Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Darius: What makes you think there's something wrong about him?
Jeff: Because he thinks he can go back in time.
Darius: Was there something wrong with Einstein or David Bowie?

When the eccentric, paranoid Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass) posts an ad for a companion for time travel, senior writer Jeff (Jake Johnson) feels he has a story for the Seattle magazine he works for.

Darius (Aubrey Plaza) is an intern at the Seattle magazine who has always been awkward with people. In her own words, while in high school she felt like "that mouse that gets dropped into the snake cage and just sits there, frozen,  and trying to blend in". And now, she just expects the worst to happen and doesn't keep her hopes up. While Arnau (Karan Soni) is the stereotypical Indian PhD who's bright, but still a virgin. Jeff takes both these interns to help him out on his story and they set out to the address listed on the ad.

After Jeff is not able to win Kenneth's trust, he asks Darius to trap him by playing coy because "girls know how to do that shit". We also know the real purpose of Jake's visit to that town - reigniting an old flame who he has tracked down on Facebook. As Darius starts trying to win over Kenneth, he slowly starts letting his guard down and lets her in on his plans. Kenneth wants to go back to 2001 when apparently his girlfriend was killed in an accident involving some drunken guys. The time travel mission for him is about "regret" and he hopes to bring her back alive. When Darius mentions she would like to go back when she was 14 and stop her mom from getting killed, they strike a chord and we can see Darius is actually falling for Kenneth.

How come no one ever gave her a lead role before?

Safety Not Guaranteed is neither a sci-fi nor a romantic comedy, but has elements of everything sprinkled into it that makes it so likable. A little sad and lots of fun at the same time. For no apparent reason, it reminded me of some other movies such as Dead Men on Campus and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Jake Johnson molds into the role of the "jerk" really well while the strong chemistry between Duplass and Aubrey is something to look out for. Colin Trevorrow has given his audience a light-hearted love story that is actually so much more than just a love story. With a brilliant touching ending, it shows that sometimes all you need is a little belief.

Rating: 7.5/10

P.S. - Aubrey Plaza, when recently asked in an interview about how she'd like guys to approach her, mentioned how she often wondered why some guy just doesn't come over and kiss her. Hmmm...I wish.

Disgrace (2008)

Professor David Lurie: So what kind of creature is this Lucifer?
Melanie's boyfriend: He does what he feels like. Doesn't care if it's good or bad, he just does it.
Prof. Lurie: Exactly. Good or bad, he just does it. He doesn't act on principles but on impulse. And the source of his impulse is dark to him. "His madness was not of the head but heart...". A mad heart. What is a mad heart? Note that we are not asked to condemn this being with a mad heart. On the contrary, we are invited to sympathize. For though he lives among us, he is not one of us. He is what he calls himself, "a thing",   that is, a monster. Not possible to love and condemned to solitude. 

Professor David Lurie (John Malkovich) - 52, divorced, aloof and haughty - lures a vulnerable student, Melanie Issacs (Antoinette Engel), of mixed-race into a physical relationship because he believes, "A woman's beauty doesn't belong to her alone, its part of the bounty she brings into the world". After being caught, he refuses to repent for his actions and pronounces himself guilty of everything he has been accused of, without even caring to read Melanie's statements. After being dismissed from his position and his subsequent fall from grace, he moves to the Eastern Cape to stay with his daughter, Lucy (Jessica Haines). Lucy owns a farm along with co-proprietor, Petrus (Eriq Ebouaney), an African who stays there and helps Lucy at odd jobs.

Although life for Lurie seems to look better after the humiliation he suffers at the university, there's still more to come, as if its God's way of making him accept defeat and repent for his past actions. After letting some black youth into her home in an act of kindness, Lucy gets raped by them in the presence of her father. Lurie is attacked too and locked in the bathroom, almost left to burn to death. Lurie uncomfortably insists on reporting the full crime to the police while Lucy is hesitant because she is the one who has to live there and bear the shame, even though she does a good act of putting up a brave front. Even in the face of defeat, Lurie is stubborn and at no point tries to play the victim and unleashes his own form of violence when he catches one of the black kids spying on his daughter.

This movie is a good depiction of racial tension in post-apartheid South Africa and also speaks about the treatment of women in the hands of men from both the white and the black race. John Malkovich gives an excellent performance in this Steve Jacob's adaptation of J.M. Coetzee's novel of the same name. Jessica Haines does a brilliant job too of being the victim. There are times where it seems to suggest she is able to rationalize her whole ordeal as punishment for her father's acts. I had read the novel a long time back and hardly remember any of the details to make any comparative judgment whether the movie does justice to Coetzee's novel. This ain't a movie for those who are looking only for "entertainment", but for those who love Coetzee's prose, this is a chance to fall in love again with his depiction of human nature which goes beyond the realms of good and evil.

Rating: 7.5/10

It's All Gone, Pete Tong (2004)

Reporter: Frankie, can you really DJ as a deaf man...how is that possible?
Frankie: I'm an honest man. And I can tell you that this album was made completely without the aid of my ears. Next week, I'll be DJing as a deaf man. And if you don't believe me, well.....F**k you! Because, I have got nothing, nothing to prove to you sluts. 
Max: Listen....listen to me....Frank loves sluts. I think what he is trying to say is even if he feels he has nothing  to prove to you, he'd be happy to prove anything you want to you. 

When I started watching this supposedly true story about the tragic life of legendary DJ, Frankie Wilde, there were two things that confused me. One, who's Pete Tong if this is about Frankie Wilde? Two, why did this tragedy win some award at the US Comedy Arts Fest (whatever that is)? After the end of an uplifting movie on the rise, fall and redemption of DJ Frankie, I did a quick Google search to learn this is just a mockumentary. Oh, I get it. Probably that's why I had never heard of this guy, even though I initially thought it could be because I was never into this kind of music.

Frankie Wilde (Paul Kaye) is the reigning king at the clubs of Ibiza and he has all a showman could ask for - cash, parties, women, drugs. When the good times roll, his trophy wife, Sonya (Kate Magowan) and his manager, Max (Mike Wilmot), are always there for him. But the occupational hazard of being too close to the noise in the clubs takes its toll on him. Frankie slowly starts to lose his hearing until he is completely deaf. As his wife abandons him and his manager doesn't want a deaf DJ on the label, his life falls apart. He immerses himself in a pile of cocaine and self-pity and regresses into his own world and makes no public appearance for a year. Having turned his world into a prison, he finally gathers himself up to make a fresh start by giving up drugs and appointing a lip-reader to help him "hear". His lip-reader, Penelope (Beatriz Batarda), helps him make a comeback and once again, Frankie sets the stage on fire. As we see different DJs and friends commenting on the turn-around Frankie made, we also learn about his subsequent disappearance after creating gold in his final album, Hear No Evil. The movie ends with different speculations of his possible whereabouts and a suggestion of finding true love in Penelope.

Director Michael Dowse creates a well-knit story in a way that would remind you of Citizen Kane. Paul Kaye easily gets into the character and creates a mystery that makes the whole journey worthwhile. Having said that, there's nothing new about the story, and it's only selling point is "people love a good tragedy". Even though I don't have a taste for house music, the soundtrack kind of helps you to sail through the movie. And you can only watch it for Paul Kaye's brilliant performance.

Rating: 7/10

Into The Wild (2007)

Chris McCandless: Some people feel they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.

If I don't count any world leaders or people of higher importance, no two other characters have fascinated me more than "Pink" from Roger Water's magnum opus, The Wall, and Chris McCandless, a 24-year old adventurer who walked into the wild and to his subsequent death. The former was obviously a fictional character loosely based on Roger Water's own life. The latter, of course, generates more interest as I have always tried to understand what could trigger a high-achieving 22-year old graduate from Emory University to set off into the unknown in search of truth. When I had watched the movie first in 2008, I was blindly in support of everything he felt and said, even to the point of fighting for him on discussion forums and being offensive towards anyone who'd suggest hints of schizophrenia in his personality.

Five years later, I don't remember how many times I have watched this movie, while also having the opportunity to read Jon Krakauer's book on which this movie is based. Probably like his parents, I have mellowed down too in my opinions and I have no judgments to pass on who was right and who was wrong. As always, each one has his or her own reasons. Probably the sanest and most objective recounting of his story in the movie seems to be from his sister, Carine (Jena Malone).

The movie has a very dramatic start to it with Chris (Emile Hirsch) calling out to his mother (Marcia Gay Harden) for help in the final moments of his life. As the movie sets into a flashback, we see Chris's graduation day ceremony and the subsequent lunch meeting with his sister and parents. Chris's dad (William Hurt) comes across as the controlling type who is fixated on how one carries himself in public. When he suggests buying Chris a new car, it sets off an irritation in Chris for what he thinks is his parents' obsession with materialism and the image they portray in society. Even though he knows his grades are strong enough to get him into Harvard Law School, he sets off to pursue his dream of exploring Alaska and in his characteristic style, burns all the money he has and gives away $25,000 to a charity before leaving. Throughout his journey, he meets some interesting people, specially Jan (Catherine Keener), Rainey (Brian Dierker), Wayne (Vince Vaughn) ,Tracy (Kristen Stewart) and Mr. Franz (Hal Holbrook). We see a special bonding between Chris and Jan, who probably brings out  a longing in Chris for a mother he never had. Wayne and Rainey both see in Chris a hatred for his parents and try to suggest he could be less harsh on them since he is "still a kid". Tracy is a sweet 16-year old who seems infatuated with Chris from the very moment she sees him, although Chris, very rightly, doesn't encourage anything beyond a friendship. Ron Franz is a retired military guy who has turned around his life after wasting it away on alcohol following the death of his wife and son. There's again a special relationship between the two and they both have a thing or two to teach one another.

We learn from Carine's narration of their father's "other" family which technically makes these children bastards and his wife a mistress. As months pass and his parents and sister don't hear from Chris, they slowly start to lose hope and we see his parents are not anymore what we were earlier made to believe. As in Carine's narration we learn-

"She convinces herself it’s Chris, that it’s her son when she passes a stray. And I feel for the mother in her. Instincts that seem to sense the threat of a loss, so huge and irrevocable. I began to wonder if I can understand all that Chris is saying any longer. And I catch myself and remember that these are not the parents he grew up with, but people softened by the forced reflection that comes with loss. Still, everything Chris is saying has to be said. I still trust him that everything he is doing has to be done."

In the final moments we see a change in Chris too - someone who  had left civilization for what he detested and thought you don't need human relationships to be happy is finally feeling "scared and lonely". Probably his final words were "Happiness only real when shared" as he writes it on one of his books. Though I still strongly disagree with people who suggest that he had set off on a path of self-destruction. His death was solely from a misreading of a wild plants guide where he mistakenly ingests a poisonous plant while thinking it to be edible. Although he survived it, his condition weakened and finally led to starvation and death. His trip to Alaska wasn't about running away from life, but one of finding meaning and happiness. Disillusioned probably - sometimes I wonder if being too well-read at such a young age was a curse, for what could a 22-year old really would have known and understood from reading Tolstoy and Thoreau?

Nevertheless, it's not something for us to judge. It was a story that needed to be told, and thanks to Jon Krakauer and Sean Penn, people everywhere now know who Chris was. His story has polarized people into camps on whether he deserved the attention he received and whether he should be made into a hero. Hero or not, he was different and deserves respect.

Rating: 9/10

P.S. - An additional highlight of the movie is the soundtrack from Eddie Vedder. The "poetry" that Vedder has created here sets him apart from being just another rock-star and places him, only if momentarily, along the ranks of Roger Waters, David Gilmour or Jim Morrison. This is not an exaggeration.

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Hans: As Gandhi said....
Billy: Oh, you two..if it ain't for Gandhi....Jesus Christ....
Hans: An eye for eye leaves the whole world blind and I believe that whole-heartedly
Billy: No it doesn't. There would be one guy left with one eye. How's the last blind guy gona take out the eye of the last guy left? he's still got one eye...all that guy has to do is run away and hide behind a bush. Gandhi was wrong. Just that nobody's got the balls to come out and say it

Marty (Colin Farell) is a struggling writer who has hit a writer's block after deciding the title of his script -Seven Psychopaths. He drinks more often than he writes and doesn't want to follow all stereotypes regarding psychopaths. His would be a movie about a Buddhist psychopath and there would be no violence in the movie. Billy (Sam Rockwell) is an unemployed actor who is also a part-time dog-thief. Billy tries to help him out with his script and publishes an ad for all psychopaths that'd give his friend some interesting ideas.

The movie's story revolves around the dog of a hip gangster, Charlie (Woody Harrelson) who is kidnapped by Billy. As the movie progresses, we are introduced to each of the seven psychopaths and the stories about them. As things get messier, the script for Marty's movie also plays itself out (probably the concept was taken from Kaufman's Adaptation).

The dialogues are dark and witty and may not work well for someone who doesn't have a taste for such subject matter. The cast was perfect, specially Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson are the two perfect fits to play psychos. Though Christopher Walken (Hans) doesn't disappoint too. After the scene where his wife gets shot, his complete lack of emotion speaks a lot for his character. After the brilliant In Bruges, Martin McDonagh has once again teamed up with Colin Farell to come up with another dark comedy that has shades of Tarantino and Guy Ritchie in it. A must-watch for all psycho lovers.

Rating: 7.5/10

P.S. - This movie doesn't really fit the bill for my blog, but I felt even Marty deserved a mention.

Little White Lies (2010)

Jean-Louis: You spent 2 weeks lying to each other. You earn your living from it. You made it an art.......Worst of all, you lie to yourselves. Every single one of you. You buy into each other's lies. Call yourselves friends? What's friendship? Leaving a pal in the hospital 'cause your vacation matters more?

It was hard to get started with Little White Lies, specially since the initial 15 minutes seemed like it was going nowhere. Well, at the end of two and a half hours, it tries to pack a punch as it sets out to expose all relationships in today's world as superficial and fake.

Every year Max (Francois Cluzet) helps to organize a vacation for his group of friends. Only this time it's different as Ludo (Jean Dujardin) finds himself in intensive care unit after a near-fatal accident. Marie (Marion Cotillard) is the only one in the group who feels they should all stick with Ludo and cancel the vacation. However, the rest feel that even though they feel for his condition, there's not much they can do about it. Max tries to take on the act of the care-taker of the group and keeps losing it at every little imperfection at his holiday farm, be it the noisy weasels or the overgrown lawn grass. The issue with Max seems to have been aggravated after Vincent (Benoit Magimel) confesses his love for Max even when he is married with children and claims he is not "a queer".

Marie was once with Ludo and now currently seeing another musician, even though she is in only for the sex and not anything beyond that. As she moves around and never is in at a particular place for long, she finds it difficult to commit in a relationship. We see Eric (Gilles Lellouche) has a thing for Marie, though he is still hung up on Lea after being dumped by her. While at one of the dinners, Marie confesses if Vincent weren't married, she probably would have fallen for him. Most of the times we witness each of the character's inner conflicts in his or her relationships, though they don't really seem to threaten the bonds - even though superficial - in the group.

Overall it's a light-hearted movie from director, Guillaume Canet, who has given us a much more absorbing, fast-paced thriller, Tell No One, with actor Francois Cluzet. Given his previous movie, it was natural to expect more out of him while this one ends up as a little preachy.

Rating - 7/10