Guided to "Monsoon Shootout"

Monsoon Shootout

John Andrews

        Amit Kumar brings us multiple films with his first film Monsoon Shootout. Adi (Vijay Varma) is a young cop in training to join the detective force in Mumbai. His boss, Khan (Neeraj Kabi), is a powerful man in Mumbai who takes matters into his own hands and worries about clean up later. Adi must find the balance of making a good impression while remaining true to his own morals and honor as the film retracts to one moment three times.

          The conflict of the film arrises in the first scene when a man and a blind beggar stop a car in order to kill a wealthy businessman for not paying his “tax” to Slumlord. This hatchet killing is not the first and it is Khan's job to find the assassin. When Khan locates two accomplices of the murder, he shoots them in cold blood and has Adi wreck their car to set up an escape attempt. Adi's first conflict is having to choose between honor and the criminal justice.

        As Adi is patched up by an old girlfriend, Anu (Geetanjali Thapa), at the local hospital, he asks her out that night. Adi returns to work and is put back on the case. He is forced to miss his date to chase a lead on the blind beggar and Shiva, the hatcher hacker.

           Adi and Khan are set up in the pouring rain. They watch the blind beggar and another man talk at a food stand when another man makes a move on Khan. Causing the unknown man to run, Khan puts down the beggar and Adi runs after the man. As he struggles through thigh-deep water and trash in the slums of Mumbai, Adi is caught in a dilemma as he pulls his gun on the man climbing over a wall. Adi can shoot this man who may not be Shiva or he can wait.

          There is a beautiful slow motion camera shot of the monsoon unleashing on Adi, a dog and clay pots, and the water cascading off of his face as he is forced to determine the fate of this man.

Varma's performance deserves recognition. He plays Adi with a sense of conviction and ease. Adi wants to be a great detective in Mumbai and follow is his late father's footsteps, but in a crooked city like Mumbai, Adi has to make decisions he would prefer not to make. It is future versus belief and Varma executes this paradox very well.

         Kumar's expansion on one moment into many is fascinating. Run Lola Run, a film that also uses three scenarios dependent upon the protagonists decisions, comes to mind. I did not enjoy Run Lola Run. Every time the film started back to Lola running out of her apartment, I felt angry and annoyed, but in Monsoon Shootout, Kumar keeps you are your toes. The film does a great job of pacing and editing. The flashbacks aren't too long and repetitive and each offers something drastically different. After the third scenario, I was left wanting more, which is a great trait in a movie.

To me, most Indian films seem to deal with the plethora of poverty and slums. While these topics are relevant, Kumar sets himself apart from this genre and story line. Instead of putting poverty at the forefront, this police-crime thriller focuses on Adi and his journey to detective. The crooked cop system of Mumbai is challenged by a shy rookie.

       Co-produced with the Dutch and the U.K., we are given a film filled with beautiful shots of color and steady, clear images. Stormed with rain and little light, we get a natural sense of what monsoon season is like in Mumbai as Adi's fate lies in question.

       Kumar leaves the ending open to interpretation. Choices seem to be the main focus of the film. Not only is Adi struggling with what to do, but the audience is left with a decision as well: which scenario actually played out. The ending is superb and you won't be let down.

Director: Amit Kumar

Writer: Amit Kumar

Producer: Sikhya Entertainment, Yaffle Films

Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Vijay Varma, Neeraj Kabi

Run Time: 88 minutes

"Seduced and Abandoned" Minute Review

Seduced and Abandoned

John Andrews

      James Toback and Alec Baldwin set off to Cannes to get a movie financed. This documentary about getting a film produced at the renowned film festival is comedic and depressing. For future filmmakers, it can be hard to watch as Toback and Baldwin are confronted with the challenges of financing a personal project. Baldwin isn't a bankable actor and a 20 million dollar budget shouldn't be but 5. Interviews with Scorcese, Gosling, Chastain, Bejo, Francis Ford Capola, and a handful of producers and billionaires bring this depressing documentary into light. I still don't know if the sex drama set in the Iraq war will make it to the big screen.

Director: James Toback

Producer: Michael Mailer, Alec Baldwin, James Toback

Starring: James Toback, Alec Baldwin

Run Time: 98 minutes

Guided to "Zulu" for Entertainment

Zulu

John Andrews

    In Cape Town, South Africa, where unrest is always prevalent, two detectives, Ali and Brian, are tasked with solving the murder of the daughter of a rugby team owner. The good cop, Ali (Forest Whitaker), collects a drug from two young boys that causes you to turn violent and lash out. Brian (Orlando Bloom), the bad cop, womanizer, poor father, and lousy ex-husband, seeks answers in the opposite fashion of Ali: gun wielding, brutality, and fear. Orlando Bloom's performance was average. Legolas and Will Turner were masked by special effects and other bigger performances, Aragorn and Jack Sparrow. With only Forest Whitaker to take the other spotlight, Bloom's chops were exposed a bit. The plot has been done before and was a bit empty. Entertaining if nothing else.

Director: Jerome Saooe

Writer: Carey Ferey, Julien Rappeneau, Jerome Salle

Producer: Pathe International

Starring: Forest Whitaker, Orlando Bloom

Run Time:105 minutes

Guided to "The Great Beauty"

The Great Beauty

John Andrews

       It is Jep Gambardella's 65^th birthday. The film opens with a lengthy, extravagant rooftop bash filled with booze, dancers, and old Italian men celebrating Jep's big day. Jep is the author of a critically acclaimed book “The Human Apparatus” and has written no other novel since. He now writes for a Roman daily newspaper. The party goes on as young girls frolic blissfully and old men scramble to obtain them.

      After the vast success of his book, Jep, played by Toni Servillo, lives a high class life in Rome in a villa overlooking the Colosseum, attending the biggest and richest parties in Rome. He has surrounded himself with lavishly rich, uber successful, and yet utterly hopeless socialites. They all attend parties together and meet weekly to banter wittily back and forth about philosophy, life, politics, sex, and religion. During one particular conversation, Jep unleashes a subtle fury of slanders and hard truths to Stefania about the lies she has told herself for years: having real relationships with her children, paying people to do everything for her, and writing 11 books that no one cared about.

      One night, as Jep strolls through the beautiful streets of Rome as he does each night, he walks into a strip club owned by an old friend. As they sit and talk, the owners' 42-year-old daughter, Ramona (Sabrina Ferilli), comes on stage to perform. Though Jep says he has no intention of being the “good guy she needs,” they develop a relationship as he woos her with his high class parties and art shows. When she abruptly dies of an incurable disease, Jep moves on with his life and starts to search for “la grande bellezza”, or “the great beauty”, of life.

      The movie circles around Jep and his search for this great beauty on Earth. Though the film is filled with all of his high class friends and characters, we see Jep alone with his thoughts throughout Rome's lush streets of architecture and wonder. Director Paolo Sorrentino explores resentment, passion, love, intellect, and emptiness through Jep.

      Jep's lifestyle begins to unravel. He cannot seem to place where his heart truly lies. As the film progresses and we learn how smart and knowledgable Jep is on just about everything, you feel for him. You want him to get back to writing and not waste his time with the frivolities and blandness he partakes in in the film.

      The cinematography is the most astonishing feature of the movie. The lingering shots of Jep meandering under the streetlights of Rome; the framing of the parties; the intricate movements over the faces of the characters. The lighting speaks volumes. The natural light of the night seems to bleed through each shot as party goers are promised magnificence. Rome is the main character, and Jep is merely a onlooker. Every scene and shot is masterfully crafted as a piece of art in itself. The art, the statues, the fountains all contribute to the essence of the city.

      The contrast of the cinematography and Jep's agenda perfectly portray Sorrentino's goals. Jep is struggling to achieve a sense of being content, struggling to capture, or at least know, what the great beauty of the world is. And yet it is all around him: Rome. A homage to the city, Sorrentino sheds light on the culture within Rome. Though not all experience this level of wealth, one can see bits and pieces worked in that pertain to anyone. Maybe there isn't a 12 year old girl throwing a paint tantrum on a giant white canvas in front of the biggest art dealers in Italy at your party, but everyone has seen that one spectacle at a party they won't ever forget.

       Jep's life makes you question what you are doing with yours. Are you withering away under the pressures of every day routine, or are you seeking out a passion, fulfilling whatever it may be that you do best? For Jep, fame and status consume him. Flashbacks to his younger days seem to haunt his mind. As he lays staring at his ceiling from his bed, we see the blue-green ocean, full of life and energy. The waves turn to white, and in the end, it is only a ceiling. As Jep seeks for the great beauty, Sorrentino shows us Jep's first sexual experience in pieces paralleled to an Italian Mother Theresa crawling up the stairs of St. Peter's Basilica. After hosting her at dinner with his socialite friends and hired princes and princesses, her words to him asking why he hasn't written another book ravage his brain. His lost youth. His risks never taken.

Director: Paolo Sorrentino

Writer: Paolo Sorrentino, Umberto Contarello

Producer: Francesca Cima, Nicola Giuliano

Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi

Starring: Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli

Run Time: 142 minutes

Guide thee not to "Heli"

Heli

John Andrews

    Heli is a slow and tedious portrayal of the life of a young man named Heli. Brutal and raw, the film peels the emotions and disgust out of you. The film holds back nothing from its scenes full of torture. Gruesome barely begins to describe the images you see.

     Technically speaking, the movie was well done, with long, wide lens shots of the wilderness and deserts of Mexico. But besides the camera work and acting, the narrative was weak and empty.

     The story begins with two men tied up and bleeding in the bed of a truck with their captors holding them down. The tone for the movie is set immediately when one of the men is tossed off a bridge, and hung. Escalante continues with the brutality as Beto, Estela's older boyfriend who is training to be a policeman, is forced to roll through his own puke and held over a latrine while being yelled at.

To disturb you even further, Estela, who I would presume to be around 12 years old, makes out with Beto, 17 years in the movie but looks older. The age difference may be a common practice in Mexico, but is off-putting from an outside perspective. Estela skips school to be with Beto. Savagery continues as Beto shoots a dog to discover a stash of cocaine. Estela sneaks out at night to help Beto hide the cocaine that he found in the water tank for the family house. When Heli discovers the drugs, having clogged the water pipes, he discards them, thinking the problem is resolved.

Heli and Estela's father is sitting in the house alone drinking a soda when the door gets bashed in. In defense he gets a couple shots off from the family rifle, but he is mowed down by men in black SWAT attire. We learn quickly that these men are of a drug cartel whose stash of cocaine has recently gone missing. Beto and Heli are also taken.

     The most difficult scene to the movie is the torture scene. I have never seen more people walk of a movie than this. As children and Heli look on, Beto is beaten with a wooden paddle across his back while strung up from the ceiling. The captors hand off the paddle to one of the boys in the room and the beating continues. Heli shows no emotion but closes his eyes and can only listen. As you sit there wondering how they pulled off this torture on camera without actually doing it, another man pulls down Beto's pants, squirts something on his privates and lights them on fire. As you sit and watch Beto burn and scream, you can only think of how in the world this is being shown in a movie. Though there is no way it was actually done, the effects and technique were done well enough to keep you in the moment and not wonder how, but only why they would show this.

     Still shots and long takes of the characters going through the mundane tasks of life are what this film was about to me. A coyote along the crest of a road with the night horizon in the background. Heli taping up a poster one handed. The father getting a soda and sitting down. Heli biking to work. These shots help to portray the every day life of Mexico, but they get redundant and wearisome. Though some of the scenic shots are beautiful, it slows the pace of the movie and creates gaps of the more lively scenes.

     The emotion wrought out of you throughout the feature is somewhat empty. I didn't really connect with the characters at all because it is like nothing I have ever experienced before. Though I don't doubt how that may be something slightly common in Mexico and drug cartel areas, for a Tennesseean it was far from mine own experiences.

     The lack of connection left me with an empty feeling towards the movie. That and the abundance of raw cruelty shut me off from finding any commonalities with the movie. I commend its shot composition and cinematography, but other than that I find Heli to be lacking in reality.

Director: Amat Escalante

Writer: Amat Escalante

Producer: Jaime Romandía

Starring: Armando Espitia, Andrea Vergara, Linda Gonzalez, Juan Eduardo Palacios

Run Time: 105 minutesf

Guided not to "Common People" - Minute Review

Common People – Minute Review

John Andrews

       Common People is a French family, comedy, drama that follows the story of six different groups of people through a park in London called The Commons. Each character is dealing with some sort of conflict, all being across the board for most people's troubles, hence the title. The conversations and realities seem to derive from the most broad controversies any average person would encounter: military veterans, how one wants to die, pregnancy, financial struggles, public space, drinking problems, love, teen immaturity, and family.

       The film oozes cheesiness. The acting is sub-par and hardly believable, the cinematography was mediocre at best for a film that took place all in one park, and the music brought a lighthearted tone to themes that should be taken quite seriously. Maybe not being from London hindered my experience and connection. Or maybe this film was outright hard to watch.

Director: Stewart Alexander, Kerry Skinner

Writer: Stewart Alexander

Producer: Common People Productions

Starring: Sam Kelly, Diana Payan, Iarla McGowan

Run Time: 86 minutes

Guided to "Much Ado About Nothing" - Minute Review

Much Ado About Nothing – Minute Review

John Andrews

In this modern adaption of a Shakespeare play, director Joss Whedon uses a colorless palate of grey, whites, and blacks to make his point. The use of the old English script from the Renaissance adds an intriguing flare to the film. Though hard to understand at times, and a bit too complex for my simple mind, the old English contrasted with the modern clothes, locale, and time offers a great perspective on a classic story. The film is filled with comedy, great music, and excellent cinematography.

Guided to "Prince Avalanche"

Prince Avalanche

by John Andrews

You probably never put much thought into the yellow lines painted down the middle of most every road in America. You probably have never thought about how that job used to be done by hand before big machines came along. But I would bet that you can imagine how boring it would be to push a wheelbarrow for miles every day painting yellow lines and hammering reflector poles into the ground.

Don't be put off by this description of a 94 minute film. Sure, the job may be tedious and tiresome, but David Gordon Green's film Prince Avalanche is all but that. Set in a burnt out wilderness in Texas, two men, Alvin (Paul Rudd), and Lance (Emile Hirsch), brother of Alvin's girlfriend Madison, are out to repaint the road lines that burnt away after a ravaging wildfire. Prince Avalanche is a stunning film full of intricate camera shots sweeping across a landscape beauty infused with destruction. It is a character study of the two leads' conflict and life problems, sprinkled with comedy.

In 1988, Texas was devastated by wildfires. Alvin, to get out of the city and back into nature, walks around daily, camping nightly, to repaint the lines lost. He hired Lance to accompany him for the summer. From the start we see why each of them have taken the job: Alvin to get away before moving to Germany with Madison and Lance to make money to spend back in the city. Alvin is a do-it-yourself kind of guy whereas Lance is the opposite. The two couldn't be more different.

Alvin and Lance are going through the mundane tasks of their road work, working for the weekend. Lance is eager to hook up with a girl back in the city while Alvin can't wait for the alone time away from his very chatty coworker. Once Lance is gone, Alvin sets up camp and goes off on his own through the burnt houses and forest. He stumbles upon an old woman shuffling through the rubble and remains of her house, searching for her pilot's log book. As you would think, Alvin presses her on why she is looking for a paper book in a burned down house. His quirkiness is comedic yet real and believable.

The next scene Alvin walks into another torched house yet he acts out a scenario in his mind. He walks in and yells out, “Honey, I'm home,” and goes through the motions of checking on dinner and walking in on his wife on the phone. The sense of desperation in Alvin's scenario walks a line of mental instability. Alvin has been in the woods for a while, and to the audience, his sanity is slightly in question already.

Lance gets back from the city bitter and bummed. After some coaxing from Alvin, Lance finally sits down and talks about his weekend while sitting against a tree amongst fallen and burnt wood. Like a child, he complains about a flat tire, not getting to party on Friday night, and falling asleep standing up the entire night. Then he hands Alvin a letter from Madison and wanders off. Lance comes back to find Alvin gone. He reads Alvin's letter and realizes what is going on and ventures off to find him.

Prince Avalanche is a quirky story about two strange men who haven't really been able to find their place in the world. Though they chose to paint road lines all summer, they seem almost exiled out into the wild. Every time they go back into the city world, they come out hurt and farther from contentness. On the other hand, the road work seems to weigh down on them and hold them back from something. What that something is, I am not sure. Greatness? Happiness? Solitude? The confines of life burden Alvin and Lance with unbearable charge.

The cinematography is beautiful. Director of photography, Tim Orr, captured a pureness and rawness in the fire ruined forest. As we delve into the world of road workers in the 1980s amidst a blossoming wilderness, caterpillars trek along a twig; yellow paint seeps into a nearby stream; ants bustle rapidly to a days work; a turtle meanders amongst muddy waters.

The tranquility of nature juxtaposed with the lunacy of Alvin and Lance's relationship provides for a delightful film.

Director: David Gordon Green

Writer: David Gordon Green

Actors: Emile Hirsch, Paul Rudd, Joyce Payne, Lance LeGault

Producer: Lisa Muskat, Craig Zobel, James Belfer, David Gordon Green

Run Time: 94 minutes

Guided to "No" (Pablo Larraín, 2012)

"No" is not a documentary. You might have seen a preview or a poster and thought you might go see this documentary following the plebiscite in Chile in 1988, but that is just what Pablo Larraín wanted you to think. Filmed through a grainy, old school camera from the era of narrative, Larraín transports you into the heart of the terror present in Chile at the time. The most captivating element was his use of actual footage from 1988, editing it in so smoothly, it was hardly noticeable.

Pablo Larraín has done two films based under Pinochet's reign before "No". Coming from a right winged family in favor of Pinochet, Pablo broke away from his heritage and felt that, under such an oppressive man, artists and writers were restricted of their expressivity. This constriction is felt in the film as the opposition fights a battle that seems already lost in this political, personal, historical drama.

The story unfolds around a young advertising guru, René Saavedra, played by Gael Garcia Bernal, who is hired by the NO campaign to advertise the end of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. Posed against his own boss in the YES campaign, René must figure out a way to sell the end of years of terror to a country who might not be ready to handle being on its own. Through 15 minutes of air time a day for the month leading up to the vote, René and his ragtag group of media experts must outthink the regime of Pinochet and their power.

René and the NO campaigners decide to stray from the previous style of ads, shedding light on the murders and tortures having taken place under Pinochet, and focus on Chile's future: hopeful and bright. Saavedra lacks the passion behind the NO campaign; he feels as if he is just selling another product to consumers. Although he wants to succeed, his passion doesn't click until he is personal life comes into question. He wants the best for his young son and begins to realize that what he is doing can change the future of his son's life and his country's.

The subtle camera movements in a documentary style really capture the serious tones of the time. Without any flashy camera work or overtly cliche symbolism, it's as if the film was all filmed during the actual events in 1988. With the help primary footage, the opposition ads and communist style ads release a raw power to the movie. Real cameos of Christopher Reeves, Jane Fonda, and Richard Dreyfus offer the American perspective on the situation, only to reel in your emotions and decision all the more. The old homemade camera is strenuous on the eyes at first, as you yearn for the quality to pick up, but as the story progresses, Larraíns decision makes complete sense.

Bernal brings a confidence to the table that borderlines cockiness. This young hot shot media wizard must find his own connection in order to win this pivotal vote in Chile's history. Bernal is a hipster in the 1980s, trying to play things cool with his roughly cut beard and jean jacket. But his ability to move from a dry, almost empty executive, to a part of the team willing with everything he's got is noteworthy.

For Chileans, this film is extremely important, both for the young and the old. Those who were alive and experienced the harsh times of Pinochet's dictatorship reflect on the triumph of the NO campaign, but also on the realities that were at hand in those 15 years. For the younger generation, it is an educational film that shows the actualities their parents and elders went through, but doing so in a light hearted way from a the advertising perspective.

The film "No" is worth the view, in my opinion. A serious look at the plebiscite of Chile in 1988 with a comedic undertone, partnered with the documentary styled cinematography captures the essence of the tension of the time.