Days of Being Wild (1990)

York: I've heard there's a kind of bird without legs that can only fly and fly and sleep in the wind when it's tired. The bird lands only once in its life...that's when it dies. 
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I used to think there was a kind of bird, once born, would keep flying until death. The fact is that bird hasn't gone anywhere. It was dead from the beginning.

Days of Being Wild is a movie that you should watch at least twice and uninterrupted to see the slow progression of a loner into the depths of hell. Initially I had the temptation of dismissing it as one of those movies about a smooth talker with not-a-care-in-the-world attitude who goes about destroying women's lives (those who have had the misfortune of falling for his sad lonely existence). But then this was Wong Kar Wai, and only towards the end I started realizing what was happening.

York (Leslie Cheung) doesn't really have a type of woman that he would like to be with. He seduces the shy Su-Lizhen (Maggie Cheung) with his words only to leave her broken and empty. And then we see him flirting around with a professional dancer, Mimi, who's unlike Su-Lizhen in every possible way. When he realizes that the woman he thought of as his mother was only someone who adopted him, he is filled with contempt for her and emotionally abuses her in a way to get revenge for not knowing who his real mother was. He finally sets off to Philippines in search of his mother and leaves behind Mimi too. Meanwhile, Tide (Andy Lau) meets Su-Lizhen while patrolling the streets, and provides her comfort and falls for her while listening to her story. Tide offers her help and mentions she could call him at the public telephone booth anytime she needs someone to talk to. However, he feels it was just that one night she might have needed some comfort and doesn't dare to take things forward between them.

After his ailing mother passes away, Tide sets off to Philippines too after giving up his job as a policeman to pursue his desire to become a sailor. The final few scenes show us the downward spiral that York's life takes. We also see Su-Lizhen (now is there a connection again with the future Su-Lizhen from In the Mood For Love? Would have to research more, I guess) finally making that call to Tide at the public telephone booth where he used to patrol, only that she doesn't know Tide had left long ago.

Wong Kar Wai doesn't glorify the life of a wanderer. Neither does he spend any time on explaining if York could be the person that he is because of his mommy-issues. Things are what they are. Their lives are not important and there's no search for a deeper meaning. No wrongs would be righted, and no tears would be shed. There's nothing heroic about these characters and they could just as easily fade into non-existence, as they actually do.

Rating: 7/10

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Pat: You have poor social skills. You have a problem.
Tiffany: I have a problem? You say more inappropriate things than appropriate things.

Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper) is a man who lost the two things in life that meant most to him -his job and his wife - after beating up a guy who he finds with his wife in the shower. He ends up in a mental institution and starts realizing he suffers from bipolar disorder. After spending months in the institution, he is brought home by his mother on a plea bargain. Yet the only thing that still drives him is getting back with his wife and he believes that there never was so much of a problem. He refuses to believe, against everyone's advice, that she might have moved on. He also refuses to take his pills since that would make him bloated and he won't be able to stay good-looking and fit for his wife.

Enter Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence)  - an equally crazy young girl with problems of her own. After losing her husband and being in a state of emotional turmoil, she ends up sleeping with 11 of her office colleagues and gets fired from her job. When they meet at a dinner hosted by Pat's friend, she sees something in common with him and tries to strike up a friendship. So far, so good.

Pat is extremely optimistic about his life going forward and doesn't believe in playing the victim. After reading Ernest Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, he throws it out of the window since it doesn't have a happy ending.  The mood swings, the anger and his delusional obsession with his wife have been played really well by Brad Cooper. From the moment Tiffany starts stubbornly pursuing Pat while promising to get him to patch up with his wife, the movie looks promising, but only to move into the tried and tested territory of a romantic comedy. It could have been so much better if the director, David Russell, could have taken it in a different direction to show what Pat is most afraid of, i.e. things don't go as per your plan. People with BP disorder do not have a great grasp on reality of life around them and the delusional optimism usually ends in heartbreak, anger and more delusions. A tragicomedy where the fate of the protagonist runs parallel with that of the hero from Farewell to Arms, even while he tries to resist it, could have made the movie Oscar material. However, the way the movie plays out in the end with people finding "true love" and all that bullshit, I really hope the Academy can see through all the hype. Even though it wouldn't be fair to Brad Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

Rating - 6.5/10

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012)

Charlie: So this is my life. I want you to know that I'm both happy and sad and still trying to figure out how that could be.

Charlie (Logan Lerman) is an outsider - a geek who would sit quietly in a class even while knowing all the answers rather than be called "a freak". When his English teacher sees the person that he is and offers him friendship, Charlie mentions it'd be depressing to have his English teacher as the only friend on his first day in high school. He is quiet and never speaks and the only friend he has is through a series of letters that he writes (probably to his best friend who shot himself the previous summer). He meets Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson)  at a football game and we see a developing friendship that would take us on a journey through each of their lives.

Patrick is gay and pretty much open about it, while his boyfriend, Brad (Johnny Simmons) prefers to stay closeted. While Sam, Patrick's step-sister, is the tomboyish kind who has made certain mistakes in her life and wants to turn it around. Charlie obviously has a crush on Sam, but he knows she is already taken. When he hooks up with Mary Elizabeth, more out of not being able to say no and break her heart than from any kind of attraction between the two, he instantly knows it's a disaster. And finally when Charlie and Sam get together, Sam gets admitted to Penn State and she has to leave. Charlie revisits his old dark days again and memories of sexual abuse when he was a kid resurface. Although his past has never been shown, the movie keeps dropping hints of a period when he was in a hospital and when he used to see things and have blackouts. With the help of his doctor and his family, he is able to cope and get back on his feet and is finally able to keep thoughts of suicide at rest.

This movie by Stephen Chbosky (also the author) is a decent portrayal of teenage years and some everlasting friendships. The acting from most of the cast is really good and the stand-out guy is Ezra Miller in the role of Patrick. The last time I saw him as the evil, sociopathic Kevin in We Need To Talk About Kevin, he was really convincing and once again he has managed to play a completely different role with ease. Overall, a good one-time watch.

Rating: 7/10

Adaptation (2002)

Charlie Kaufman: Do I have an original thought in my head? My bald head. Maybe if I were happier, my hair wouldn't be falling out. Life is short. I need to make the most of it. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I'm a walking cliche......Why should I be made to feel I have to apologize for my existence? Maybe it's my brain chemistry. Maybe that's what's wrong with me. Bad chemistry. All my problems or anxiety can be reduced to a chemical imbalance or some kind of misfiring synapses. I need to get help for that. But I'll still be ugly though. Nothing's gonna change that.

Adaptation is as close to an autobiography that you can get from Kaufman. After the success of Being John Malkovich, Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) tries to adapt a non-fiction book, "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orleans (Meryl Streep) into a movie. Trying to show that a movie can be just about simple things where nothing ever happens, he goes into a writer's block and is not able to get started.

Charlie has brought in a fictional twin brother, Donald Kaufman (Nicolas Cage), who is everything that he is not. As Charlie asks, "That you and I share the same DNA, can there be anything more lonely than that"? Charlie keeps feeling embarrassed by Donald's ways when he keeps flirting with women in his crew, and also the fact that Donald is not an intellectual like him. When Donald comes to stay with him while being enrolled in a seminar on how to make movies, Charlie pokes fun at the gurus who claim to know how movies are done. In a scene, he explains, "I don't want to bring in sex or guns or car chases, or characters learning profound lessons or overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end. Because life isn't like that. You know, it just isn't. And I feel strongly about it". As he struggles to get going on his task, he finds it increasingly difficult to find a story to make the movie. In the meantime, Donald's script of a thriller, "The 3", seems to have been liked by most people in the industry. Finally, in an act of desperation, he turns to his brother for help and finds himself attending a seminar on making movies by the same guru. While asking a question on how to deal with a movie where nothing ever happens or where the characters don't have a moment of epiphany,  he gets scolded by the guru for saying that nothing ever happens in life.  As he gets his brother to help him on his script, we see a twist in the movie with "sex, guns and car chases".

People who say that the ending was very "Hollywood style", well, that was the point. As the script for his movie and his own life run parallel, we get to see the whole joke about it. Like the guru says, "The last act makes a film. You can have flaws, problems, but wow them in the end, and you've got a hit".

Rating: 7.5/10