Garden State (2004)

Andrew : I haven’t cried since I was a kid. I didn't even cry at my mother’s funeral. I tried, I thought of all the saddest things I could think of, like things in movies, there’s this image from Life magazine that has always haunted me…I focused on it, but nothing came. That may be actually sadder than anything. I felt so numb……

Thanks to the horrible direction in Satyagraha that I could leave the movie halfway and return back home to watch this beautiful movie, Garden State. Even though I absolutely hate movies that end in airports or railway stations where the characters suddenly realize true love and change their minds instantly, this is one of those that can be forgiven for taking the same route since there are quite a few great dialogues and that constant feel-good factor. And then there's Natalie Portman at her cutest.

Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff) is a wannabe actor in L.A. who works at a Vietnamese restaurant to make ends meet. He returns back to New Jersey after a long time to attend his mother's funeral and meets some of his childhood friends. He has also discontinued his medication that his psychiatrist father (Ian Holmes) had prescribed him since his childhood and is having frequent headaches while adjusting to it.

While visiting the local hospital, he meets Sam (Natalie Portman), a bubbly, talkative girl who is also a pathological liar. As they get to know each other, Sam takes Andrew to meet her family and their discussions are almost like a competition on whose family is weirder. We get to know the story behind Andrew's antidepressant pills and how his father has blamed him for a freak accident involving his mother even though he was just a 9-year old kid then. Meanwhile, Andrew also meets his childhood buddy Mark (Peter Sarsgaard) who works at graveyards and has a habit of collecting valuables from the dead bodies that he buries. As the three of them set out on an adventure in the hinterlands of New Jersey to "explore the infinite abyss", Andrew and Sam also realize they are just made for each other. While Sam gives him the idea of what it feels like to be "at home" and "safe", Andrew's presence has refrained Sam from "even lying in the last two days".

Written and directed by Zach Braff himself, Garden State explores the twenty-something years when you're out on your own away from the people you grew up with and you wish you had enjoyed your childhood more while you had the chance. The movie could be compared to Safety Not Guaranteed amongst the new releases with it's touchy yet hilarious moments.

Rating: 7.5/10

25th Hour (2002)

Agent Flood: You don't read the papers much, do you smart guy? We've a wonderful thing called the Rockefeller laws. Let me educate you. You had a kilo in your sofa. That kind of weight makes it an A1 felony. 15 years to life minimum for a first offense. Now with that much spread in the sentencing guidelines, the judges take their cues from the prosecutors. So if the prosecutors wife busted his chops that morning, you're fucked. You're gone for good. If you get lucky? Really lucky? And let's say he got some good trim the night before. Maybe he'll plea you off to an A2. But that's still 3 to 8 for first time, minimum. How much of that stretch you pull is all up to the mood of the prosecutor. And he's gonna ask us, "Did he play ball?" So, why don't you tell us about your friend, Nikolai? Let us make it easy on you.
Monty Brogan: [to Agent Cunningham] Can I ask you one question?
Agent Cunningham: Sure.
Monty Brogan: When you have your dick in his mouth, does he just keep talking like that? Cause it seems to me he just never shuts up. I'm just curious does that get annoying? You know, you're fucking a guy in the mouth and he just won't shut up?

One could borrow a few lines from Monty while dealing with stupid people, say for example, in an exit interview? Just kidding :) Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) is about to spend the last 24 hours of his freedom before going away to serve a 7-year sentence in prison for drug-dealing. He wants to spend those last few hours with his girlfriend, Naturelle (Rosario Dawson), his dad (Brian Cox), and his two best friends, Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) and Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

When Monty is with his girlfriend at home, the DEA pays a visit and it seems they already had the information about where he stacks the drugs and his illegally-earned money. While Naturelle looks uncomfortable during the whole scene at his place, Monty starts suspecting if she could have blown his cover. As much as he doesn't want to believe it, his friends, including Slaughtery, also suggest the same. While trying to seem unruffled by the events that have led him up to then, he excuses himself from a conversation with his dad and what follows is an epic monologue -

Knowing the kind of trouble someone with boyish looks can face in a prison, Monty asks his best friend Slaughtery for one last favor.

The opening scene of the movie where we see Monty helping an injured stray dog and his friend mistakenly suggesting "Doyle's laws" when he actually means "Murphy's laws" sets the path for the movie - Anything that can go wrong, will. The movie shows us about the various reactions that we go through when something bad happens to us - anger, blame and finally acceptance of our fate. It's a brilliant study on the inevitability of life's fuck-ups and the effect it has on one's view of the world around him and his relationships. The scene where we see both Jacob and Slaughtery discussing what's in store for Monty and how it would finally affect their long-standing friendship shows the harsh truth. At the same time, the movie ends without making a definitive statement on Monty's fate and leaves it with a glimmer of hope depending on the choices Monty would make.

Rating: 7.5/10

Fallen Angels (1995)

Wong: She's become a part of my life these past few years. But things always change. I desperately want to tell her that I want to quit, but I don't know how to start. So I've devised another way. [Speaking to someone]: "A woman may come asking for me in the next few days. Give her this coin. Tell her 1818 is my lucky number". 1818 - the number of one of the songs in the jukebox. When she hears the song, she'll understand my message.
.....
[Song in the background]: Forget him, and it's like forgetting everything. All sense of direction seems lost, like losing oneself. Forget him, and it's like forgetting the joy of life. It's like a stab in the heart, bleeding and in agony.......

Fallen Angels has two parallel stories where few of the characters from both stories would cross paths. Wong (Leon Lai) is a contract killer who works with his partner (Michelle Reis) for the past three years without having ever really met. She feels emotionally involved but doesn't want to get too close to him as she is afraid she might know too much and thus lose interest. In another part of the city, He Zhiwu (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is a mute young guy who leads an irresponsible lifestyle, breaking into other peoples' shops and working during the night when no one else does. He still lives with his father in a one bedroom apartment and falls in love with the effervescent and weird Cherry (Charlie Young), only to be forgotten when she finds someone else.

I'm not sure what draws me to Wong Kar Wai's movies anymore. After In The Mood For Love and Chungking Express (still my favorites amongst all his works), there hasn't been a real plot in his works. It was almost absent in Chungking Express too, unless we consider the disappointments in love as his constant recurring themes. May be it reminds me of Sin city in some ways on those boring nights when I'm sitting at home staring at my screen for long. Or may be it's the visual experience that you start missing only once it's over. The smoke drifting aimlessly just like those nights in the all too familiar green, yellow and red lights in the background, the close-up shots and the hazy distant shots too moving in tandem. The stunning cinematography, the random thoughts in the voice-overs with the lack of real human conversations are what carry his works and the experience is almost like watching Haruki Murakami's words painted in action. The loneliness of his characters are almost forced upon you to move you into a world of melancholy that becomes an addiction you so wish you didn't have. May be I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. May be I shouldn't have watched it. May be I will keep coming back for more.

Rating: 7/10

What Maisie Knew (2012)

Susanna: I'm sorry baby, I don't want you to be scared of me.....Can I tell you something? Long time ago I was just like you....You know who your mother is, right?

What Maisie Knew is a contemporary adaptation of Henry James' novel that would remind one of Kramer vs Kramer, but only that this story is told through the eyes of a 6 year-old. Maisie (Onata Aprile) is a 6 year-old who seems very mature for her age, and for sure more mature than her bickering parents. When Beale (Steven Coogan) and Susanna (Julianne Moore) seem to have come to the end of the rope, Maisie witnesses the dissolution of their marriage and takes it in her stride. Her nanny, Margo (Joanna Vanderham), tries to protect her from the bad influence even as she prepares to get married to Beale once the divorce goes through.

Beale is an art dealer and Susanna a rockstar, and both are going through their mid-life crisis as their careers have plateaued. While Beale is away on international trips, Margo keeps taking care of Maisie while still being treated as a nanny and not as someone who has a say in the relationship. Meanwhile, Susanna gets married to a bartender, Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgard) who could take care of Maisie on the days she visits her mom. When the selfishness and irresponsibility of both the actual parents take on epic proportions, it's the step-dad and the step-mom who seem to be the only ones concerned about Maisie's well-being.

Directors Scot McGhee and David Siegel have adapted the novel in a contemporary setting in New York to reveal it could be any child's story. With the rising importance of careers for both parents, equally ambitious and understandably so, the upbringing of kids takes a back-seat.  There's no one to blame even though the parents can be extremely careless. And the Maisies of the world know it. Julianne Moore is brilliant in the role of an ageing rockstar who doesn't want to fade away and yet wants to hold on to her child. The chemistry between Alexander Skarsgard and Onata Aprile is great and looks as real as if they are father and child. Joanna Vanderham is also amazing as she feels the pain of a child lost between warring parents while wanting to have something for herself too. The movie is extremely sensitive and at times disturbing. A little gem that should be watched by everyone.

Rating: 7.5/10

The Iceman (2012)

Mr. Freezy: Who's the girl?
Kuklinski: I don't know
Mr. Freezy: And you let her go?
Kuklinski: I don't kill women or children
Mr. Freezy: It'll kill your reputation
Kuklinski: What are you doing?
Mr. Freezy: She saw my face....
[Kuklinski pointing a gun at Freezy]
Mr. Freezy: What the fuck are you doing?
Kuklinski: Gotta keep my reputation.

Based on a true story, The Iceman depicts the life of Richard Kuklinski, a guy who started out as a porn film lab operator to become one of the most notorious contract killers in the history of U.S. The story takes us back to 1964 when we see a tongue-tied Richard (Michael Shannon) trying to woo Deborah (Winona Ryder) in a coffee shop in New Jersey city. Even though he has no charm when it comes to women, Deb is taken with his cool demeanor which she probably mistakes for signs of a nice guy.  We see his first victim at a snooker bar when the guy playing opposite him tries to insult Deb and ends up with a slit throat in his own car.

A year later, they are married when Richard's boss Roy (Ray Liotta) insists that he join him as a contract killer and to watch his back all the time. When tested by his boss to see whether he has it in him, Richard shows no hesitation in killing a street bum with three shots to his chest to end the bum's "misery". This starts out a career in contract killing that would go on till 1986 by when he would have killed over 100 men as per his recollections. What was surprising is the fact that he was a devoted husband and father to two daughters who had absolutely no idea what he did for a living. His wife thought till the end he was working in the foreign exchange markets where he used to make a "killing" to provide his family a very luxurious living.

There are quite a few documentaries out there and a few interviews with Kuklinski that provide more details of his killings and the role his father had in turning him into such a cold, ruthless killer. In one of the interviews he mentions about a time when he gave one of his victims half an hour to pray to God to come down and change the circumstances. When God seemed to be busy, he shot the man. Michael Shannon is superb in the lead role as he plays it to perfection. However, if we watch the documentaries, Richard Kuklinski appears to be more self-aggrandizing as he clearly loves to talk about the killings and also smiles once in a while, unlike what we see in the movie. Ray Liotta as a mob boss once again looks quite threatening when he does his talking with his menacing eyes.  The movie reminded me of another mafia movie, Kill The Irishman, only that the protagonist in that one seemed more human. Richard, on the contrary, deserved his reputation of being the most dangerous man ever as all one had to do to meet his death was to annoy the Iceman. And the Iceman nickname was not earned from his cold demeanor, but for the fact that he used to deep-freeze his victims' bodies for months before disposing them. Beat that.

Rating: 7/10

Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

Alex: We never talked about father again. From this moment on, my mother got married to our socialist Fatherland. My mother became the promoter of the progress of society. A passionate activist for the simple needs of the people and against the small injustices of Life.

After her husband apparently abandons her and their kids to move to the West, Christine (Katrin Saß) enters into a severe depression and re-emerges to devote her life to the Socialist party in East Berlin. During the last few days before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Christine sees her son, Alex (Daniel Brühl), being beaten up by the police while he was participating in a protest against the regime. She suffers a heart attack and goes into a coma.

Eight months later when she wakes up, the doctor advises that any shock can lead to fatal consequences and she'd be better off in the hospital. However, Alex realizes that the biggest shock that can come to her would be the fall of East Germany which she'd learn of sooner or later if she continues in the hospital. Alex devises a scheme to create a world around Christine that'd would give her no clues to all that happened in the eight months she was asleep. He brings in his sister, Ariane (Maria Simon), to help him in continuing a make-believe world where the socialists are still in power. That'd take him to the extent of scavenging garbage cans to bring back his mother's favorite consumer products. He also makes trips across the city, breaking into abandoned houses to find the containers of pickles, Mocca fix gold, Globus green peas, etc that have all vanished from the local stores due to the competition from the capitalistic West. He also takes the help of his friend to record videos of "news" that'd keep the truth from her every time she switches on the TV. In the meantime, he also develops a relationship with the nurse, Lara (Chulpan Khamatova), who spends most of her time with Alex and his mother.

Good Bye Lenin! is a comedy with its serious dramatic moments that depicts the love of a son for his mother which would take him to unimaginable extents to protect her from harm's way. Daniel Brühl with his boyish looks is absolutely brilliant in the lead role while the character of Lara provides the perfect match as his love interest. Chulpan Khamatova in the role of Lara is as sweet as anyone can be. Katrin Saß as the righteous Christine does a great act too as we see the genuine happiness she feels while helping others or the slight disturb on her face when she sees the Nazi swastika painted in the lift of her building. Director Wolfgang Becker has provided the little details in the movie that makes it a joyous experience. It could probably mean a lot more to the Germans since so much of their history is embedded in the events that took place in the October of 1989. But it'll be equally savored by the rest too who were not a part of that history and are only looking in from the outside.

Rating: 7.5/10

Inside Job (2010)

Henry Paulson (in Feb 2008): We're gonna keep growing. Okay? And, obviously, I'll say it: 'If you're growing, you're not in recession, right? I mean, we all know that.'

I have always hated documentaries with a self-serving purpose and a data selection bias that pretend to say, post-crisis, "Oh, we already knew this. How didn't you?" When a friend first suggested this documentary, Inside Job, I was quite predictably dismissive of it as I knew what it would have to say - blame it all on the bankers. However, I watched this today for the second time, and I can quite confidently say I haven't watched a better, well-researched documentary that exposes the conflicts of interest of the academics in their association with the financial services firms.

Inside Job presents a series of interviews with some of the big shots at the banks and business school professors and also mentions all those who declined to be interviewed for very obvious reasons. Presented by Matt Damon and directed by Charles Ferguson, the documentary is divided into four parts that details the history of deregulation and where it has got us all today. It starts with the deregulation process started by the government in Iceland that led to the privatization of Iceland's 3 largest banks and goes on to contrast Iceland's GDP of $13 billion against the bank losses of over $100 billion. As one Iceland film maker says, "Nothing comes without consequences".

We see a series of reactions from various people, most notable being Singapore's Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong who remarks, "When you start creating something out of nothing, it's very difficult to resist", an obvious reference to derivatives. When NYU Professor Nouriel Roubini is asked why hasn't there been a more systematic investigation into the 2008 financial crisis, his response, "because then you'll find the culprits", will leave you slightly disturbed.

Some of the funniest scenes include a Goldman Sachs top executive saying, "That's very unfortunate to have on email", when he is quizzed on why a particular security was sold to a client when their analysts called it "crap" on email. Until then I was still a little skeptical since it was portraying Alan Greenspan in a particular light and I personally feel he is a man whose integrity can't be questioned. The issue Alan had against regulation was more from an ideological perspective as he is so famously known to be from the Ayn Rand school of thought. However, the icing on the cake is the interview with former Fed Reserve governor and current Columbia Business School professor, Frederic Mishkin. When he is quizzed by Matt Damon on why he resigned in August of 2008 (a month before Lehman's collapse) when there were so many issues to be taken care of, he very nonchalantly mentions he had to revise a text book he was writing. Even better, he is first asked about an academic paper that he wrote about Iceland, "Financial Stability in Iceland", and was paid $124,000 by the Iceland govt. to write it. Very conveniently, his current resume mentions the title of the published paper to be "Financial Instability in Iceland" and he justifies the error by calling it a "typo". Awesome.

With the trial of Fabrice Tourre recently coming to an end, I'd agree with what a columnist had described the trial as - "They just got the foot soldier. The big fish are still out there". Charles Ferguson doesn't recommend how these financial crimes can be stopped but suggests more underlings should come forward and expose the truth. The documentary is very informative and I'd highly recommend this to anyone with an interest on this subject. And guess what, the full version is freely available on Youtube!

Rating: 9/10

Talk To Her (2002)

Benigno [relating the story of "Shrinking Lover" to Alicia]: But time went by. Despite her efforts, Amparo couldn't find the antidote and poor Alfredo was shrinking daily. To stop her suffering Alfredo left and went back to his mother....A lot of things happen in the film. But what's important is that after years of remorse and study Amparo finds the address of Alfredo's mother and she turns up there......And Alfredo stays inside her forever.

Benigno (Javier Camara) is a well-intentioned but naive male nurse who spends his days and nights taking care of Alicia (Leonor Watling), who is in a state of coma for the past four years. Marco Zuluaga (Dario Grandinetti) is a travel writer leading a lonely life after separating from his girlfriend. They are seated next to each other at the theater during a screening of "Cafe Muller", and Benigno notices Marco is crying while Marco is oblivious of anyone else's presence.

Marco meets Lydia (Rosario Flores) to write an article on her and her profession of bullfighting. He mentions he doesn't know anything about the sport but knows quite a lot about "desperate" women. A few events follow and they start seeing each other when Lydia has an accident during one of her fights and enters into a coma. Marco spends his days too at the hospital besides Lydia and Benigno is taking care of Alicia, and they eventually become friends out of their shared miseries.

When Marco learns from Lydia's ex-boyfriend that she was about to dump Marco just before her accident to get back with him, Marco leaves Madrid. A few months later Marco learns of Lydia's death and that Benigno doesn't work at the same hospital anymore. He returns back when he learns that Benigno has been convicted of a crime that he probably didn't commit. The crime that we come to learn of in the movie could seem really perverted from a conventional sense, specially when we are unaware of the circumstances. However, the movie treads on a very thin line between what is accepted in society and what was done out of pure love even though it'd seem morally wrong. It's here that the importance of the story of the silent movie within the movie, "Shrinking Lover" becomes apparent.

Talk To Her is well played and it's only in the last half hour where one would start to make sense of everything that has been going on till then. Having said that, the complexity of the movie with crying men and the bonding of men over a love that won't be returned is a little off for my taste. It might very well deserve all the praises and could deserve the 8/10 rating on IMDB, but I could have spent the time in much better ways. For some reason, Pedro Almodovar has never struck me with his so-called brilliance probably because of the way the relationships are portrayed and I can't reveal more without sounding politically incorrect (it's only the 2nd that I've watched, and could very well be the last). To each his own. It definitely doesn't deserve the space on my hard disk anymore.

Rating: 6.5/10