Tyrannosaur (2011)

Hannah: I prayed for you last night.
Joseph: Yeah, well, it didn't fucking work.
Hannah: Why did you come here?
Joseph: I was just passing.
Hannah: There must be a reason. Do you want God to forgive you for something?
Joseph: [laughing] I don't want anything from that fuck.
Hannah: God loves you. You're a child of God.
Joseph: God ain't my fucking daddy. My daddy was a cunt, but he knew he was a cunt. God still thinks he's God. Nobody's told him otherwise. 
Hannah: Why are you so angry at God?
Joseph: Why are you so fucking stupid? I've met people like you all my fucking life. Goodie goodies. Make a charity record. Bake a cake. Save a fucking soul! You've never eaten shit. Don't know what it's like out there. Don't have a fucking clue.

Joseph (Peter Mullan) is a self-pitying widower with a history of violence. Hatred is all he has to offer to the rest of the world and he is always taking it out on someone weaker. When he kills his dog in a fit of rage, his world becomes only lonelier. One day he wanders off into Hannah's (Olivia Colman) store, and thus starts a friendship from mutual respect and understanding that is formed out of misery in their respective lives. Only that Joseph thinks he is the only one in the world who is hurting and insults Hannah for what he thinks are her petty troubles in a privileged life.

When he learns about Hannah's abusive husband, James (Eddie Marsan), he slowly starts to mend his own ways too. His need to save Hannah and his hesitation in doing so suggests about his own violent behavior when it came to his dead wife since it takes him on a trip down memory lane. And when Hannah finally leaves her husband to temporarily take shelter at Joseph's place, he again starts losing it as he finds it difficult to cope with the arrival of someone in his otherwise lonely life.

Meanwhile, we also meet Joseph's little friend, Sam (Samuel Bottomley), who lives down the street. Joseph is protective about Sam, who lives with his mom and her abusive boyfriend. Things take an ugly turn between Sam and his mom's boyfriend that makes Joseph feel responsible. When Sam is attacked by the dog that belongs to Sam's mom's  boyfriend, Joseph describes the incident with the dog to Hannah by saying, "an animal can take only so much punishment and humiliation before it snaps, and fights back". It's almost as if he is describing his own change of ways, and the chain of events that follow that made him veer off his track and back to his previous self.

Debutant director, Paddy Considine, gives us a tense drama about the hopelessness of some people's miserable lives. Violence begets violence, unhappiness begets unhappiness. Excellent acting from both Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman makes these characters so real, it will stay in your head for a long time. A must-watch.

Rating: 8/10

We Steal Secrets (2013)

Interviewer: What drives you?
Julian Assange: Well, I like being creative, I mean I am an inventor and all.....I also like defending victims. And I'm a combative person, so I like crushing bastards....and so this profession combines all three things and hence it is deeply, and personally satisfying.

Written and directed by Alex Gibney (of Enron:The Smartest Guys In The Room fame), We Steal Secrets is the story of Wikileaks, the whistle-blowing website founded by Julian Assange. While trying to tell the story of Wikileaks, this documentary inevitably leads to making judgments about the character of Assange.

As the patriot vs traitor debate rages on, it brings up the tarnished claim of Wikileaks that never has been the identity of an informer compromised. Of course, until Bradley Manning. Although questions can be raised about Assange's true intentions and his persecution complex, there is no doubt that the true victim here is Bradley Manning. And somewhere along the way, the documentary moves to the more interesting part of Bradley Manning vs The State. The moment the classified documents became public knowledge and another American hacker, Adrian Lamo, turned Bradley in to the authorities, there were all kinds of stories about his sexual orientation, former bosses corroborating the stories about his wayward ways, etc - a systematic character assassination. When he was recently convicted on 22 counts for "aiding the enemy" and could possibly receive the death sentence, the question still remains unanswered - who exactly is the enemy? Is it anyone who stands up to the Government? As one of the clips shows Ron Paul saying, "Wasn't it once considered patriotic to stand up to the wrong-doings of the Government?" When we see a teary-eyed Adrian Lamo wishing it had never happened - he endangering Bradley's safety for the perceived safety of others - the only party left to be blamed is the Government. Or as one interviewee mentions, it's a "politically motivated act of vengeance against someone who hasn't damaged national security, but has caused embarrassment".

Coming back to the story of Assange, the documentary interviews the two women who had accused Assange of rape. Amidst rumors that one of the women was a CIA agent, the documentary tries to make light of it and is more sympathetic towards the two women and questions why Assange has been resisting being extradited to Sweden to face justice. Well, isn't it obvious? Even if the CIA agent story might be a stretch, it could very well be a trap. Moving on from there, we are shown some interviews of Assange where he is questioned about the lives he puts at risk by going public with classified information. In one of them he specifically mentions if an Afghan civilian is helping the American soldier, then he deserves to die. Well, that's truly debatable. In some cases, it's not as black or white as he thinks it is and his "Lights on...rats out" theory does not hold.

There are lots of notorious hackers, but no one has ever done what Assange did and remained alive for so long. After reaching a cult-like status, one's ego can definitely feed to his delusions and can lead to feelings of persecution when anyone questions his character, rightly or wrongly. However, if you call it paranoia, it's exactly that what has kept him alive. Surprisingly there is no mention of Michael Hastings, the reporter from Rolling Stones who empathized with Assange and was killed in a "car accident" at the age of 33. The best way for Alex Gibney would have been to just state the facts without portraying Assange in a way as it tries to do. By bringing on former employees of Wikileaks and trying to depict Assange as a man who is turning into the character that he despised himself, the case can be made void by depicting his former colleagues as "disgruntled employees".  In the end, with so many vested interests, it's impossible to separate the facts from the fiction. And with the wave of sympathy for Assange, it could very well explain the low rating of the documentary on IMDB. Even though I would fall in the category of Assange supporters, this is a well-made documentary overall with small lapses here and there. Everything, after all, becomes a matter of opinion.

Rating: 7/10

Mr. Nobody (2009)

Jean: Nemo, do I matter to you? I'd just like to ask you one question. Did you do it on purpose? I found this on the bedside table.
Nemo: There comes a time in life where everything seems narrow. Choices have been made. I can only continue on. I know myself like the back of my hand. I can predict my every reaction. My life has been cast in cement with airbags and seat-belts.  I've done everything to reach this point and now that I'm here, I'm fucking bored. The hardest thing is knowing whether I'm still alive.

Nemo Nobody (Jared Leto) is 118, and supposedly the last living mortal on Earth where everyone else has been immortalized. As the world is curious about his past life, a journalist enters who tries to make sense of it all and wants to know how it felt in a world where humans were mortals and "before sex became obsolete". Nemo starts his story from the beginning before he was born - in a place where children know everything about the future until they enter the world.

His narration takes 3 different paths, with diversions again in each of those paths. The choices start at a time when Nemo was only nine years old, and he had to decide whether to stay with his father or with his mother. In the path where he chooses his father, he grows up to be a nerd with low social skills and falls in love with Elise (Sarah Polley). In one version of that path, he is married to Elise with kids, while Elise is having a breakdown after being unable to let go of her first love. In another path where he chooses his mom, he is in love with Anna (Diana Kruger) - a love that is reciprocated. In a different version of the same path, he is married to Jean (Lin Dan Pham), however, that path has an overlap with the path where he gets rejected by Elise during the early years. Confused, eh? Well, the journalist definitely was.

With a plot such as this, there isn't much of "acting" to be done as the whole movie is narrated in flashbacks with a voice-over. The movie talks about the "impossibility of a choice" that a nine-year old child is faced with and how life-altering and irreversible can that choice be. As Nemo says, "as long as you don't choose, everything remains possible". Tell me about it. We don't need a 118 year-old man to give us "gyan" about that in a sci-fi set-up. Though I loved the second last line of the quote I have posted on top. Deep down, I knew that too, but just that I never articulated it.

For the most part, the plot seems to have been taken from Butterfly Effect and also has similarities with Slaughterhouse 5 (which I'm currently reading) when it talks of time not necessarily moving in one direction. But I'll make no comparisons since Butterfly Effect is one of my favorite movies which leaves it open-ended but still suggests that the central character was imagining it all because of his guilt when his childhood sweetheart commits suicide. Remember, in the opening scene while at the asylum, he writes in his diary, "I did everything to save her"? I have had enough arguments about Butterfly Effect with my friends, but we'll leave it to another day. In Mr. Nobody, somehow the pieces are still contradictory, even if one tries to explain it considering that it's a sci-fi. One major loophole in the plot being why the kid was asked to choose when a train is about to leave? (That's not my original thought, but credit to someone who asked the question why hadn't the parents discussed their separation before reaching the train station). I'm not sure if the director also knew what he was aiming for. As they say, if you can't convince them, confuse them. The one who comes out understanding it all is a effing intellectual. Or may be I need to watch it again, but it's definitely not worth the effort.

Rating: 6.5/10

Enemy Of The State (1998)

Larry King: How do we draw the line - draw the line between protection of national security, obviously the government's need to obtain intelligence data, and the protection of civil liberties, particularly the sanctity of my home? You've got no right to come into my home!

If you're enjoying the action around Julian Assange and Snowden, then this is the movie to watch. If you want to know how to discredit someone by digging every little dirty secret of one's personal life, then this is the movie to watch. As the tagline says, "It's not paranoia if they are really after you". We have seen it happen to Assange, and now we starting to get a glimpse of what's about to happen to Snowden.

When D.C. lawyer Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) gets a videotape in his possession that has substantial evidence against a mob boss, he is threatened to reveal the name of the informer or face consequences. An ex-flame, Rachel (Lisa Bonet), is the mediator between Dean and the informer, who goes by the name of Brill (Gene Hackman). Things get complicated as another whistle-blower drops a disk containing damning evidence against the Government into his bag. Apparently a congressman, who was about to oppose the bill favoring surveillance activities of the government, is murdered  by a rival, Thomas Reynolds (Jon Voight), and the whole incident is caught on tape. As the NSA guys try to hunt down Dean, he realizes his problems are not just about the mob bosses, but something even bigger than that. Dean's life turns into a nightmare as he loses his job, his house gets vandalized and his past extra-marital affair resurfaces to cast doubt on anything he might say in the future.

As Dean gets to meet Brill for the first time, he learns he is bugged from head to toe, and what we get is an action-packed chain of events that will keep you glued to your seats. Gene Hackman as the former NSA employee gives a smooth and an excellent performance. Director Tony Scott teams up with producer Jerry Bruckheimer to provide an action-thriller that is worth every minute of your time. Even though Enemy Of The State was released before 9/11, it is more relevant today than ever before as we slowly move into an Orwellian society. If you love your conspiracy theories, then this is the movie to watch.

Rating: 7/10

The Place Beyond The Pines (2012)

Robin: If you ride like lightning, you're going to crash like thunder.

Set in a small New York town, Schenectady, The Place Beyond The Pines is a drama focused on two families and spanning over two decades that depicts the consequences of actions taken long before. The film is set in three stages, with the first part centered on Luke (Ryan Gosling), a motorcycle racer with a propensity for violence and dangerous behavior. After knowing he has a son with his girlfriend Romina (Eva Mendes), he tries to turn a new leaf in order to provide for his family. Being attracted to quick ways of making money by robbing small banks, he finds himself in a tricky situation when he is cornered in a house by  rookie cop, Avery (Bradley Cooper). In a fast turn of events, Luke gets killed in the encounter and Avery becomes the local hero.

In the second stage of the movie, while Avery recuperates from his injuries, he is joined one day by his veteran colleagues who introduce him into the corrupt world of cops by targeting blacks and other minorities, as happens to be Romina's family in this case. After being witness to the harassment of Romina's family, he finds himself conflicted between doing the right thing and earning some quick cash. When he finally does the right thing by reporting the corrupt cops, he sees....surprise! surprise!......even the head of the department is involved in it. On the advice of his father and driven by his own ambition, he turns the situation to his own advantage and is made Assistant District Attorney.

15 years later...in typical Bollywood style (it's not always that our boys get "inspired" by Hollywood), Avery's son finds himself in the same class as Luke's son and they become friends. No points for guessing what'd happen next....

For some reason I have always found Ryan Gosling very over-rated. He reminds me of our very own Ajay Devgan's portrayal of an always-smoking-and-in-deep-thought brooding personality in all his movies post D-Company. The second half of the movie gets more interesting with Bradley Cooper's conflicted personality as he tries to weigh in his own ambitions as opposed to "justice". Special mention for Ray Liotta as the menacing corrupt cop because even though he doesn't have much screen time, his presence was the only time that made me sit up and pray for poor Avery. The movie is engrossing at times, while mostly it's predictable. I tried this movie after reading brilliant reviews for director Derek Cianfrance, but for someone who has grown up watching Bollywood dramas, it's just another one of those films that try too hard to stir up emotions and sympathy for the poor while trying to show how the system and the society fails them.

I'll still go with a decent rating to discount the fact that I might have been pissed off due to the rain and the fact that I didn't have chilled beer stocked up at home.

Rating: 7/10

Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind (2002)

Chuck Barris: I just want you to know that I hate myself. Goddamn...I hate myself.
Patricia: Nietzsche says whoever despises oneself still respects oneself as one who despises.
Chuck: Shit..I never thought of that. I could despise myself and be insane.
Patricia: Insane asylums are filled with people who think themselves as Jesus or Satan. Very few have delusions of being the guy down the block who works for an insurance company.
Chuck: Well, I wanted to be a writer, a writer that some lesser person would quote. I never did. I'm the lesser person I suppose.....I'm disposable. I dispose off people and I'm disposable.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is the autobiographical account of Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell), the TV show presenter who came up with the original ideas of The Dating Game, The Gong Show, etc. As the movie progresses, we see real people who worked alongside him for the ABC network commenting on his personality & his activities, with most of them agreeing that he probably wasn't a happy man. His greatest enemy was his inability to take criticism. A man who had set himself higher standards since childhood and constantly failed to achieve them, it was obvious he would be affected when critics said he was solely responsible for lowering the standards of television. While some of his friends felt that he had a knack for knowing what people want, it was sad that he didn't see it that way. We see that in a scene where a girl in the swimming pool asks him what has he achieved to be making fun of poor people who want their few minutes of fame on a TV show, an obvious reference to The Gong Show.

Alongside his struggle, rise and fall on TV, we see him leading a double life as a CIA agent. Followed by a man named Jim Byrd (George Clooney), he is recruited as an independent contractor for the CIA where they use his game shows as the perfect cover for his international trips to communist countries where Chuck is supposed to complete his assignments. The only good thing in his life came in the form of Penny (Drew Barrymore), his lifelong friend and lover.

Nothing else could have brought about the confluence of greater minds - direction by George Clooney, screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and of course, the book by Chuck Barris. When it comes to life's unrealized dreams and disappointments, who better than Charlie Kaufman to handle it. Some very original and brilliant dialogues strewn throughout the movie such as the opening lines or the one by Jim, "You're 32 years old, and you've achieved nothing. Jesus Christ was dead and alive again by 33. You better get crackin'." Sam Rockwell is as usual brilliant in this role while Drew Barrymore's Penny is the one that adds the sweetness to it.

When I first watched this movie, I thought why didn't I get this idea first, i.e. of making a claim that I'm a secret agent. It's a full-proof way of getting famous - a truth/delusion that can't be proven one way or the other. Maybe it was Chuck's way of mocking his audience by creating a story that would make people mock at him, which would actually help his cause. It's what Nassim Taleb calls as the "anti-fragile theory" in his new book and gives an analogy of how a Greek mythological creature, Hydra, works. If you cut one head, two grow back.  Harm is what it likes. Similarly, bad press or mockery can be sometimes good for an author....Or, If his account is true, I can only envy the excitement of  leading a double life while getting to kill 33 people for the sake of your country and walking away scot-free. Not that I care much about patriotism, but I sure as hell would love to know "30 ways of killing a man with a single blow". (Disclaimer: Any RAW agents reading this, please don't take me seriously. I'm just kidding. I DO NOT fit the profile).

Rating: 8/10