Here are some of the films I have this new year. Nothing recent and nothing spectacular or off the charts. Some just sounded interesting and some were critically-acclaimed.
1. Dressed to Kill
Last year I finally saw Scarface. I thought another Brian De Palma film wouldn’t hurt, especially one whose synopsis from IMDB read :A mysterious, tall, blonde woman, wearing sunglasses murders one of a psychiatrist's patients, and now she's after the prostitute who witnessed it.
2. Leon the Professional
This movie is always floating in IMDB lists; so finally picked it up. While watching it, I loved the music, especially juxtaposing it with the continuous massacre in the film.
3. Paths of Glory
I am making an effort to watch war films. I haven’t counted but this might be my third war/anti-war film.
Paths of Glory is an anti-war parable, mostly about how war is not about the macro-picture but just about individual ambitions trumping over the lives of feeble soldiers. I was appalled and shocked at the right moments and Kirk Douglas was a revelation! Also Stanley Kubrick as the director ain’t bad either!
4. The Social Network
I avoided this film on purpose. It’s difficult to see this film as an objective viewer. I’ll post a very apt blog entry by Filmdr who says that after watching this film ‘two ironies emerge’:
a) A shy, anti-social young man electronically seduces the world by appealing to everyone's social instincts.
b) Goaded on by sexual rejection and class resentment, Zuckerberg invents the ultimate club that establishes its own kind of exclusivity by allowing only members with the Harvard.edu address, but then he gradually lets everyone join. Like a bunch of lemmings, we do.
5. The Bad Seed
What makes a child go bad? Is it nurture or nature? I think the film tried to answer the question by introducing us to a child who acts perfect but is a basket of killings waiting to unravel. The film is a precursor to Children of the Corn, The Omen’s Damien but at a small, household level.
6. The Hurt Locker
In my attempts to watch War films, I came across this Oscar winner. I liked the film; the tension is palpable and loved the first words of the film: The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug. There is no rush and there is no fast—paced action. Just the strain of getting out of anywhere alive. The film flowed like a poem, and ended where it began.
7. Winter’s Bone
I had heard a lot about the film but no names had popped up. The film’s story is nothing great, a girl who is hunting for her father; but the cinematography with the bleak and desolate land and a futile search kept me hooked. A thriller story set in the neo-noir country, the film creeps up on you. Just goes to show you that a good film can be made with less resources.
