A Look Back on 2023 in Movies

Unlike most of the folks preparing for their NYE parties, my day job does not give me an off for the next day, so here I am sitting by my lonesome, filing the time by keying in my annual retrospective of watch experiences. If I have generated enough of a guilt feeling to dampen your spirits a little, that's mission accomplished. No? Oh well, we move on.

Compared to the last couple of years 2023 had me watching more films at the cinema, although they still add up only to a handful.  I also watched a few more web-shows than I normally do. Anyway here's this year in retrospective, divided into the usual good-bad-ugly categories (and listing the current streaming networks they're available on in India). Some of the choices will raise an eyebrow or sneering comment, but I'm just going by my gut instinct here. This list also includes a couple of releases from Nov-Dec 2022, which I only caught this year.

The Good Stuff

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (English, Netflix) About, this movie the first thing I would say is THE HYPE IS REAL. Visually outstanding, upping the ante on the terrific first film, this one is equally engaging drama-wise and leaves me wanting for the concluding installment like a heroin junkie craving for his fix.

12th Fail (Hindi) It's old-fashioned, it's sentimental, it's idealistic...it's also one of the best films Vinod Chopra has made (definitely better than anything his protege Raju Hirani made), and an object lesson in how mainstream Indian cinema need not be solely the exaggerated machismo jackasserie the industry is celebrating right now. I LOVED it. (Detailed review HERE)

Nanpakal Neratthu Mayakkam (Malayalam, Netflix) Apart from its all too on-the-nose "screen within the screen" conceit that constantly blares a sensory overload of symbolic dialog and songs, NNM is a pretty darn good whimsical little story about a man that appears to have been occupied by the spirit of another man, the ripples it creates in the lives of the people that knew each of the men, and finally his own identity crisis. Both director Lijo Jose Pelissery and star Mammootty seemed to have had a ball making it. Not a masterpiece like Ee Maa Yau, but damn good all the same.

Bheed (Hindi, Netflix) I thought Anubhav Sinha's film was pretty damn good as a story of grounded heroism in which a cop manning a state border post has to contend with busloads of migrant passengers trying to reach their home while he has orders to keep them out. Rajkummar Rao is a terrific protagonist and there is a sterling supporting cast. The movie falters somewhat when it tries to portray a larger picture about the govt's mismanagement as well as the more generalized points about class differences in society. But when it focuses on the characters and their drama it is a fine example of a more credible coming of age hero story.

Thankam (Malayalam, Amazon Prime) Thankam is a moral mystery (like another of Biju Menon's films - Aarkkariyam). It has its narrative slips (not tight enough in the procedural segments), but the easy depiction of deep friendships, and the emotional upheavals that come from unraveling of the secrets withheld even between the best of friends is terrific. Add in great performances from the lead cast (Biju, Vineeth Srinivasan and Girish Kularni) and some nail-biting tense individual scenes, and this noir-inflected drama is a worthwhile watch.

Dahaad (Hindi web-series, Amazon Prime) - In Dahaad, Sonakshi Sinha plays a lower-caste cop in Rajasthan investigating a series of murders by a womanizing serial killer. I thought it was worthwhile on the whole. Solid performances from Sinha and Vijay Varma in this nicely paced procedural with a well-realized setting. I would recommend it to fans of dark crime thrillers. (Detailed review HERE)

Farzi (Hindi web-series, Amazon Prime) The generic and lackluster first episode of this (Family Man fame) Raj and DK series had me seriously wondering if the burden of simultaneously taking on multiple projects had severely stretched out the creative juices of these guys. Thankfully, the further episodes picked up the slack, and while the best parts of Family Man are superior to anything we see here, this is still a well-made piece of entertainment. (Detailed review HERE)

Cinema Marte Dum Tak (Hindi web-series, Amazon Prime) Director Vasan Bala's exploration of the micro-budget exploitation movie scene by inviting four of its former major players to each make a new film and use it to chart the rise and fall of the genre has humor, passion and a lot of heart. There are moments that have you shaking your head in amused disbelief and other that will bring an honest-to-goodness lump to the throat. Well worth it for the non-snooty cinema nerd.

Arnold (English mini-series, Netflix) - In its 3 defined chapters - Athlete, Actor and American - Arnold sets out to demonstrate its subject's determination to "get there" in all of his chosen endeavors. It goes without saying that the treatment is glossy with more than a little dash of hagiography. But it does offer a detailed and entertaining picture of this larger-than-life fitness/movie icon for whom "Too big is not big enough". (Detailed review HERE)

The Decent Stuff

Oppenheimer (English) I struggled a bit whether I should put in my top-tier list, but my expectations for this film were higher than what it ultimately delivered to me. On the whole Christopher Nolan's magnum opus about the man behind the atomic bomb tests is a decent film, and has some strong moments, but ultimately it is not as emotionally affecting as it should have been. In the back-and-forth narrative I see inspiration from Oliver Stone's seminal film of JFK and David Fincher's The Social Network. But in terms of cinematic imagination the film lacks the bravado of a Kubrick or an Oliver Stone. It looks nice, sure, but not memorable.

Animal (Hindi) This male dominated violent drama is not without its problems, but it at least strikes me as a work that reflects the vision and sensibilities of an individual movie-maker and not a collection of box-office choices. The fact that I could sit through this 200(!) min slogathon without at the end wanting to kill myself tells me that it was doing a few things right. Your mileage may vary. (Detailed review HERE)

Khufiya (Hindi, Netflix) I watched Vishal Bhardwaj's spy drama with mixed feelings. Like with several of his movies there are some good scenes and excellent performances, marred by some really ill-fitting 'quirky' humor and absurd writing. And don't believe the 'based on a true story' heading for one second. Still, it went well enough for me to watch the whole thing late at night in a single sitting. Tabu is a pleasure to watch and I was impressed with what Wamiqa Gabbi, Ali Fazal and sultry Bangladeshi actress Azmeri Haque Badhon brought to their parts. (Detailed review HERE)

Mukundan Unni Associates (Malayalam, Hotstar) Mukundan Unni is probably the most amoral protagonist seen in an Indian movie. I can see where comparisons to the Jake Gyllenhaal movie Nightcrawler come in. This movie has issues for me - I thought it had a great ending near the scene of a bus accident, but it goes on for another 20 min unnecessarily dotting i's and crossing t's. Still, I would suggest giving it the look see.

Maamannan (Tamil, Netflix) Mamannan is a masala film but within that space does try to stand out. While there are fight scenes, the film does not devolve into a brainless machismo action fest. Likewise female lead Keerthi Suresh is not the usual birdbrained damsel in distress. The utter lack of nuance in Faasil's villain is a letdown, and the screenplay could have done with some serious pruning, but I found a film like this more palatable than Jai Bhim which reduces the lower castes to being faceless victims, dependent on rescue by Benevolent Brahminical Heroes. (Detailed review HERE)

The Pope's Exorcist (English, Netflix) After I saw the trailer for this film, I was expecting a campy LOL-fest knockoff of The Exorcist. In most respects this is true. Russell Crowe in the titular part seems to be aware of the camp quotient and his performance reflects the tongue-in-cheek. TPE has sufficient hilariously absurd material to be a decent time-pass watch, especially if you call over buddies and set up some drinks. (Detailed review HERE)

Evil Dead Rise (English, Jio) To its credit, this latest installment in the Evil Dead franchise runs a brisk pace, relies mainly on make-up and practical FX for the scares, and does not detour (apart from the prologue that gets an "eh, whatever" resolution at the end). It is decent popcorn entertainment if also eminently forgettable. (Detailed review HERE)

Renfield (English, Jio) This horror-action-comedy is never particularly inventive and the screenplay not the most well-constructed, but it is in large measure a fun film, in its scrappy way more fun IMO than several of the current phase Marvel movies. Nicholas Cage as Dracula seems to be having a good time.

Monica O My Darling (Hindi, Netflix) MOMD doesn't entirely escape Vasan Bala's penchant for over-writing and referencing, but this is fortunately rare enough that one can enjoy the film for what it is: a solid romp that owes more than a smidgen of debt to Shriram Raghavan's crime capers (dutifully referenced). Huma Qureshi (❤ ❤ ❤) and Sikander Kher totally owned their parts.

The Meh Stuff

The Railway Men (Hindi web-series, Netflix) The first episode of this YRF production gave me pleasant Kaala Patthar type vibes, of a tale of hope within a greater disaster. But soon after, the writing becomes so sloppy as to destroy all sense of immersion. By the third episode, the piling up of "kuch bhi!" moments like when the zombie bride rises up from her gas-slain wedding party to stroll down to the railway station and Raghubir Yadav's train ticket checker gives out a dying speech after he gets stabbed by villainous rioters while saving a Sikh woman, this feels more like one of the scores of terrible 80's Bollywood films. I did watch it to the end (it's just 4 episodes long), but by then I didn't care what happened to who.

Dancing on the Grave (Hindi/English web-series, Netflix) People of a particular generation in Bengaluru will remember the sensational case of Shakereh Khaleeli, on which the series is based. In terms of the making, I would think that the 'series' could easily have been an 80-90 min documentary. It loses too much time on re-enactment of trivialities. Still, if you're interested in this piece of shocking true crime history, it's only a couple of hours of your time in all. (Detailed review HERE)

Bholaa (Hindi, Amazon Prime) I'd say Ajay Devgan's Bholaa is to Lokesh Kanagaraj's Kaithi, what Feroze Khan's Dayavan was to Maniratnam's Nayakan, a remake that took the trappings of the original but buggered the spirit of it. What an absolute waste of time.

Ponniyin Selvan -2 (Tamil, Amazon Prime) I enjoyed the first installment of Maniratnam's adaptation of this historical fantasy but didn't much care for its concluding segment. PS2 seemed sloppier and more hurried, with events and character bits coming across very staccato. Even visually, the number of times the camera kept randomly circling around characters became annoying, and the battle scenes were generic.

Pathaan (Hindi, Amazon Prime) I can't see this as a BOLLYWOOD movie, it is so much borne out of director Siddharth Anand's love of the Mission Impossible and James Bond movies. And like the last few MI films, I admire the technical prowess, but I just don't feel anything for the characters. There is nothing in the writing that strikes a chord: Here everyone just too busy trying to appear cool.

Jailer (Tamil, Amazon Prime) There’s a scene around the 110min mark in Jailer where, as per Prime’s subtitles, Rajini’s character is advising a Telugu movie guy “Don’t make garbage in the name of commercial cinema”. Given the no-emotional-stakes, no-internal-logic and utterly no respect for the audience’s patience this wankfest displays, they have some gall to make a statement like that.  

Leo (Tamil, Netflix) This is basically A History of Violence for Dummies. A trainwreck script of dead-ends and pointless twists is occasionally made interesting by some energetic and imaginative action sequences. (Detailed review HERE)

Sisu (Finnish) In which a Finnish ex-commando turned prospector goes after a Nazi platoon for stealing his gold. I was really hoping to like Sisu, but it was more okey-dokey than thrilling. The movie was a lot like John Wick for me - there's a good bit of exaggerated action and grittiness abounds, but the tone and build-up were wobbly. It's a little too deadpan for its own good and I couldn't give a flying fuck for the lead guy...or even his dog.

Meg 2: The Trench (English) I wasn't expecting cinematic art, but even as a film featuring multiple giant sharks and a giant octopus, Meg 2 can't get its priorities right. The monsters are a muddled side-act in this leaky boat weighed down with an inept plot about muhahaha evil humans going after oceanic unobtaniums. While officially credited to horror maverick Ben Wheatley (Kill List, A Field in England) this one has all the signs of being made by committee.

Pachuvum Athbhuthavilakkum (Malayalam, Amzon Prime) Fahad Faasil vehicle in which he undertakes an escort mission that eventually tests his moral fiber. Individual scenes can be really good, brimming with emotion and subtle comedy, but the pacing is way off at the script level, and it fails to immerse.

Iratta (Malayalam, Netflix) I had great expectations from this, but after watching I thought it was a complete GAAND movie. The basic premise of a crime mystery film where you have identical twin protagonists and the plot is not about them exchanging places is interesting in itself, but the screenplay is sloppy as heck and relies on face-palming contrivances. Characters appear and disappear puppet fashion. You have BGM that orders you to feel a particular way instead of it coming across naturally in the performances. Joju George is a great actor, but this ego trip was a serious misfire.

Animal [dir. Sandeep Reddy Vanga]

With its 80's Bollywood meets graphic novel / videogame sensibilities, Animal reminded me a good deal of Kill Bill. It bears that same element of homage / masturbatory pastiche Quentin Tarantino legitimized as its own art form.

The first inspiration is of course The Godfather. Reddy's film borrows swathes of narrative from that classic (As Baradwaj Rangan's review puts it, "...the trashy Mario Puzo novel and the classy Coppola adaptation that followed"). Ranbir Kapoor's Vijay is Michael Corleone to Anil Kapoor's Don-like tycoon father Balbir Singh. Like Michael, he as a child idolizes the dad, gets estranged from him and then returns when that father is murderously attacked, to take on the family mantle and go after his father's enemies with a vengeance. Of course, one could say Vijay's hotheadedness and penis-driven thinking also make him a Sonny Corleone; And like Sonny is admonished by Don Vito, he is frequently rebuked by Dad Balbir.

Old-school masala movie grammar runs in full vein in the depiction of the father-son relationship. There is a cloying, fetishistic edge to how much the son adores Balbir, stopping just short of attaching himself to and humping the dad's leg. Of course, like most tycoon dads in Indian movies, Balbir can't give his kids time of day, and Vijay's early misdemeanors (as a high school kid, he fires an assault rifle in his sister's classroom to rattle the fellows ragging her) seem like desperate attempts to get his dad to pay attention, even if it is only to give him a dressing-down. Surprisingly for a bigshot business magnate based in Delhi, Balbir actually believes his son he could be imprisoned for a crime. If the Manu Sharma and Sanjeev Nanda cases have taught us anything, it is that rich connected kids can (at least before a major public outcry) get away with murder.

And in the Animal universe, the law simply doesn't exist. I don't think I saw a single police character, not even when the rich tycoon's son-in-law goes missing (SPOILER: he and Vijay don't get along) or to investigate the aftermath of the pre-interval bloodbath in which Vijay trashes a hotel and mows down 300 masked blokes (ANIMAL masks, get it?!) with the help of axes, assault rifles and later a golf cart mounted with a gazillion belt-fed Gatling guns. This sequence with its complete disregard for proportion (and an involved gag about underwear) is fun, though not as engrossing as Oldboy's corridor fight because what really should have been a series of uninterrupted takes is edited to bits.

Post-intermission, we see a more humanized Vijay - his injuries in the hotel massacre have him dependent on a catheter and urine bag, he grows a belly and makes references to needing more frequent pad changes than his wife (Rashmika Mandanna, more on her later). For some reason, he now requires a heart transplant. Of course, he's still (hah!) cocky, but it makes a lot of emotional sense here, him trying to hold on to his alpha-maleness (oh yes, the movie is sufficiently self-aware to give us early on a mini-dissertation on the subject from Vijay's POV). This part of the film was to me the most interesting character-wise, and I would have been interested to see vulnerable Vijay for a longer span. But Reddy has other plans.

After a pointless subplot about a mistress (Tripti Dimri, wasted), the film unveils the major antagonist, another alpha male. This one is played by Bobby Deol: Age and a beard lend him personality and the part is written to his strengths. Now the stage is set for a showdown between Vijay and this guy. It's a more stereotypical contest of beefy biceps and obligatory shirt ripping. It tries to have its moment when Vijay offers his enemy the chance for a cessation of hostilities (they're actually related - elements of the Mabhabharata here). But you know what the bad guy's answer will be.

I was hesitant to see Animal because the reports of Reddy's previous hit Arjun Reddy glorifying a self-centered misogynistic prick kept me away from that one. But while dominated by the conflict between alpha-males and featuring a vulgar brand of humor, Animal does not legitimize them. Vijay's willingness to shed pools of blood to protect the family doesn't necessarily win him their adulation. His position towards women is a little murky. He criticizes his sister for being doormatted by her husband, but that seems more an expression of territorialism - How dare someone outside of the family disrespect her? As his wife, Rashmika Mandanna displays a lot of agency. She accepts his alpha-male status but is ready to hit back when he crosses her boundaries. A telling moment is when she lashes out at her mother, justifying her devotion to her blood-crazy husband, because he stood by her in her moments of need when her own parents deserted her for their social standing. She also gets a great scene when she confronts Vijay about his infidelity - it doesn't justify the time wasted on that subplot (which has a laughable conclusion) but it's engaging and Mandanna gives a solid account of her dramatic talent - I also appreciate that Reddy retains her original South Indian accent instead of a generic dub. The chemistry between her and Ranbir Kapoor supports the volatile and intense relationship of their characters, and I wish more of the film could have been told from the perspective of this couple and how it affects their dynamic than from the traditional all-male angle.

Ranbir Kapoor obviously commits to the lead part. Why wouldn't he, it's like Al Pacino playing Scarface's psycho-gangster, a colorful OTT actor's showcase - he even gets to do the body transformation bit (or wears a convincing fat suit). One part of Vijay's life the film keeps behind closed curtains is the time between his leaving home after he is thrown out by his father (thrown out in style though, he at least gets to keep an airplane) and when he returns in the wake of the father's attempted killing. This is the period when Vijay supposedly lives an independent life in the US with his wife and raises two children. While it might have been nice to see a different facet of his personality (and how he functioned outside of his family), Reddy adds to the script's intrigue by not exploring that segment.  He does refer to it in a telling exchange between Vijay and Balbir towards the end when Vijay calls out his father's complete ignorance of his life away from the family and of the person he could be when not drawn into conflict. Sadly, Anil Kapoor gets the short end of the stick. The father-son relationship is a crucial dynamic of the film and at the heart of the protagonist's actions, but the part of Balbir Singh is flat and under-written. He is mostly a reaction board to Vijay's doings, reduced to either sounding out Vijay or lamenting his misdeeds. You don't get an overall sense of the man, who seems remote to his family, but is apparently so loved by his employees, they whoop with joy when his son proclaims vengeance on his attackers.

Some of Reddy's editing choices are strange. A crucial killing in the film is shown much ahead of time with a jarring jumpcut - the scene goes from just-married clean-cut Ranbir angling his honeymoon plane over a steep slope to him suddenly all bearded and mean heading a convoy of cars and armed henchmen out to cause murderous havoc. The narrative later backtracks to explain, but the overall effect is of needless complication in the name of style and reduces the impact of the scene. The second half starts get tiresome with all the convolutions (and a post-credits sequence that steps into parody territory). I respect that Reddy wanted to tell the story in a messy way, but too much is often just too much. For better or worse, the score of the film is in tune with its loud sensibilities - there are occasions where the music drowns out the dialog, and moments where you dearly wish for a pair of earplugs.

That said, Animal at least strikes me as a work that reflects the vision and sensibilities of an individual movie-maker and not a collection of box-office choices. The fact that I could sit through this 200(!) min slogathon without at the end wanting to kill myself tells me that it was doing a few things right. Your mileage may vary.

Leo [dir. Lokesh Kanagaraj]

Lokesh Kanagaraj's 'Thalapathy' Vijay-starrer Leo is basically A History of Violence (AHoV)...for Dummies.

In David Cronenberg's 2005 movie, Viggo Mortensen played amiable small-town restauranter and family man Tom Stall, who suddenly displays a ruthless streak taking down murderous thugs that invade his diner. Hailed as a local hero for his bravery, mild-mannered Tom's life gets complicated when a vicious gangster (Ed Harris with a scarred eye) drops in claiming that Tom is actually Joey Cusack, hitman for a crime syndicate. The gangster doesn't believe Tom's denials and stalks his family to pressure him into confession, even kidnapping Tom's son, which culminates in another bloodbath. The violence creates estrangement and strife in Tom's personal life. One day he gets a call from a man claiming to be Joey's brother, a big city criminal who wants Joey to return, threatening that he will otherwise come out to find him.

Kanagaraj lifts the premise almost wholesale: When crazed criminals invade Parthiban (Vijay)'s snazzy coffee shop in Theog, Himachal and threaten evil tidings to his little girl, he guns them down unhesitatingly and with superhuman accuracy. Shortly after, the kin of the slain gangsters who come in for revenge get slaughtered by Parthiban in a market brawl, making his wife (Trisha) wonder about the man she married. Then a gnarly old gangster Antony Das (Sanjay Dutt) drops in, insisting that Parthiban is actually his son Leo, a killer. Das also kidnaps Parthiban's son to make him admit his identity. Sounds familiar?

AHoV has a reputation as a masterful study of inner violence, but I couldn't buy into it. Compared to previous Cronenberg ventures like Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch and Crash, AHoV's layering is juvenile pop-psychology. The bad guys who come in after Tom/Joey, including his brother (William Hurt) are such flat caricatures there's no sense of the uncontrollable animal inside Tom.

But if I felt that way about the source film, Leo takes it down several notches, using the plot as yet another star-glorifying vehicle, albeit a frequently stylish one. In AHoV, till the diner assault, Tom is seen only as the sweet-natured whitebread townie. In Vijay's introductory scene he tackles an aggressive runaway hyena, even giving gyaan about animal behavior to the local forest ranger (Gautham Menon in another paycheck part), finally jabbing a tranquilizer by hand into the animal.

This is before we get the tour of him waltzing through the coffee shop to the strains of an English song called Ordinary Person, telling us how utterly "ordinary" this guy is. Yeah, right. Later on, we have more "Now feeling" songs like I'm Scared and Badass; because Thalapathy can't act his way out of a paper bag, he needs this Greek chorus equivalent to explain what his character is going through at each stage.  When the fracas with the coffee shop invaders happens, it is set to retro jukebox Tamil tunes, softening the impact of the violence, making it more a flashy "hero" fight. To Kanagaraj's credit he does give these baddies a neat little backstory of how they landed in the cafe. After gunning down the felons, Vijay expresses his character's horror at his own violence by yelling aloud, in a hilarious imitation of Kamalahaasan's Guna histrionics.

As Antony Das, Sanjay Dutt regurgitates the "heavy" he played in the Agneepath remake and KGF: Chapter 2. Das runs a front of a tobacco business, and to emphasize this point the characters in this movie smoke like chimneys (Thankfully, Netflix doesn't bother with the mandatory on-screen smoking disclaimers). But the real business for Antony and his brother Harold(!) - played by Arjun Sarja - is drugs. Even here Kanagaraj shows his weird tastes by having the brothers deal in datura, a poisonous plant. Datura extracts have psychoactive properties, but they are not the "feel good" variety of drugs, used more as ritual poisons / fear-generating hallucinogens. When in an extended flashback sequence that also bungs in a "mass" number, you are told Antony Das' motive to track down Leo, you start to wish you had some datura toxin to swallow.

Leo's screenplay is a trainwreck of dead-ends and pointless twists. As depicted here, the character's dual nature is not particularly different from films like Hum and Baasha where an apparently mild-mannered protagonist is revealed to have a violent history he is covering up. The near 3-hour runtime is such a slog I had to split my viewing into 3 instalments. But it does have some of Kanagaraj's best directed action sequences. The highlight for me is a chase sequence where Parthiban, riding shotgun on a bike, chases after a convoy of vehicles driven by Antony's gang who have kidnapped his son. It features that same brand of painstakingly storyboarded and executed action that distinguished his 2019 Kaithi. The camera is an active participant in the proceedings, swooping back and forth, even going through vehicles. It's (ha!) fast and furious, yet maintains clarity in the sequence of events. Leo is probably also the hardest that Vijay has worked on a film in recent years, physically at least. In contrast to turds like Sarkar, where he just waltzes through the fight scenes while bad guys fall all around him, he is shown to have tougher battles, often taking a fair pounding before he finally prevails. If you do decide to subject yourself to the film, these might be small saving graces.

Showing now on Netflix in India.