"I'm gonna do something for my uncle"
The reason Big bang isn't interesting anymore is because none of the writers want the characters to grow. Sheldon who once used to come in the ranks of House, Sherlock Holmes and Tony Stark is now lowered down to a blabbering buffoon. In fact every character had become a stereotype of themselves. Howard and Bernadette are dealing with parenting and most of the so called "jokes" come from her bossing him. Raj spends half the season failing in his attempts to get a girl and the rest is about his bromance with Howard. God knows why Amy is still with Sheldon when she spends 90% of the time bickering and complaining about him. And 90% of the time the episode ends with him saying something sweet to her and she forgives him. (If that is not calling a character shallow then what is?). Penny and Leonard's stories have exhausted. Penny is only left with jokes which include her making fun of geeky terms.
The characters descriptions sound so single-dimensional because they are single-dimensional. No idea what part do people find funny. Clearly they are watching a different show than me.
Brilliant start to the season. Already showing great potential of being a great TV piece. It is really commendable that every season is a remake of the original and still feel fresh. Kudos to Noah Hawley.
The minimum rating allowed here should be 0 and not 1. Only for this episode.
Another one of those episodes where Amy is fed up of Sheldon's behaviours and at the end he finds something to tell her that fixes everything. I know it has been 12 seasons but some originality is expected from a season premiere.
This episode should've been called Slippin' Kimmy
Loved the episode. Why isn't anyone relating this with Harry and Tom Riddle's story in the Chamber of Secrets? It's so obvious
I think it's impossible to talk about everything that this movie makes us go through. It's shaped like a blockbuster but unlike most, it demands every single second of your attention to be able to enjoy it and to be able to feel every emotion that it's conveying. But if you devote your 100% attention, it rewards you wholeheartedly and then some. It held me from the start and never let go. I was mesmerized by every single thing that was happening in front of me. The action, the jokes, the concepts, the universes. But there was one thing that was bothering me in the first half: There's no way they can end this perfectly without telling us why all this is happening and above all, why her? Basically I was worried about the human aspect of the movie.
Turns out, they had thought about this way before they thought about all the crazy stuff. They nail the emotions way better than the other stuff. AND THAT'S SAYING SOMETHING. In a movie filled with crazy concepts and universes, it's always difficult to find the emotional core without making it look forced. But this one knows how to do it. Maybe because it was never lost in all this chaos. And that is the reason why you need to be glued to every frame and every dialogue.
Otherwise it's just random things happening for 140 minutes which can get very jarring. Maybe this explains why some have not liked it. It demands way more attention than maybe even a Nolan movie.
This movie feels like Birdman except that you never get a moment like when he feels rejeuvenated after getting his
robe stuck in the door and getting mobbed. Yes. This movie is Birdman without the climax. It's frustrating and rightfully
so because that is what addiction is actually all about. You don't necessarily learn from things and evolve.
And you know that the Safdies have made a phenomenal movie because they choose for us to be inside the world rather than
merely observe it from a certain point. And the reason why it felt this way is because we don't get backstories or subplots and
are made to just dive right into every scenario and still have characters talking over each other.
And oh my God what a brilliant casting choice this was. I've never seen Sandler play something like this before. Yes he has
done The Meyerowitz Stories,Spanglish and maybe Punch drunk love might have even been the one that got him this role
(Missed PSH a lot in this one) but, this felt new because it felt like he has pushed himself to his limits. From showing
the angst of disparity to being plain overconfident of his choices, this is Sandler at his very best.
The world. Based on my experience from watching Good time and this, I think the filmmakers are more than just familiar
with the places captured in the film. Simply because they blend in really well with the narrative. It's always a treat to
see filmmakers considering the space and distance between characters especially in a movie which mostly takes place in
claustrophobic scenarios.
So it's like when you are watching a sport and lecturing the team to play in a certain way. Except that they can't hear you.
That is the whole movie in nutshell. Right when you think he's gonna get better, he somehow finds a way to complicate things
even more than what it was before.
The phrase version of this show would be called 'Wolf in a sheep costume'. That is exactly what every moment in this show felt like. It presents itself with so much bubblegum that the majority do not notice its actual grit. And that is the very reason why this was such an underrated show. Very few people found its subtext. Throughout its four seasons, they never derailed from what they wanted to convey. And even after all this, the comedy did not dwindle. Not...one....bit.
best episode of this season........so far.
The narrative style is not the only common thing between this and Rashomon. Rashomon also dealt with sexual violence told through 3 different perspectives . And it also had a duel which makes me wonder if Kurosawa was influenced by the actual incident.
I couldn't help but draw parallels to The Station Agent which is also about a public service employee having a monotonous job where the work that he is into involves minimum to no appreciation. They know and have accepted the fact that they cannot make drastic changes in their life. And yet they still manage to create their own little world which does not demand acceptance from the outside world.
Making of a murderer. There are two kinds of populous who watch this show. First, who watch it for the spectacle and politics. Those who are in sync with the latest fan theories. And then there's the other half (maybe even less) who are interested in the characters' development and their arcs. They are the ones who indulge in proper analysis before judging an episode. So no wonder this episode has generated such a negative response. It could have served the former masses like they have for the past few seasons but I'm bloody well glad that they didn't. They threw all fan theories out of the gate and did something that no one expected. They decided to go back to the roots and do something that the OG fans fell in love with. There is no bigger joy than seeing an 8-season arc be paid off so well.
Rags to riches to rags again. This season has been about her losses and failures. Losing her children, best friend and someone who loved her unconditionally were the wheels that drove her to madness. But the final push was her love betraying her. Something that she could never contemplate. Annihilation was the only way out that she could see. This one was a TV version of Carrie.
True Love. Never saw Cersei as a black and white narcissist. So, I totally was fine with her end. Facing death with the only true love of her life while caring about her unborn child. As for Jamie, I don't think he ever loved anyone other than Cersei. He could've comfortably chosen to stay in the north.
I Hope I'm wrong. Varys was in two minds about the queen. But in the end he chose his instinct without considering that it might lead to his demise. He chose the fate of the realm over himself.
Sandor, Thank You. Great moment with The Hound and Arya. Both acknowledging their familial instincts for each other was definitely one of the highlights and looks like it came full circle.
Penultimatum. Calling this the best episode of the season will in no way be fair to other episodes as this one would not be standing if not for the 72 hour experience that was pointing to this. Don't even want to think about the finale right now. Glad that it's a week away since it will take me that much time to digest this one. Hail HBO for not following the Netflix formula
Don't know why people give this show so much grief. It's a a lightweight comedy and nothing more. Why do all shows have to mean something
Where can I watch this?
Must confess. Not a big fan of hereditary. The first time I saw it, was on the big screen of a country which
heavily censored it. Weeks later I watched the intact version of it. At first I was really pissed that they didn't
affect me because i already knew the story. But later it made me realize how heavily it relied on the scares to
push the narrative. And hence my conclusion that it works as just another horror story and nothing more(Colette is
gold though).
So when this one opened with that disturbing shot, I was a bit apprehensive about the path that it would take and
whether it would just be an extension of Hereditary. But I was in for a surprise. Midsommar is unconventional in
that it changes its theme every half an hour or so. It's a road movie at one point, a Get Out like thriller the
other and so on. Normally, this kind of a setup shouldn't work. But guess that's what Ari Aster is best known for.
To find the unconventional in the unconventional.
What I really like about the movie is that it deals with loss and a sense of belonging in such a refreshing way.
It gives you an understanding as to why someone would choose to live in a commune and willfully sacrifice one's
need for privacy and space.
Calling this movie influential to aspiring filmmakers would be like calling the Statue of Liberty a statue
I'm a fan if you can keep me as engaged as any of the Fury Road action sequences.
Official secrets comes under the 'whistleblowing' genre whose stalwarts include movies like All the president's men and Network. There have also been a few in recent times like The Post and Spotlight. But what makes this stand out is the amount of time we spend on the protagonist's personal life. Not to take away anything from these movies, (they might even lessen if they try something like this) but it was important here that we devoted our focus into the character's personal struggles because only then would we know how hard the decisions that she made were and the things that were at stake for her when she chose this for herself. That for me elevated the movie to a whole new level.
I just finished the last episode. The Wire is the most honest show that I have ever experienced. Not being pessimistic when I say that there will never be a show which will have me hooked for all its 60 hour runtime. Where crime shows these days (or even in fact in the 2000s) relying heavily on the thriller aspects, The wire always had one perspective set up in its narrations which was to hold a mirror to the societal imbalances and prejudices. The show is not as much plot driven as it is narration driven. The characters don't mature in the way you would expect them to. And now that I'm done with the show, I'm having a serious crisis.
This movie reminded me that no matter how much I learn about cinema and imbibe knowledge, I'm still going to be that kid in the movie theater who would surrender himself to the world in front which would be nothing less than his own reality. It was like that Ratatouille moment when the food critic is taken back to his childhood when he tastes Remy's dish. Except, nostalgia hasn't even hit me yet. It's all due to the spectacle that this movie is.
If I have to compare True romance with other Tarantino scripts, then I would say that this is his weakest. Even Death proof although a weaker movie than this had a semi-solid script. This one just had one sequence after another with the end having no option but to collate everything just for the sake of a climax. In fact, it felt like some of the plot points are introduced so that they can be added for the final sequence. Just feels forced.
The movie's best part is the beginning 20-30 minutes where we are introduced to the 'innocent' protagonists and get acquainted with their crude environment. Kudos to Tarantino for shaping the main characters in ways which make them look like a ray of sunshine in a room full of devil's snare. You want to stay with them and get to know them more. Which is where my main problem with the movie lies. I hated every time that the script decided to plot some elaborate obstacle for the mains. Not that they didn't need any but I would rather have them show more scenes of the protagonists struggling than some detail about where the problem really lies. An exception obviously being the Walken-Hopper scene. That is premium Tarantino. It doesn't get tastier than that. That scene not only works as something that would get better if you're chomping on double-sized caramel popcorn, but also from a technical standpoint. The camerawork, the editing going hand in hand with the dialogues, the acting themselves deserve a write-up on their own.
One more problem with the movie is lack of importance given to Arquette's character Alabama, given that she's the best thing about the movie. In fact, after the first 30 minutes or so, she gets reduced to a side character just as the romance takes a backseat. Her scene with Gandolfini felt like something that they added later just to make her character have something to do in the latter half. Doesn't add anything to the movie. Brilliant scene though. Not giving spoilers, but the setup of the scene itself is a writer's haven. And Arquette and Gandolfini executing the scene surely serves up as an acting school study material.
So yes, I liked the movie for what it is and yes there are tropes in the movie that I have issues with. But, I can't deny the fact that the Tarantino fan inside me is trying to come up for air when I'm writing about the imperfections. There is so much to like about this movie and I haven't even started talking about....oh shoot....Tony Scott is amazing. There are scripts that don't need a good director to make them work (Steve Jobs). True romance is not one of them. Scott takes this script and makes it act out like a charm. The Oldman scene with Slater is an example of how good direction can uplift a script.
Conclusion: There are plot points in TR which stick out like a sore thumb (Everything with Chris Penn felt forced). But,TR works when it's about the main characters and not the external intricacies. In a way it needed more romance and less reality(True). But the ace writing saves even the scenes which do not serve much to the actual theme of the movie. And also, one has to agree that everything is awesome when there's more Patricia!!!
This is Vistor Q for white folks
This is Saltburn with a happy ending
Downloaded the right 365 Days
I needed to pause frequently to finish my laughs so that I don't miss out on the next joke. Bloody brilliant!!!
2 reasons why I hate this movie. Most of the 1st reason has to do with the sheer dryness and lifelessness that it was and nothing to do with the gore or the beastial nature of the characters. I can tolerate violence in movies and its various forms. It's not a big deal. What really gets to me (and this is true for all films) is when a filmmaker decides to muck around without being coherent or making any actual progress. Like I love Tarantino's OUATIH and it's one of my favorites from that year but, although I admired the writing and direction of the various Brad Pitt scenes in the movie, I couldn't help but notice the sheer insignificance of his character.
So I get what the director was going for with Salo. But my beef is that I get it within the first 20 mins of the movie. I didn't need to go through the rest 100 minutes of more torture metaphors.
And the second reason is the acting. It is so bad. Even the slave actors whose roles are to literally just mimic a mannequin seem unconvincing while doing so. All of this and the bad dubbing just proves how uninterested the director was in the technical aspects and wanted just to concentrate on the shock value.
The Room was my worst movie of all time before I saw this. At least it was unintentionally funny. This is just the director masturbating to what he thinks is a tactful way of translating into screen the atrocities committed against the victims of the war.
Main criticism about the movie: "I didn't want this movie. This is what I imagined his life would turn out to be like.
Also, Joker released in the same month
And people think Before Sunrise is a genre in its own
I believe every movie consisting of good thought-after characters automatically becomes an ensemble even if they don't always
have high stakes on the main plot. It feels fulfilling in a way because you can notice the amount of time the makers have
spent on the characters. HMC is one of those. A lesser film would've solely focused on Sophie and Howl the whole time since they're the
only ones in every frame. But guess that's not what Miyazaki's known for. The side characters feel like spokes in a wheel which would
bring the castle down (pun intended) if even one of them doesn't come through. A great example would be the scene where the Witch of the Waste is holding Calcifer, showing every bit of reluctance in handing it over to Sophie. But when she does hand it over, it just seems the most natural thing that she would do at that point. I don't want to contaminate the scene by analysing it, but it just feels satisfying when the time that you spent in these characters pays off so well.
Sophie being cursed upon with old-age has to be one of the best uses of Chekov's gun that I have seen. It sets the ball rolling because her only determination in life is her work and now she does not have anything to strive for. Also, it does feel at times that she has
given up hope of going back to her normal life. One amazing scene being the one after she has met her mother, where Markl tells her not to leave and hugs her, and she doesn't hold back. That scene cements the fact that she has accepted the change of course in her life,
for better mostly because she has people who rely on her as much as she relies on them. The curse being the catalyst in all this because
the times when she does look young is when she is not self-analysing. Masterful storytelling.
I must confess I have only seen 3 of his movies. After Spirited Away and Totoro, I didn't want to watch any of his other movies because I
thought nothing can match up to them. And then I see this and ask myself: Tell me one reason why they can't co-exist. Here's to binging
the rest of the Miyazakis for the next few days.
