The Movies I Liked

No time to Die - Bond should have taken an extended vacation instead of coming back and Bond getting emotional is very funny. The movie is quite boring. Best movie as Bond by Craig was Quantam of Solace. Adieu Daniel Craig.

Shang-Chi - Chinese Super Hero Movie from Marvel. VFX/CG is getting better and better. The bus fight was choreographed very well. Should be good to watch in IMAX 3D. However there is no soul in the movie. Awkwafina Katy as a side kick to Shaun delivers some comedy. Ben Kingsley and Michelle Yeoh has been wasted. The movie on the whole is clichéd and stereotyped.

Red Notice - Utter Garbage. Nothing more to say.
Never felt Daniel Craig was Bond material unlike Sean Connery, Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan.
Very gloomy expression and goes around hammering the bad guys. Maybe he is good as an action hero but not the typical cool, classy, humourous Bond.
 
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Arab Blues - A young Tunisian woman returns from Paris to start her own psychoanalytic practice. Her business attracts a very colourful clientele ( including a cross dressing baker who scandalises the hamaam of a beauty parlour ). To continue she needs to negotiate the red tape of the local bureaucracy for a license. Besides there is also her family and a persistent policeman on her trail.
Asako I & II - A sparkling, fresh Japanese love story . Asako a young woman falls in love with Baku an enigmatic drifter who vanishes without a trace, though not without hinting he will return to her again. She later falls in love once again with another man who bears an uncanny resemblance to the absconding lover. Things take a twist when Baku returns to the woman’s life, reawakening her feelings towards him. She must now choose between her present lover — a nice , normal, stable person and Baku , who seems to have made good on his old promise to come back to her.
 
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Where Is The Friend’s Home - The camera follows eight year old Ahmed from his class to his home and then to another village and back. His mission to return a friend’s exercise book isn’t very successful but a pleasant surprise awaits the viewer in the end. What a great movie ! The first of the Koker trilogy , it establishes Kiarostami as a superb filmmaker in the mould of Ray. WISTFH is in essence, the reason why I watch movies. After the slog of watching a loquacious Malmkrog , this life affirming film came as a whiff of fresh air redolent with earthy smells of a bucolic Iran.
 
Have you tried the 2007 Argentine version? Haunting! And the love in the eyes of the protagonists is even more evident. The ending of course! That might be a bummer since you have already watched the English film, but it was one of the most satisfying endings ever in the history of movies for me, as limited as my viewing might be.
Watched the Argentine Version! A Pretty Good One!
 
Through The Olive Trees - Through the olive trees is where a besotted young man walks to make one final interrogation of his stubborn , silent lover. Does she say yes in the end ? Or does she still not talk. Earlier, he helpfully tells her , it’s ok if you don’t want to talk , just turn the page of the book you are reading to express your consent. She doesn’t.
The movie ends with the two of them in the distance. The young man may still be trying to convince her, we don’t hear but we can guess. Then they part ways in the final frame. Is there a spring in his steps? Or is it frustration?
KiarostamI once again weaves a deceptively simple , yet intriguing story of unrequited(?) love. The movie is the final part of what some call the Koker trilogy.
 
Through The Olive Trees - Through the olive trees is where a besotted young man walks to make one final interrogation of his stubborn , silent lover. Does she say yes in the end ? Or does she still not talk. Earlier, he helpfully tells her , it’s ok if you don’t want to talk , just turn the page of the book you are reading to express your consent. She doesn’t.
The movie ends with the two of them in the distance. The young man may still be trying to convince her, we don’t hear but we can guess. Then they part ways in the final frame. Is there a spring in his steps? Or is it frustration?
KiarostamI once again weaves a deceptively simple , yet intriguing story of unrequited(?) love. The movie is the final part of what some call the Koker trilogy.
One of my favorites movies!
 
Tokyo Sonata : A middle class Tokyo family whose members each face an existential crisis are redeemed (hopefully) by the cleansing power of Debussy’s Clair de lune.
 
The Elephant God : Had watched a low resolution , grainy version on YouTube. Now saw it on MUBI. Utpal Dutt excels as the menacing Maganlal Meghraj. The whodunit happens in Benaras. Trust the comic genius of Ray to include as Feluda’s roommate in the hotel , Biswasree Gunomoy Bagchi, a bodybuilder for whom his body is his temple.
The Holy Man: Another Ray delight. Some friends connive a scheme to literally smoke out a holy man. The holy man is one of the most intriguing creations of Ray. A man of astounding erudition — he bids the sun to rise from the carriage of an Indian Railways train , who says he taught Einstein relativity , argued with Plato and calls the crucifixion , crucifact — why ? because he was there!
 
Azor - A Swiss banker travels to Argentina in the seventies when the country is going through a military takeover. His mission is to meet old and prospective clients from the elite of the Argentinian society and to enquire about the whereabouts of Keys his mysterious predecessor. The movie advances through chapters that open like matryoshka dolls and lead on to a kind of an anti-climax. In that sense , this movie reminded me of The Big Sleep. Watch it for an insight into the refined but ultimately banal lives of the top class, the predilection of capitalism to find its profit in anything from religion to revolution . It’s a modern allegory told in a manner that seems to imply that style is the substance.
 
The Last Duel: For a movie with such lofty ambitions, it should have given more for Jodie Comer to do.
Felt terribly let down by the writing in the last third, while enjoying the first two thirds more than anyone has a right to.
 
Hi all,
Since we are coming to the close of the calendar year, I thought I'd leave my top movies of 2021 here.
The idea being: All of us could drop our Top 10s here. And the rest of us can find some gems from your reccos... :)

Mine below is very genre (Thrillers > Action> Dramas laced with thrills/action/mystery > Noir), but that's how my year's been...

But I have already seen some eclectic suggestions in posts above, so, don't feel restricted; post anything you loved. For instance, am leaving out all Indian pics I enjoyed, cos am guessing most of us would have seen what we liked, but do feel free to leave Indian gems here)

10. Pixie
A crazy crime black comedy with a bit of a letdown of an ending (a mexican standoff kind of shootout). But everything that precedes it and the lead performance alone should be worth your time.

9. The Blood of Wolves II
Second part of an epic Japanese police and gangsters saga. Won't say anything else, cos it will spoil it for those who haven't seen the first part.

8. No Sudden Move
A lovely period noir drama by Soderbergh. Period.

7. The Dry
Aussie films have always fascinated me, so played this because of that. And the fact that it is fronted by Eric Bana :D
Probably the best police procedural/drama/book adaptation of the year. If you find a better police procedural from 2021, please drop a line. I would be very interested in seeing what that is.

6. Stillwater
Maybe Damon knew he was co-writing and working in The Last Duel, so he decided to do the Best Matt Damon Movie Set In Europe before that hit the theatres :D
Look out for lovely supporting acts from the girl from Little Miss Sunshine, another little girl called Maya, and her mother.

5. Pig
I will admit I would not have seen this had critics not championed it. Cage has kind of been doing some questionable films in the past years, and I had almost given up on one of my favourites from my growing up years.
So, when I started this, had no expectations but I was BLOWN AWAY.
Starts like a thriller, and ends on the most sombre and meaningful notes - has action, drama, comedy and anything else you may want in between.
Am guessing at least an Oscar nom for Cage.

4. No Time to Die
Loved how Danny Craig has kind of made the character his own. And even then, so easily has allowed the franchise to move forward with great vigour. I didn't know he was executive producer on this one until I saw the credits. But he has neatly bookended a great Bond career. People like my father will keep insisting Connery was the best, but Craig really has served MI6 stupendously for the past decade and a half.
The movie also, to me, foreshadows some bold future moves from Barbara Brocolli and her colleagues in the studio.

3. Card Counter
Schrader doing Schrader things. While I have always loved his work with Scorsese, am a bit ashamed to say that this was my first critical watch of a movie he has directed. Stunning from opening credits to the end credits with not a false step. So much so, I have resolved to hunt down his earlier directorial ventures and try and watch as many as possible in 2022.
Oscar Isaac just kills it - magnetic and owns the screen. And I don't even want to speak about the supporting cast, cos they are killing it too.

2. The Mauritanian
Very subdued, but handled with an assured hand. Pacing is extremely good and this is important -- it is a message movie, but it actually shows the rest of the world how to do a message movie in a very low-profile way. The end credits song introduced me to a lovely middle eastern artist.

1. Riders of Justice
An actor I have always loved. Movie starts like it is going to be an all-out actioner, and then goes towards drama, then a thriller, then comedy, and then black comedy, a bit more action, and finally socks you with an almighty hit on judgments, decisions and life itself towards the end.)
If I had to justify why number one among all the things made this year that I have watched it is this: All other movies, of course, were so well made and assured in the story telling, but none of the other movies knew where they were going as well as this one does, and that is what made it special. Once you let the ending sink in, everything else that came before it makes us look back at our own lives and the decisions we have taken and the judgments we have passed.
Hence.

0. CAN'T WAIT FOR: NIGHTMARE ALLEY :D

Other pics I loved in no particular order:
11. Percy vs Goliath
12. The Paper Tigers
13. Godzilla vs Kong
14. Gunpoweder Milkshake
15. Mr. Nobody
16. The Ice Road
17. Way Down
18. Wrath of Man
19. Copshop
20. The Little Things
21. The Protege
22. Kate
23. Black Widow
24. The Suicide Squad

And just for star power:
25: F9 and
26: Beckett, John David Washington's lo-fi pic which looked like it was shot in 2014 and released in 2021.
27: Liked Dune a lot, but what to judge? Considering where it ended, only hoping every one of that star cast got paid well...

PS: Might have missed some others, but will add if I remember them.
 
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The Tragedy of Macbeth ( Apple TV) - This interpretation of Macbeth is starkly different from the dark and messy offering by Roman Polanski. Visually the film has the clean lined angularity of a graphic novel and the stage like lighting effects give a very neo-noir vibe. While Denzel Washington works hard and awkwardly at times— perhaps one gets the impression because of his Hollywood DNA— to essay a role of Shakespearean proportions , Frances Macdermond’s Lady Macbeth isn’t a patch on Isudu Yamada ( Throne of Blood). The real star though are the subtitles. Shakespeare is such a genius that his writing inspires awe even after so many decades have passed since the ISC exams.
Macbeth as Wikipedia helpfully reveals has inspired almost thirty eight films in various languages not to mention many more literary works. My favourite though is James Thurber’s Macbeth Murder Mystery in which the book is read as a whodunit by some bored Americans and Thurber even throws his own hilarious polemic on the identity of the enigmatic ‘third murderer’.
 
Delicious - A fictional tale about how the first (fictional) restaurant came to be, just ahead of the French Revolution.
A fun watch that could also be one of the first great movies of the year. :)
 
Black Box (2021) French not to be confused with Black Box (2020) English.
A nice airliner procedural, which I only wish did not have the last five minutes.
Spoilers ahead:











Midway through the movie I did wonder why they tell us to put our devices off, and was thinking it could be because of the fact that these planes were made way before cell phones became ubiquitous even in the West.
(Also made me think about the massive negligence of Boeing.)
And towards the end, the movie made me realise that, of course, even our everyday usage of interconnected things are dangerous.
Additional reading:

Spoilers end

Give it a shot when available.

 
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