Zodiac

 American true crime mystery movie “Zodiac” (2007) directed by David Fincher and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr. among others.

Its based on a true crimes committed by one Zodiac who left ciphers and sent letters to the San Francisco Chronicle. Jake Gyllenhaal is a cartoonist in the SFC and Robert Downey Jr. a reporter in the same newspaper.

Mark Ruffalo is handling the case but they get no clues. They interview one Arthur Leigh Allen and all clues point to him as the possible Zodiac. But the handwriting match turns negative and the case is lost.

Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) pursues the case doggedly though he is only a cartoonist and not a police man. He is interested in the cipher code and does a lot of leg work which points him to Arthur Leigh Allen.

Mike Mageau who is the survivor from the first shooting of the couple in 1969 identifies Allen as the man who shot him. But by the time they start investigation, Allen dies of a heart attack.

So officially this case remains unsolved in America’s crime history. A rather longish movie which painstakingly takes the viewers through the happenings from 1969 onwards to more than 25 years later. A lot of detailing has gone into the script.

Of the actors, both Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo have done good roles as required of them. IMDB 5/10

Pygmalion

 George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion being adapted into a film in 1938 directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller among others. The film stays true to the play, well almost. Professor Higgins (Leslie Howard) is a professor of phonetics & linguistics, and while wandering about in lowly Convent Garden, gets into a scrap with a flower girl Eliza Dolittle (Wendy Hiller). Just then Colonel Pickering comes by, he is an expert of linguistics and dialects himself and wants to meet Higgins, having returned from India. Pickering challenges Higgins to improve the flower girl in a few weeks. Eliza lands up on his doorstep the next morning to learn from him. Then follows the most exacting phase of her life while she tries to throw away her Welsh cockney accent and to adapt a proper British accent with pronunciation, grammar, manners, etiquette etc. Higgins accepts an invitation to an embassy reception with trepidation as to how Eliza would perform. It became his obsession and luckily Eliza goes through with flying colours. Higgins thinks he has won the battle but what has to become of Eliza, where will she go back now that she has become a proper lady, she won't be able to go back to selling flowers. Higgins is unfortunately not able to make that connection.  Higgins comes across as a self centred egomaniac and for him every girl is like a subject to him, like his triumph. Wendy Hiller got nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars. Superb acting by both Wendy Miller and Leslie Howard, both stayed true to script. 

Ad Astra

Ad Astra, a 2019 science fiction drama movie directed by James Grey and starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Liv Tylor, Donald Sutherland among others. It is more of a psychological drama movie rather than pure technology although there is a lot of science frontiers being broken down as shown in the movie, for eg. colonies in moon, Mars and space travel to Saturn, Jupiter & Neptune. Brad Pitt (Roy McBride) is the son of Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones) who has gone away to space for 30 years in search of intelligent life on the universe, in the process he has travelled to Saturn, Jupiter and now stationed near Neptune. His space station has created some cosmic ray disturbances which has affected Earth also, so the son sets out to locate his dad in the vast universe, which takes 79 days from Mars itself. Lot of emotional tug of war between father and the son later, earth is safe from the cosmic disturbances and the power surges. The movie drags a bit in the middle especially when Brad is about to reach Neptune to find his dad after 3 decades. There is no emotional re-union sort of, the Dad has more or less lost his contact and interest in Earth. The movie was nominated to the Oscars in the sound mixing category. The special effects in the movie is quite extraordinary, it is in the human connect that the movie finds its weak spot. 
 

Open Water 2: Adrift

 

An open water adventure holiday gone horribly wrong. Open Water 2: Adrift is projected as based on true events, but with the kind of human stupidity depicted in the movie, i doubt if humans can be so stupid. Three pairs of couples go on a yatch holiday out in the open sea or ocean, far away from shore. One couple has an infant daughter also on board, which itself was a risky thing to take such a young one on a ship or a yatch cruise. Four of the members jump into the water to do a swim which i thought was another stupid thing to do, who swims in open ocean far away from land, maybe some do perhaps. Of the remaining, Amy (Susan May Pratt) has a phobia for water because of an incident in her childhood when her father drowned while swimming with her. The other guy Dan (Eric Dane) is ostensibly the owner of the yatch, but later reveals that he is a fraud and that the yatch is actually belonging to his boss. What kind of a boss allows his employee to take his yatch out to a cruise, beats me. Anyway, both of them also jump into the water, without realising that nobody has bothered to put the ladder down or keep the hatch down so that people can climb back. Dan is such an idiot that he does not realise the blunder he has committed endangering everybody's lives. All of them are stuck down in the water with nary any hold or groove to climb back. Soon one after another start drowning. The movie advertised shark attack, but there was nothing of that sort, even though blood oozed from a couple of the guys. 

The General

 

Buster Keaton and his rip roaring comedy in The General (1926) one of the finest silent era comedy films of all time. Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton) is a train engineer and loves his engine and his lady love Annabelle (Marion Mack). When war breaks out, time comes to enlist for the Confederates, but he is rejected and his lady love also rejects him without an uniform. In the meanwhile, the Confederates are infiltrated by some spies who steal his train and make off with the supplies. Off goes Johnny after the train and some delightful comic scenes follows. Annabelle is meanwhile kept as captive by the Union soldiers and then Johnny has to rescue her, so some more delectable comic scenes. Buster Keaton's comic timings were superb in the movie somewhat reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin. Fight ensues between Union and Confederate soldiers much to the relief and joy of the Confederates. Brilliant movie to watch especially for Buster Keaton. The direction and camera work were quite superb for that era, especially shots of the moving trains and the wilderness. Who knew a silent movie would prove to be so powerfully comic. Brilliant. 

The Squaw Man

 

A 1914 silent era movie "The Squaw Man" directed by the great Cecil de Mille and the first western ever in Hollywood. It is one of those cult movies in the history of movies. Starring Warner Baxter as Jim, Eleanor Boardman as Diana, Lupe Velez as Naturich, its a story where an Englishman Jim has had to leave England to save his face and family name, following the swindling of the war regiment cash by his cousin Henry. Jim has to take the blame on himself and unfortunately he loves Diana who is Henry's wife. So all sort of tangles there. He escapes to America, where he becomes a wild west man, gets into a conflict with a local goon there Cash Hawkins, who is killed by Naturich. Later Jim and Naturich marry and have a kid. In the meanwhile Henry dies in an alpine fall accident and his dying confession absolves Jim of all the wrongdoings. Diana comes to America to reunite with Jim and ask him to take his rightful place as the Earl. There is no music, unlike in Battleship Potemkin which had great orchestral music. And with no sound, and only the few notes to let us know what is going on in the movie. Cecil de Mille made a 1931 version of the same movie, but with sound and dialogues, but that version is unfortunately not available on youtube.  

Old Enough

 

Winner at Sundance Film Festival in 1984, Old Enough is a coming of age story of two young girls from contrasting backgrounds. Karen (Rainbow Harvest) from a struggling neighbourhood with a somewhat abusive father to boot, and Lonnie (Sarah Boyd) from a rich upper class society with all the comforts that her parents can give her. They meet and become friends and hang out together, Lonnie experiencing lot of things that she could never get with her rich upbringing and Karen overawed at the comforts and extravaganza of Lonnie household. Karen has a moral streak though, going to church, confessing and all that stuff   but she also has a knack of lifting things from a shopping mall. Karen's brother Johny (Neill Barry) about the same age and showing some interest in Lonnie and she getting slightly infatuated with him and all that stuff. Johny in turn becomes infatuated with a new neighbour in their building. It all happens one summer. The kids discovering new things as they grow up and their friendship with each other coming as they are from different backgrounds, that is the sum of the movie. 

Brief Encounter

Brief Encounter, a 1946 film starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard and directed by David Lean. It got Celia Johnson her nomination for the Oscars. An interesting story of two middle aged, married individuals falling in love unexpectedly and not able to do anything about it. It just happened just like that. Laura (Celia Johnson) is a happily married woman with two kids and a doting husband, and she always goes every Thursday to the townside by train and then she shops, changes her books in the library and goes to watch a movie, almost solo, and almost ritual like. She unexpectedly runs into Dr. Alec (Trevor Howard) who is a general practitioner and who also comes into town every Thursday to visit the hospital and relieve his friend of his duties. When Laura is standing too close to the tracks and one train passes by, some girt goes into her eyes, and Dr. comes to the rescue. One thing leads to another and in no time, their Thursday ritual gets more deeper and meaningful and they both realise that are in love with each other. Both also suffer from guilt because both have families to look forward to. Its a nice soft movie, not much of preaching going on, something that happened to two individuals without any hidden motive or malice behind it. Production values were quite good for that era. The background music by Sergei Rachmaninoff was quite exceptional.  

 

The Song of Bernadette

 

Brilliantly made film on the life of Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) a girl who sees a vision in a grotto in Lourdes in France. Bernadette played by Jennifer Jones in an absolutely magnificent role befitting the Oscars for Best Actress given to her as well as the Golden Globe awards for that year. The Song of Bernadette (1943) directed by Henry King remains true to the story of Bernadette Soubirous. The film is beautifully made with superb camera work and cinematography, outstanding for that era. Bernadette sees a vision of a lady in white, while going to fetch wood for her family. Only she can see the apparition, nobody else and she communicates with the lady. Initially even her family doubts her story and so do the other villagers of Lourdes, but eventually one miracle occurs when a spring appears where there were only rock and stones and shrub, and the waters from that spring starts curing people of their illnesses. The church was initially against her, but the Dean of Lourdes starts believing her even as the higher authorities in Rome impose one commission after another to ferret out the real truth. The bureaucrats of Lourdes are totally against her and even want to arrest her on some old 1789 law. Jennifer Jones has done a splendid role, doing full justice to the character.  Eventually Bernadette is sent to become a sister. The climax of the movie is quite beautiful and sad and poignant. Worth watching for the acting of Jennifer Jones, the beautiful cinematography and camera work.   

The Stranger

 

1946 psycho drama film starring Orson Welles, Loretta Young and directed by Orson Welles himself. The film has dark shades as Charles Rankin (Orson Welles) a school teacher in Harper, Connecticut could possibly be an ex-Nazi criminal by the name of Franz Kindler. He is about to marry Mary (Loretta Young) the daughter of one of the judges of the US Supreme Court. UN War Commission is after Kindler who has left Germany without leaving any trace behind, save for one of his associates Meinike who is a prisoner in a Czechoslovakia prison. Meinike is released in the hope that he will try to contact Kindler and as expected he does go after him to Connecticut. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) who is heading the UN Commission goes after Meinike in order to prise out Kindler. Wilson plays the waiting game for Kindler to fall into his trap. Nice noir movie with Orson Welles playing a super role that of a hard core, unrepenting criminal, Loretta Young as the confused and disbelieving wife and Robinson as the cool and composed cop. The film was released in 1946 which means production must have taken place sometime in late 1945, when the war had just ended with the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombing in August 1945. Quite a brilliant effort for that era, when many movie goers must not yet have realised the depravity of the Nazi concentration camps.    

A Star is Born

This is not the 2018 version of the film, but the first version that was made in 1937 by William A Wellman and starring Janet Gaynor, Frederic March among others. Well, don't know how the other versions petered out, but i guess it should be more or less the same. Esther Blodgett (Janet Gaynor in an award winning performance) yearns to be a movie star and runs away from her home to Hollywood to become one, encouraged by her grandmother. A chance encounter with a fading movie star Norman Maine (Frederic March) gives her a foot room in the movies and she latches onto it. Meanwhile she and Norman fall in love but while her fortunes are on the ascendancy, his goes down plus he gets into drunken brawl, gets arrested and all. A beautiful story of love and tragedy between two people with the bitter press and jealousies getting in between them. Apparently it is a kind of a cult classic, which it has been made four times so far. 

 

Ocean's 8

One look at the star cast of Ocean's 8 and I am like "oh no" not her. But yeah Sandra Bullock was in the lead cast and more so as Danny Ocean's sister coming out of 5 years jail term. Danny has apparently died off in 2018. How Danny died is conveniently left out. So this is an all girls heist program to steal a diamond necklace off the neck of a model (Anne Hathaway) using the varied skills of an Indian diamantire, an African American hacker, a Chinese shoplifter - so you have all the markets covered - India, China, the African American - they left out Hispanics this time. Of all the cast Cate Blanchett was the only saving grace. Watch it at the risk of losing your nap time. Rating 1/5, frankly they should have killed the franchise then and there itself after Ocean's 13.

The Edge of Seventeen

Watched this movie called "The Edge of Seventeen" yesterday on Amazon Prime Video. Its a teenage coming of age kinda movie. At first i thought it would be irrelevant and got ready to get bored. But as the movie went along it was quite a pleasant surprise. It was a good movie. Hailee Steinfeld is a young kid growing up with no emotional support. She has an elder brother who is more loved and more popular and she has no friends at all. Only her dad is her emotional support which is quite natural with the Oedipus complex and all. As she grows up, she then befriends one girl Kyra Sedgwick and that's it. Then her dad unexpectedly passes away. So there you are - lone girl, no friends, introvert - how she copes up with loneliness, trauma and decision to commit suicide is what makes up the rest of the movie. The movie treats all these aspects very well without being very preachy and all. Pretty good acting by Hailee Steinfeld and decent by others. Rating 5/5 

Absolute Power

Absolute Power is a 1997 thriller starring Clint Eastwood, Laura Linney, Gene Hackman among others based on the book by David Baldacci. Clint Eastwood is Luther Whitney a master thief, who goes into the mansion of billionaire Walter Sullivan in order to rob his jewels and cash. While there he witnesses a murder scene involving the President of the United States and Walter's young wife. Walter happens to be a close friend of the President and was in fact responsible for putting him in the White House. The President and Walter's wife are both inebriated and try to have sex but it goes wrong, a scuffle takes place between the two and in the process secret service agents break into the bedroom and fire shot which kills Walter's wife. Meanwhile Luther has witnessed all these and he escapes from there subtly while picking up the pen knife which was used in the scuffle. Luther has a daughter Kate (Laura Linney) who is a public prosecutor but who is also estranged from her father. Meanwhile detective Seth Frank (Ed Harris) starts investigation of the event. Kate agrees to meet her father at a café but while there he is shot at by two people, one of them being secret service agent and another a sharp shooter hired by Walter. Kate is then forced off her car into a cliff which seriously injures her. Luther saves her and is at the hospital when one of the secret service guy tries to kill her there, but Luther intercepts and puts him to rest. The case reaches its conclusion when Luther becomes the stand by driver of Walter and tells him the whole story. Nice gripping movie with good performances by Clint Eastwood and Laura Linney. 

Live by Night

Live by Night is a 2016 drama film starring Ben Affleck, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana among others. It is a prohibition era movie when gangsters ruled the roost in American cities. Ben (Joseph) is a small time gangster just back from world war I duties but he runs into Robert White who is owning the Irish gang in Boston. Joseph falls into love with his daughter Sienna (Emma) but they fall out with each other and Joseph is in jail for a bank heist and murder of three policemen. Joseph comes out and straight way goes to the Italian boss Maso Pescotore out in Florida, where he establishes their side of operations with his friend Dion. Out there Joseph falls in love with the sister of the Cuban mafia, Joe Saldana and there are some steaming scenes between them. In the meantime, he is supported by the local sheriff but his daughter Loretta (Elle Fanning) who wants to become an actress in Hollywood, instead becomes a prostitute. The sheriff's brother in law meanwhile is a member of the KKK and he starts bombing various premises of Joseph. To extract revenge against the brother in law, Joseph produces some incriminating photographs of Loretta and asks for the head of the brother in law in return for giving details of the address of Loretta. Loretta comes out and promptly becomes a nun declaiming all the gambling activities in the Miami area including a gambling house which Joseph was planning on setting up. As expected things reach a head between the Irish gangs and the Italian gangs in the end. Of the acting only Sienna Miller is praiseworthy, Ben Affleck is wooden throughout the movie. Too much of sub plots in the movie. Overall rating 2/5 

Cruel Intentions

Cruel Intentions is a 1999 movie starring Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Selma Blair among others. Its an absolutely horrible movie made with bad script, horrible acting and rotten story line. Ryan and Sarah are rich step siblings, but all they think of is to seduce others. Sarah has a drug problem also. Ostensibly their parents are not shown, but like super ultra rich they have their own obsessions. Sarah is all the time plotting others' downfall, while Ryan is equally the same but he writes a journal. His newest exploit is Reese who is the school principal's daughter but he falls in love with her instead. Lots of things happens in between, but in the end I am happy that it got finished. Rating 0.00001/5 

The Exorcist - cult classic

Revisited the 1973 cult classic "The Exorcist" yesterday. It was and still is the greatest horror movie ever made. Don't remember what were my emotions when I saw it first time in 1979 or around but this movie still gives the creeps. Those days Hollywood movies were released in India 5 to 6 years after their first release abroad so that is why we got to see the movie in 1979 or thereabouts, when I was in college. Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil is simply the most powerful devil incarnate ever. None of the latter horror movies ever comes close to this ultimate cult classic. The devil penetration into Regan happens ever so slowly and that is most beautifully done. The first instance we see is when she undergoes a medical examination with Dr.Klein. Then when she suddenly blows out it is most terrifying. She is all raw power when she says "stick your cock up her ass, you motherfucking worthless cocksucker" 

This piece of dialogue when Father Lancester Merrin tries to drive the evil away is epic. 

Father Merrin: I cast you out! Unclean spirit!

Demon: Shove it up your ass, you faggot!

Father Merrin: In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is he who commands you! It is he who flung you from the gates of Heaven to the depths of Hell!

Demon: Fuck him!

Father Merrin: Be gone...

Demon: Fuck him, Karras! Fuck him!

Father Merrin: ...from this creature of God! Be gone! In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

Of the cast, Jason Miller as Father Damien Karras is outstanding. When he enters her room and finds his mother sitting there and then he realises what is to be done, he comes down and sits on the bench. That is the most poignant scene ever in the movie.

These were great cult movies, The Exorcist, The Omen, Jaws, Alien - all absolutely great movies. 

Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club is a 2013 American movie based on a real life story of Ron Woodruff who is diagnosed with AIDS but does not get the medicines because FDA has not approved of them. These are early days of the AIDS treatment and the research is still picking up on what is the best medicine for AIDS. Mathew McConaughey has brilliantly played the lead role of Ron, for which he won the Best Acting Oscar. Jennifer Garner as the supportive doctor has also played a superb role. The more I see of Jennifer Garner acting, the more I feel that she is developing in a fine actor in the mould of Meryl Streep. So Ron does not get the AZT because they are still on trial, but he goes to Mexico and gets dDc and peptide T, which is a protein from a local doctor there whose licence has been squashed. He brings a bootful load of medicines masquerading as a padre who requires them for his cancer treatment. Meanwhile he starts selling the medicines to fellow AIDS patients who are similarly denied the AZT treatment and forms the Dallas Buyers Club. His activity prompts other cities to form similar clubs like Florida Buyers Club which is mentioned in the movie. Ron gets into business with a transgender and sets about charging $400 as membership fee for the Dallas Buyers Club. But FDA confiscates his supplies and then IRS sets about investigating his activities. Meanwhile Jenifer is forced to resign from her post because she is seen as supporting the Club activities.

I liked the way this difficult subject was treated in the film. In India we don't see these kind of autobiographical movies which are even slightly controversial. We have sports and politics bio pics which are far away from truth and which are more like goody goody movies with a lot of song and dance. 

Babel

Babel is  a 2006 film starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett among others. It is set in four different countries Morocco Mexico, United States and Japan and the movie moves from one setting to another. Brad Pitt and his wife Cate are on a holiday to Morocco, leaving their two kids behind with their Mexican nanny in the US. They are emotionally distraught from having lost their third kid and so their marriage is on a strain. While in the bus, Cate is accidentally shot by a stray shot from one goatherd up in the mountains. The goatherd and his brother were given the gun by their uncle who gave it to them for protecting the herd from wolves. So Brad struggles with his bleeding wife and some emotionally disturbed co-passengers who think it is a terrorist attack and want to leave as soon as possible. Cate is taken to the village of the bus tour guide where there is no hospital but a local veterinary doctor sews up her wound. Meanwhile the nanny in the US has to go to Mexico for her son's wedding but the parents are not back, so she decides to take the kids with her to Mexico, a risky job but they manage to cross the border safely. Out in Japan, a deaf girl Rinko Kakuchi is shown as a rebellious kid and has unnatural sexual drive. She is recovering from the suicide of her mother so uses sexuality as a balm to calm her. She does not succeed any time. Her father Koji Yakusho is equally emotional disturbed and he has given away the gun as a memento to the goatherd's uncle. When the Japanese detective asks him about his wife's death, he says that he shot herself with a rifle, not jumping from the balcony. The connection between these stories slowly comes to the fore. There is one strand which connects all these stories. Absolutely powerful movie directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. The music by Gustavo Santaolalla is simply breath taking. I watched this movie on Amazon Prime Video, unfortunately the movie did not have any sub-titles, which is a major drawback. The acting by the cast is absolutely good. There are so many languages used in the movie - Moroccan, Spanish, English, Japanese, Sign language but there were no sub-titles. The movie is mostly shot on actual locations which is breath taking. Adriana Barazza as the nanny has done a superb role. The Moroccan part of the actors were also extremely good and lifelike. 

Escape from Alcatraz

Escape from Alcatraz is a 1979 movie starring Clint Eastwood depicting the true story of a dramatic escape from maximum security prison at Alcatraz. Clint Eastwood plays Frank Morris who arrives at the Alcatraz prison for what we are not told, but to whom the warden informs that no one has ever escaped from his prison. Frank plans an escape with three others after finding that the concrete around his grill in his cell is weak and could be chipped away. Then they work around the plan over several months making a papier mache doll of his like image to ensure that he can rendezvous around the prison to find out his escape plan. On the appointed day, one of the four panics but the other three carefully make their way around the prison through various obstacles. From the prison to the main land is a mile long water body and where the water is so cold that people can drown in minutes of numbness. But these guys make a life raft out of rain coats.

Clint Eastwood as usual displays his deep stoic expression as in all his movies. There are no female characters.