This is Episode 03 of the Un-kvlt retrospective of movies from 2022, where I conclude with the movies that I really liked from last year (See Ep 01 HERE and Ep 02 HERE). I intend to devote the next set of episodes to lower tier movies, that were either decent or outright sucked. Please leave your feedback to let me know if you think it's worthwhile.
Click on the video link to watch the video of Episode 03 or scroll down to the transcript below if you prefer to read:
Movies I was pleased with:
Atrangi Re (Hindi, Hotstar)
Anand L Rai's Atrangi Re treads some similar lines of glamorized treatment of mental illness and delusion that Imtiaz Ali's Tamasha did. But where Tamasha seemed to be wholly buried up its own ass, Atrangi Re, even though it had some serious flaws, just worked for me. It turned out to be one of the best 'Bollywood' masala movies made in recent times. Sincere performances, committed direction and a genuinely extraordinary score from AR Rahman. I totally agree with the end credits which mark out the film as a truly creative collaboration of the main crew. Just keep all your expectations of real world logic at the door...or further away.
Kimi (English, Prime)
In a career that began more than 30 years ago Steven Soderbergh has made a feature film almost every year, and unlikely for a big Hollywood director, he frequently doubles up as DoP and editor for many of his movies. Kimi is Soderbergh's "virtual windows" wink-wink homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. This is a fun watch, with Zoe Kravitz making for a credibly tenacious heroine. By giving her near superpowers towards the climax, the film loses some of its tension. But it's still worth the streaming, which is in my view how one should watch a cutting-edge thriller like this, not at cinemas or on ancient disc formats.
Kooman aka The Night Rider (Malayalam, Prime)
This is the new thriller from Jeethu Joseph, the man behind the Drishyam films. It's rather fun. The plot primarily deals with a cop who decides to moonlight as a burglar purely for the purpose of humiliating his senior colleagues. But very soon this burglar cop is being blackmailed by an unknown entity. A good amount of intrigue is generated in these sequences The last half hour goes into some absurd left-field material, and how much you dig it depends on you, but while I did have a certain "Whatever, man!" sentiment, it remained overall enjoyable and worth the watch.
Avatar: The Way of Water (English)
Avatar 2 is pretty much what I expected it would be. Storywise, it's stodgy and contrived. But James Cameron once again shows why, even in the age of the MCU, he is still king of the large scale technological spectacle. Staying true to the original design, the rendered visuals are seamless with the live action, showing impeccable fluidity and texture. The film's several action scenes are masterfully captured, with no shortcuts or confused edits. The visuals here ARE the story, and a gorgeous experience they make. I was engrossed enough in the world of Avatar 2 to not hugely mind its shortcomings in script and characters, and I wouldn't mind watching it again, on a bigger screen. (Reviewed on this site HERE)
The Long Good Friday (TLGF) begins with a confusing montage of scenes where you see a case stacked with money carried via multiple couriers to some remote location, then the guys who finally get it picked up by armed forces. This is followed by the scene of a funeral procession, from which one of the mourners detours to spit on a guy's face. We're yet to process the significance of these events when the movie's lead Bob Hoskins makes a grand entry as Harold Shand.
Harold is a successful mobster that has, either by eliminating his rivals or brokering a truce, managed to bring "peace" to London city. He is now in the midst of making a deal to get funds from across the ocean for a massive development project that will make him and his partners very rich. With an elegant mistress who doubles as a diplomat in his dealings (Helen Mirren) and an able team of lieutenants, Shand seems to have it all. But he receives a massive slap across the face with multiple violent incidents targeting his empire, almost in a single day.
Harold is outraged at this affront. Who is this invisible, but ruthless foe that has stepped out to challenge his fiefdom and endanger his crucial expansion plans? In frantic damage control mode he orders his men - including corrupt cop Parky (Dave King) - to dig out the perpetrators, while simultaneously soothing the apprehensions of American partner Charlie (Eddie Constantine). This is a tightrope act across a high-rise in a gale, and as the clock ticks, Harold finds the balance trickier.
Harold Shand is a terrifically conceived character. On one hand, he's a rough, ruthless thug with a violent streak (an assault with a broken bottle is shocking). But in his own manner he's also a British patriot - he wants to see London lead the "New Europe", and better the conditions of his old neighborhood. Harold is proud of his self-made status and isn't about to cow down to any challengers, whoever they may be.
I won't describe the plot elements any more, because for those that haven't already seen the film, the fun is in the finding out. Brian Keefe's script for TLGF has a lot going for it. It's a gritty crime drama that harks back to Mike Hodges' Get Carter for the treatment. The choice of Hoskins for the lead was a brave one - short, stocky and already balding he certainly was no Michael Caine in the looks department. But Hoskins brings a ferocity and, in his scenes with Mirren, a tenderness that totally sells the part. Even with the sadistic violence innate to Harold's nature, he manages to make you empathize with the man's feelings.
Helen Mirren also delivers a committed performance (apparently one that she insisted on rewrites for, the part originally being that of a typical moll). Between her and Bob, the chemistry is very believable, which goes a long way to immerse you in the film. There's a terrific supporting cast (including a young Pierce Brosnan in a nearly wordless role). DoP Phil Meheux's fluid camera and John Mackenzie's direction generate some memorable scenes - one set in a meat packing factory is incredible for its sheer audacity.
On the whole, TLGF comes recommended as a bloody good Brit crime drama. Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa (1986), also starring Hoskins and produced by Handmade Films, makes for a wonderful complement to this one.
A few words about the blu-ray presentation from Arrow Video:
Arrow's blu-ray transfer comes from an in-house 2K scan+restoration, which like Mona Lisa, was approved by the DoP. Apart from perhaps tighter grain resolution, I don't know if a 4k process would bring much by way of improvement, at least for blu-ray release. Detail is terrific, and the texture is respectful of the film's style and vintage. The mono audio is in great form as well, both for the dialog and for the excellent score. Extras include a director's audio commentary , a solid hour long documentary with inputs from the major cast and crew, and a few short newer interviews with selected crew members. I believe the booklet for this one was limited to the 2015 steelbook release that also had a bonus disc of extras.
Continuing with the retrospective of movies from 2022 which I had begun with Episode 1 (see it HERE), here is some more about the movies I really liked from last year. I hope you find this series sufficiently interesting to stick it out for the next episode where I conclude my list of 2022 winners from MY viewings.
Click the video link below for Episode 2 or scroll down to the transcript if you'd rather read:
Rorschach (Malayalam, Hotstar)
A slow-burn mystery with some supernatural leanings, this Mammootty starrer is another example of Kerala movie-makers taking the thriller into new directions and having fun with it. It might not seem so from the first 30min or so, which seems like those dreary mystery dramas Netflix so dearly loves, but when its central conceit was revealed - which I won't spoil for you - I was chuckling with delight. A clever screenplay is complimented with gorgeous night-time cinematography, skillful editing and interesting sound design. Except for the unnecessary and cliche HERO action sequences, this was a hoot.
Ponniyin Selvan - I (Tamil, Prime)
PS-1 is the first installment of director Mani Ratnam's long-gestating adaptation of Kalki's famous multi-volume Tamil literary saga heroing the 10th century era Chola Dynasty. For all my misgivings, this turned out a pleasantly nimble and engaging historical fantasy with a solid sense of fun. The movie avoids the stodgy, pompous air of most Indian period stories (Looking at you, Bahubali). The action scenes are lively, and the script incorporates a bouncy, irreverent humor without being facetious. Visually, it is absolutely gorgeous! I'm definitely looking forward to PS-2.
Kantara(Kannada, Prime)
This was the sleeper hit from the Kannada film industry that transcended language barriers, despite not being conceived as a pan-India narrative. Between the bookends of the intriguing opening and the climax, Kantara is in large measure a standard HERO glorifying venture. But that final segment in which the lead guy undergoes a transformation into a near-mythical entity is such a demented and incredibly visceral piece of heavy metal performance art, I was left breathless and shaking, with goosebumps sprouting over my goosebumps. For pure masala feel, that climax was an unmatched cinematic experience for me this year. (Reviewed on this site HERE)
It is no mean feat that the three films of Tomu Uchida that I have thus far seen - Bloody Spear at Mt Fuji (1955), The Mad Fox (1962) and A Fugitive from the Past (1965) - are so different from each other they may have as well been made by different people. But it is perhaps this absence of an obvious signature style that has made Uchida, widely acclaimed in his home country, a less recognized name internationally than vintage Japanese cinema's holy triumvirate of Kurosawa, Ozu and Mizoguchi. But his achievement in each of these films, and his versatility of craft across them, is significant enough to consider Uchida their creative equal.
Bloody Spear... is related in spirit to Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri in its realistic, unflinching look at the hypocrisies of the Samurai code, while The Mad Fox is a magical fable unraveled as a colorful theatrical tableau.Fugitive..., considered Uchida's magnum opus, has been repeatedly hailed as one of the greatest Japanese films of all time. At the outset its 3-hour running time may be daunting, but what Uchida has done is to divide the film into 3 roughly equal-sized narrative arcs.
In the first, set in 1947, a man called Takichi Inukai (Rentaro Mikuni) is fleeing with 2 others from the scene of a crime in provincial Hokkaido. Taking advantage of the confusion caused by a typhoon disaster, they steal a boat and escape to a neighboring island. Later we see Takichi alone, avoiding notice as he makes his way through the countryside. While stealing food he espies a strange seance ritual conducted by a blind old woman. Jumping onto a makeshift country train later, he meets a girl from the seance. The girl Yae (Sachiko Hidari) seems inordinately happy to have made his acquaintance, sharing her food and even dragging him over to her "place". We learn that she's a prostitute (this is from the time when prostitution was not yet illegal in Japan). With a somewhat disturbing familiarity, Yae alternately provokes and submits to Takichi, and they end up having a passionate roll in bed. The next day Takichi leaves abruptly, leaving Yae a generous sum of money. She also retains a clipped fingernail of his as a souvenir of her mysterious benefactor. This segment has a touch of film noir. There are the archetypes of the criminal and the whore - outcasts, but with an lining of human decency. Their hurried, almost needy romance is also a strong noir element. During this time we also see the efforts of Hokkaido detective Yumisaka (JunzaburÅ Ban) to track down Takichi and his associates.
The next phase puts Takichi aside and makes Yae the fulcrum. When Yumisaka's investigation leads to Yae, she deliberately misleads him. Using the money Takichi left to repay her family debts, Yae heads off to Tokyo to find more 'honorable' work (as a serving girl). Later on adverse circumstances force her to return to prostitution. A large part of the second act is about Yae's life in the seamy side of Tokyo (shades of Shohei Imamura's Insect Woman, in which also Hidari played, but as a much more cynical and steel-willed character). Some of the critical writing on this film suggests that poor provincials from places like Hokkaido were looked down upon in class-conscious mainstream Japanese society; very few professional avenues were open to them. After the decade that passes, even prostitution may no longer be feasible on account of impending laws. During all this period, Yae's gratitude to Takichi never wanes. She continues to seek her savior, often talking to his fingernail as a proxy. Nearly a decade after their initial meeting she one day manages to locate Takichi. But when she meets him, he denies the previous identity and all knowledge of her. The encounter ends with a tragic double-crime.
Fugitve...'s last arctakes another turn, becoming a procedural that harks back to 1963's High & Low (reviewed on this site HERE). The bodies of Yae and another man have been found, and it is soon apparent that they have been murdered. Takichi, in his guise of a philanthropic businessman, shrugs off any knowledge of the affair. But once Yae's origins are unearthed and the now-retired Yumisaka readily joins the hunt for the criminal that eluded him all through his career, the trail unmistakably leads to Takichi's door. What follows is a cat and mouse game between Takichi and the cops (led by Susumu Fujita, who'd played a similar part in High & Low). To know the whole truth, one must return to the original crime that started it all. Even apart from the procedural aspect, Fugitive shares the same humanist sentiment High & Low had. Remember the criminal's breakdown in the epilogue for that one? While not admitting to all the crimes (the film is ambivalent about his guilt), Takichi justifies his actions on the basis of the prejudice people of his standing must face when confronted by the law. The impartiality of justice is a myth: wealth and social class are what determine the justice one gets in this world.
Uchida's saga is not just a dry philosophical exercise. Technically also, Fugitive... is an accomplished film. The cinematography (Hanjiro Nakazawa) often reflects not just the environment, but the psychological states of the characters. 16mm footage blown up to 35mm is used to give a grainy newsreel quality to events. When exploring the minds of its characters, the film plays with the exposure of the celluloid stock, generating an otherworldly quality in the images. Uchida uses sound in interesting ways, often suppressing background noises purely to focus on specific elements of a scene. Isao Tomita's brooding Buddhist chant inspired score is also an integral component of the film's atmosphere. With all its achievements, Fugitive... unmistakably deserves to be counted among the world's "great" films and Tomu Uchida is certainly to be respected as the driving force behind it.
I owe Arrow a great debt for introducing me to Tomu Uchida's cinema with their releases of the films I'd mentioned at the start. This is another strong entry from the label that matches up to every imaginable "criterion". The video presentation is not easy to judge per se on account of the very deliberate capture and processing techniques used. The blown up 16mm footage has a soft slightly un-focused look with loose grain. The solarized images obviously will not have top-notch contrast. That said, at least my amateur eyes cannot detect anything that appears to be outside of the film-maker's intent. The Japanese mono audio is strong, most noticeable in the Tomita soundtrack, which sounds full-bodied. There's a wonderful array of scholarly extras befitting the film's quality. Jasper Sharp gives an in-depth introduction to Uchida's career and the real-life influences on Fugitive... There is a selection of scene-specific commentaries from various film experts. These are not played as accompaniment to the main feature, but the clips are specifically curated to the commentaries, so they are more like video essays. The bitrate here is DVD-level, but that's perfectly okay. I appreciated all of them, except Earl Jackson's, which I thought was too pretentious and eager to be meaningful. There is also a lengthy feature trailer (which first lists all the acclaim the film has got) and an image gallery. I must talk about the booklet as well. It is a hearty 47 pages, of which more than 30 pages are text in the form of two substantial essays. I haven't completely read them, but I feel reasonably assured of a satisfactory experience.
Even if it had been offered as a barebones release, this film deserves your attention. In its current avatar it is a must-have for any discerning fan of vintage arthouse cinema.
As has become an annual ritual for this blog, I have put together a compendium of the films released this year which I had seen (either at the cinema or on streaming), segregated based on my personal rankings, with a excerpted opinion on each. Where possible, I have tried to list the streaming network on which the film / program is currently showing in India. Without more ado...
Movies I was pleased with:
Pada (Malayalam, Prime)
Based on incredible but true-to-life events, Pada is the story of how a gang of Naxal revolutionaries hold a government administrator hostage, demanding in ransom a rollback of exploitative rulings about the ownership of land. The film is a terrific example of how when it comes to well-crafted non-preachy gripping humanist dramas, Kerala cinema rules over most other Indian film industries. The first half of Pada is something that Christopher Nolan's best work represents, a textbook of taut multi-threaded rhythmic build-up of narrative. The second half maintains the tension and the final reveal is a brilliant emotional release. Highly recommended, just make sure to not read too much beforehand.
The Batman (English, Prime)
While it is inspired by the tone of the preceding Christopher Nolan series, The Batman thankfully doesn't repeat the already too many times told origin story or try to beat you as much over the head with turgid grandiosity. The bulk of the narrative is a noir-ish cop mystery action drama (where one of the cops just happens to dress up like a bat). The action, when it happens, is furious and grounded, with some stunning shadowy cinematography. Definitely a promising new movie direction for the Dark Knight detective. (Discussed on this site HERE)
RRR (Telugu, Hotstar)
A movie so hyped it needs no introduction. I'm not quite convinced that RRR is the Second Coming, I still think Eega is the best example thus far of director Rajamouli's imagination. but it is good as a bombastic entertainer. The best parts of course are the thrill sequences, where a lot of thought has gone into building the action. The story reminds me of 1985's Amitabh Bachchan starrer Mard, which is an epitome of giddy ludicrousness. This one doesn't hit that same level, but scores with its greater technical polish. While Bollywood imports Ajay Devgan and Alia Bhatt are empty marquee names here, both Ram Charan and NTR Jr kick ass and take names and blow up a storm. (Reviewed on this site HERE)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (English)
The sequel is a thoughtful expansion of the BP narrative, very respectful of the late Chadwick Boseman's impact with the title character. Sombre threads of loss and grief run through the film, but always in a moving and dignified manner - the scenes between the film's pivotal women characters make for some of its best moments. But the mandatory insertion of jokes from the Marvel Movie Template jar with the film's tone, and the villain Namor, after an intriguing introduction, is reduced to a boilerplate power maniac. WF was certainly more interesting than the last couple of Avengers movies for me, but it undercuts its own potential for a richer narrative. (Reviewed on this site HERE)
For Movie with Mum night last weekend, I picked a title a friend had heartily recommended as a simple, very clean and wholesome entertainer - Saivam aka Vegetarian (2014). My favorite Indian movie critic Baradwaj Rangan also gave it a 'crowing' review. The friend was partly right about the movie - it was simple, clean and wholesome. Entertainer? Well...
Veteran actor Nassar is Kathiresan, the agrarian patriarch of a multi-generational family spread across the map. The members only meet up at the ancestral home during festivals or other important occasions, so as they roll in one by one, Kathir is overjoyed at the prospect of seeing the whole brood together again. He is a strict (but just) patriarch the rest of the family slightly fears. The punishment for any transgression of rules seems to be "Murga ban jao" (roughly "make a rooster pose", a common form of non-corporeal punishment for young children in India). This choice of punishment has greater resonance in the narrative that follows, but I suspect that in this family, even armed assault or murder could be forgiven after a "murga" penitence.
Kathir's grandchild from the son that lives with him is Tamizhselvi (Sara Arjun, who exudes so much goody-goody cuteness, diabetic viewers are in danger of going into a coma). On the other hand his grandson from a Dubai-settled daughter (Ray Paul) is a total arsehole. I was wondering if this was going to be a "Desi upbringing = good kids, urban upbringing = brats" homily, but thankfully there are other urban characters not like this brat. As to why he was pampered to be such a dick can probably be explained by the very Indian tendency to deify sons over daughters.
Saivam tries to generate a good deal of humor in the interaction between the rural and urban members. When the brat asks about wi-fi in the house, the family servant (actor George Maryan channeling his inner Goundamani) points to the various Wai-fu's (wives) in the family; that not satisfying the brat, he offers to go to the market immediately "to purchase some wi-fi for the young master". There's also the track of adolescent Senthil (Luthfudeen, in real life Nassar's son) who has a crush on his cousin (Twara Desai), but finds himself stymied every chance he tries to get her alone. Meanwhile his own younger brother gets to smooth-talk with the girl (and hilariously name drops Abhishek and Aishwarya as an example of 'older woman' couples).
Most importantly there's the murga aka rooster. He's called Paapa (meaning, baby). All the farm animals in that house have names. The irony is that the family is heartily non-vegetarian. Tamizh is very attached to Paapa, and the affection seems mutual; early scenes show Paapa repeatedly scampering off to her school. So when some ill omens remind Kathir that Paapa had been originally promised as a sacrifice to the village deity, Tamizh resolves to save her fowl friend from the family by means fair or foul. What happens next forms the rest of the movie.
Saivam has the bones of a cliched but pleasant family experience. The bare script is fine and the casting is quite good - I appreciate that they have actual adolescent actors and not obvious adults dressing in "college fashion". But the treatment is too broad. Tamizh is so angelic and self-sacrificing it never rings true. For instance she hides her bruises so as to not worry her grandparents, and at one point calls a childless aunt as "Amma" (mother) to help her dodge an embarrassing situation, which little kid does that? Conversely, the a-hole grandkid is an unmitigated brat, with no other dimensions or plot arc. A multi-threaded converging sequence in the middle where the family goes out in groups to hunt for the missing rooster has a very solid build-up, but ends up an overlong noise-fest.
A narrative of this intimate scope needs to get the micro-details and textures absolutely right, because they are what give personality to a story of this type. Great examples of this are Kaaka Muttai or K.D. So while there were some very good individual moments, I did not find Saivam sufficiently immersive overall to give it a hearty thumbs up. YMMV.
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