi fantasy (am calling it fantasy because we don’t really know that this can happen in real time) by using tech tricks and scientific throws like loops, bridges, parallel universes and time inversion to ensnare our minds in a tale that has the protagonist ally with the past and the future while existing and saving the world in the present.

It’s a high-concept enterprise and Nolan sets the stage beautifully in the opening gambit itself. While a classical orchestra is on, a team of assassins lay siege to the auditorium and its audience. Then comes in the cavalry… the play is on whether this was staged, a test or real. But we don’t really care because it’s an impressive set-piece opener that gets the ball rolling for what is to be an outrageous world saving (from Armageddon caused by the future) endeavor that involves a CIA operative who calls himself ‘The Protagonist’ (John David Washington), a Russian Oligarch Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh) who is the antagonist here, his abused wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki) whose main motivation is to be reunited with her young son, a jack-of-all-skills Neil(Robert Pattinson) and an arms dealer from Mumbai Priya Singh (Dimple Kapadia). The funny thing here is that everyone appears to know what’s going to happen, there’s a sense that fate overrides free will and counter programming and yet there’s this protagonist who is striving to avert something that is already destined to happen. It’s confusing and confounding to say the least… yet it’s all so intricately laid out in an elongated exposition that you are totally spellbound by the visual entreaty of it.

There’s no scene chewing performance here. The acting ranges from enigmatic, playful to one-dimensional serious and villainous. There’s a method in this kind of streamlining. The script and direction don’t ask for anything more as any overplaying would have rendered the entire set-up thankless. The narrative depth comes entirely from Nolan’s consummate sleek and slick direction, Jennifer Lame’s tricky editing, thought-revoking momentum, heart-thumping background score, beautifully envisioned set-piece action sequences, pulse-pounding sound design and dazzlingly entreating widescreen cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema.

Nolan’s films are complex enough to demand a second viewing and this film, designed to be watched on big screen cinemas is more so. Unfortunately it has released at a time when most pockets are running on empty amidst an ensuing pandemic that has life and death in its thrall. So it remains to be seen whether the cinema going public will make a second run to the theatres in their effort to decode Tenet’s complex algorithm.

Johnsont307@gmail.com