Monday, June 07, 2010

Films Seen Recently

  • Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010): A triumph of atmosphere. The film is enigmatic, and though Scorsese is wading in shallow waters, he sure knows how to do it stylishly. The film is, in a word, gripping. I just hope that DiCaprio doesn't do anything silly in his real life, like Heath Ledger, now that he is routinely playing such intense and psychotic characters on the screen (remember The Departed?). Naturally leads to a comparison with Memento. I wonder which one is a better film. Both have something similar and seemingly profound to say about the human condition and the fallibility of memory.

  • Love Sex aur Dhokha (Dibakar Banerjee, 2010): A film about reality, film and filmed reality, in three parts. A grave socioeconomic commentary on India, packaged as a self-reflexive study on "Reality TV". I didn't quite enjoy the third act, as it didn't feel "real" (the suicide bid in the third act is more a farce, than a tragic event), unlike the first two. I will remember, for a very long time, the face of death staring through the car window, towards the end of the first act. "Trust" is a theme in all three of the acts, and one is led to contemplate at the feelings, stronger than that trust, which lead to betrayal. The depiction of Indian middle class mores is quite nuanced, just like in the director's earlier fare.
Looking forward to: Solitary Man (Brian Koppelman and David Levien, 2010), Everyone Else (Maren Ade, 2009) and Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, 2010).

1 comment:

G Saimukundhan said...

"Shutter Island" is released? Am waiting for the movie or atleast the DVD here at Chennai. Have been trying to watch all of Scorsese movies. Having watched couple of DiCaprio movies recently ranging from "Body of Lies", "Departed", "Blood Diamond" and one more whose name I've forgotten, its true to that he is playing all these intense characters more off late. Hopefully, he'll stay straight, and not go the Ledger way. Too good, and too short. The joker made me cry.

Yet to see LSD, though have bought the DVD. Sometime later.

Cheers