Black Swan

While looking over Darren Aronofsky's work, there is always a certain psychodrama element at work be it the remarkable 'Requiem for a Dream' or the underrated 'The Fountain'. He seems to be at his best whilst dealing with the bleak side of human nature. Certainly not Kubrick-esque but arguably the closest modern cinema can get to him. And that is in itself an achievement of staggeringly epic proportions.

In 'Black Swan', Aronofsky does not disappoint us. A film about the ballet, rather more the ballerinas, it is a look at two proverbial white and black characters. Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) and Lily (Mila Kunis) play two ballet dancers in a production of 'Swan Lake' helmed by Thomas Leroy (Vince Cassel).The girls are polar opposites in the extreme with Nina's dainty ways and inherent goodness contrasting with the brash and almost libertine Lily. The concept of 'Swan Lake' where there is a black swan (evil) and a white swan (good) is central to the story. Nina is chosen to play the Swan, yet she finds it hard to display an evil side. Enter Lily, who is the archetypal Black Swan. There isn't much of a story line, just a metamorphosis of Nina's character into one resembling that of Lily's or rather White Swan to Black Swan.

Nina's character is formulaic, almost. She is as pure as a flower, a girl who's probably never been with a man. Looked after by her mother, Erica (Barbara Hershey) who was a dancer herself but put all her energies into making her daughter what she could not be. Her journey or rather metamorphosis is visceral in the extreme. Everything she does somehow filters back to her sexual repression. It could be argued that sex is but one of the fundamental choices that humans make, or rather even have the freedom to make. And when this choice isn't even an option it just adds to the mental drudgery of a too-pure-to-be-true experience. Nina's mental problems are quite possibly just an offshoot of all her desires being repressed or told off. While it is not clear that being good is her defining trait, it is more likely her mother's raising of her impregnated her against being a wee bit bad.

It is here that Aronofsky displays a control of his characters so intimate that one cannot help but marvel at his sheer brilliance. The major gripe with most people who prefer books over movies is that emotions cannot be transmitted to the screen whereas within a book, you can be inside the character's head. This is one of those rare films where you can actually enter Nina's mind space and observe how Lily causes it to disintegrate amidst chaos. Lily's character is a fascinating journey into another extreme. She is liberated and at ease with her own sexuality, a modern woman aware of the power she commands just by being her. Her conversations with Nina are indeed particularly interesting as she introduces her to a world unlike her fairyland. This different world cannot help but seduce Nina. If there's one constant in humankind from the Adam & Eve days, it is the overwhelming temptation of being bad. Nina’s mental battles to resist change are handled well and offer an insightful portrait of the mental tussle that she undergoes.

Ballet as a medium is well chosen. Simply because, it is inherently transcendental in nature. The dancers transcend their current selves in a way, to reach the graceful heights and play characters expressed only through their bodies. Natalie Portman gives a cracking performance and her perfection is scarcely believable at times. Lily is at complete ease and you feel that the role was tailor made for Mila Kunis. The ballet performances are brilliant and especially the actors who've learnt ballet just for their roles are scintillating.Indeed when Nina does her Black Swan act,we break into heartfelt applause.

The strange thing about this film was that there was no normal 'grey' character; all the characters were extremes in their own ways from the darkness of Lily and Thomas Leroy to the light of Nina and her mother. What this leads to is removal of any empathy with the audience, as there is simply no connect with any of the characters. So, while you feel horrified at what Nina is going through, you never really feel anything more than just pity at her thrill-less existence. Black Swan is an exploration into the foundations of human character and a very insightful look at why we are what we are. One wonders though, if only Nina had more sex then she probably wouldn't have had to go through all this.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind is a film that could be broadly classified as a sci-fi romance. Scripted by the legendary Jason Kaufman whose scripting credits include Being John Malkovich, Synedoche and Adaptation and helmed by Michael Gondry, it is certainly a film that is 'different' and very refreshingly so.

The movie is about the life and mind of one Joel Barish(Jim Carrey).He is shy, restrained and gentle. His girlfriend, Clementine(Kate Winslet) on the other hand is everything that he is not, vivacious, foul mouthed and brash. They break up and Joel learns that she has had the memory of him removed from her brain at 'Lacuna Inc' a firm/clinic that removes people's desired memories.  Shocked, he decides to do the same. All his memories of her are being wiped out, when he realizes he doesn't want it to happen. He takes the memory of her and hides in umpteen places such as his childhood, even so that her memory isn't lost to him.

The whole thing turns into a race through Joel's mind to try and protect his memories of Clem, as he calls her. The transitions from memory to memory are a bit lacking in production quality, but the subject matter is such that it simply does not matter. It is about a romance that is almost feral in its intensity.

While the film won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, technical perfection is simply not what this film is about. Jason Kaufman's script is probably the biggest star amidst a cast of actors such as Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet and Kirsten Dunst. The actors chip in with performances that are delightfully understated with their characterizations being secondary to the script's musing about love and separation.

The endearing thing here is its ability to make us think. We've all wished we could forget something from our lives. And so we begin to think, should we be grateful for our memories or get rid of them if they're too painful? It isn't an easy question to answer. Clementine does because she's impulsive, Joel wants to abort because he'd rather have all those memories of the one woman who actually did love him.

The movie is summed up when in his memory, he leaves a house simply because of Clem's brashness and now when it is his last memory, she asks him to make up a goodbye at least and instead of walking away, he comes close and tells her he loves her. The house she is in is crumbling as with the rest of that memory, but we want him to hold on. We want him to have a final goodbye. Maybe as much as he does. That is where this movie wins, in getting you to emote with Joel and Clem who love each other, but have differences simply on account of being so vastly different from each other.

Jim Carrey does a fantastic job as the shy, insecure man who has loved and lost. His face betrays the emotions of a despondent man, one with sadness etched into every line. The few moments he is happy we see the difference in his smile,  that tells how unfamiliar it is for him to smile. Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst and the rest of the cast are equally good and we can understand and appreciate each ones travails.

The quote that gives the film its title is oddly fitting and comes from Alexander Pope, poet extraordinaire, forever in the shadow of Tennyson, Hardy and the like

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!

Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd

While an article could be devoted to what it means, I’ll be brief. An innocent pure woman is happy only because she has prayed for and received the gift of forgetting everything she's been concerned about. Ignorance is bliss, and such is the case for this woman.

'Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind' refers to the fact that a mind unclouded or shrouded in memories is eternally bright, like sunshine.

This isn't a great movie; not even a very well made one but reaches far deeper than most blockbusters with all special effects and no heart. As I listen to the background score as Joel travels through his Clem-less memories, the twinge of the guitar may be the twinge of his own sadness. The film put simply, has this human element. It isn't just a script or a collection of actors, it's us, people we've known and choices we've made, lives we've led...it is about all of that. And heart-breakingly beautiful...

Rango (2011)

Rango is a delightful animation movie for mature moviegoers which acts as a homage to western cinema in a smart, creative and amusing manner. It has so much going for it- vibrant colorful animation, sapid characters and a beautiful Wild West theme with a Mexican flavor coupled with shrewd humor.

Rango (Johnny Depp) is a thespian chameleon who gets landed into the Southwest desert highway after falling from his terrarium in a car accident. In the burning environment, he finds a run-over armadillo in his quest for Spirit of The West, who informs him about the town of Dirt. On the way, he befriends a female lizard- Beans (Isla Fisher) who takes him to Dirt, a forgotten town inhabited mostly by reptiles and rodents.

Rango tries to blend in among the town folk, using bravado and improvisation by faking himself as a rootin’-tootin’ gunslinger.  After accidentally killing the hawk preying on Dirt, he is promoted to Sheriff by its narcissistic mayor, an old turtle, John (Ned Beatty).  Things begin to get dirty in Dirt when the water in their bank is stolen by moles. Rango dutifully organizes a posse and tracks the robbers to their hideout. They fight the robber’s clan over the stolen water bottle in a ‘Ride of the Valkyrie’-chase through the canyon before discovering the bottle to be empty. Despite the robbers asserting they had already found it empty, the posse brings them to town for trial.

Rango suspects the Mayor on his water-controlling notions to which the Mayor reacts by summoning Rattlesnake Jake (Bill Nighy) who humiliates Rango in front of the town and makes him admit that he is no more than a fake and a coward. He walks away ashamed and doubting his very identity. Then he meets the Spirit of The West, as a cowboy-with-no-name who drives his golf cart . Now, personally I wanted Clint Eastwood to do this voice-over  but nonetheless, Timothy Olyphant lives up to the expectations by brilliantly inspiring Rango telling him “No man can walk out on his own story”.

In his quest assisted by mystical yuccas, Rango learns about the water-supply scenario which the mayor had been manipulating. With the aid of his friends, Rango returns to town with a plan to call out Jake for a duel with a single bullet and turns the water-valve to flood the town with water. In the climax, Dirt is renamed to Mud and Rango is recognized as their Hero.

The movie indeed has innumerable cues to old time favorites like Chinatown, The Shakiest Gun in The West, Blazing Saddles and of course, the dogfight scene inspired by Star Wars. The animation is mind-blowing and so precise that it would make you wonder at the marvel of 2-D animation. Hans Zimmer’s music is wonderful, though some of it has been derived from the western flavor viz. Once upon a time in The West. The duel scenes are unforgettable and the chorus-providing Mariachi owls that appear throughout the movie are very enjoyable. Actor voice-overs are class-apart and Johnny Depp pulls it off very well in a suave style. The director, Gore Verbinsky of Pirates of the Caribbean fame, has done a remarkable job as his debut in animation field.

There is no denying the lure of this Oscar-winning movie. The message conveyed is simple: ‘How high can you aim when your whole purpose in life is to blend in ?’

Trainspotting

For all those who have experienced drug addiction, it isn’t just a mere fleeting high. What potent ecstasy must it brew up to allow a man to squander and fritter away his prospects, life and even loved ones ?

Trainspotting is essentially, a story. And a very well told one at that. Danny Boyle's first major feature after the criminally underrated "Shallow Grave", it presents drug addiction in a form that delights and horrifies in equal measure. Adapted from Irvine Walsh's book of the same name, it follows five friends and their dalliances with drugs in Edinburgh

Narrated by Renton (Ewan McGregor), the film is about him and his friends: Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Johnny Lee Miller),Tommy (Kevin McKidd) and Begbie (Robert Carlyle). All except Begbie and Tommy swear by drugs and regard it as their reason for existence. Begbie is addicted to violence and loves picking up fights in bars.

The film's black humour is a pleasant surprise and could be considered akin to 'Pulp Fiction' in pop culture reverence terms. However, the real strength of the film lies in it's depiction of what it believes to be a story, without any taking of sides. When Renton tells us “Choose your future. Choose life . . . But why would I want to do a thing like that ? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons ? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin ?"

We begin to see where this will go. The friends have no place to stay and no one to care about or for. They are truly the Lost Boys .

When Renton's parents lock him into a room to go cold turkey on his addiction, we see the full horror when he is tortured by his days of ecstasy. The drugs within him turn into enemies that torment him every second of his ordeal. His friends continue their drug fuelled ecstasy ride with disastrous consequences. Begbie's character is interesting because of his addiction to violence. He isn't so much a danger to himself as to others.

Danny Boyle does very well in bringing out what he wanted to do. He succeeds in creating a film that is fun, serious and not at all preachy. His ease is apparent in the many memorable scenes that dot the film. The music is full of the eclectic pop rock that we've come to expect from British movies and plays a major part in not letting things get too serious.

A major theme here is the one of camaraderie between the drug users. They appear to be good friends, best mates even. However, as the ending shows their friendship didn't mean that much at all. Or maybe, it was the fact that addicts do not care who comes in their way to do what they must.

Ewan McGregor as Renton is good and comes across as a character we might like to be friends with, despite all his despicable traits. His scene in 'The Worst Toilet In Scotland' is one of the most vomit inducing scenes you shall ever see and he deserves special praise for allowing himself to go through with it.

What shines through all this is however the inherent simplicity of the film. At no point does it claim to be a British 'Pulp Fiction' and simply looks like a likeable story strung together very capably. There are no complications, no deep characterisations and the almost bare bones look gives the film a character of it's own. It is what we could call a cult film. With some Edinburgh slang ('shite') and some brilliantly understated black humour, this is one film that should be watched. Not for its drug themes, not for its lessons but simply as an exercise in entertainment. And if you learn something, so much the better.

No Country For Old Men

There are some movies that are just that, movies. There are others that cross the line and stare you right in the face. No Country For Old Men obliterates this line.

Directed by the Coen brothers whose oeuvre includes movies such as The Big Lebowski and Fargo, this is a simple enough story. Set in 1970's Texas, it is a story with three men at it's centre. These men are Sheriff Ed Tom( Tommy Lee Jones), Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) and Josh Brolin (Llewelyn Moss). Their lives intersect in a mire of fate, consequences and pure evil. Adapted from Cormac Mccarthy's book of the same name, it is a highly faithful adaptation and fans of the book will be delighted with the efforts of Joel and Ethan Coen.

The movie starts off with a drug deal gone sour and a hunter, Moss (Josh Brolin) spots the scene of the altercation. He clambers down and finds dead bodies all over the place and a suitcase full of cash which he pockets. There is a barely alive man who asks him for water but Moss shows glimpses of the heartlessness that is at the core of the film by refusing to help him.

Josh Brolin as Moss

To recover the money, a psychopathic hit man, Anton Chigurh is hired. Chigurh is the archetypal psychopath with a taste for refined cruelty. A scene where he strangles a policeman to death with his handcuffs is one of the few times where his face betrays any emotion. When it does, it is an expression that could translate as pure animalistic joy, the very sensation of being alive. After his deed is done, his face returns to being a cold, violent mask.

Looking over all this carnage is Sheriff Ed Tom (Tommy Lee Jones), a veteran whose bitter and rueful humour betrays the trials and tribulations he has faced. He is tired of all the crime in the world and we hear it in the starting voice over when he says "He killed a 14-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion, but he told me there wasn't any passion to it. Told me that he'd been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he'd do it again. Said he knew he was going to hell, be there in about 15 minutes. I don't know what to make of that."

Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Ed Tom

The three men and their paths intertwine and a game of cat and mouse ensues. The storyline is nothing spectacular, but the Coen brothers are masters of the unsaid. There are scenes which feature nothing more than characters shuffling across doors, waiting in anticipation. The characterisations are vivid and purposeful.

Another factor that contributes to the gloomy outlook is the lack of background music. Carter Burwell comes up with a score that sounds like an indistinct machine hum that you could hear in the street if you listened hard enough. Movies have long used background music to lead watchers on, especially horror ones. But here, this experimental score works like a charm. It breaks the barrier and transports you to dusty, hot Texas.

The film is chock full of scenes that you simply do not want to end. When Chigurh makes an unknowing shopkeeper call a coin toss to decide whether he should live or die, it is the knowledge of knowing that the man we see could die in an instant if he was unlucky enough to call wrong. Moss's wife when faced with the same situation is however aware of what that toss represents. Her defiance in not letting a coin decide rather than being the 'wimpy wife of a tough man' is refreshingly not naive.

Javier Bardem plays Chigurh to his brutal best. He rarely flinches, even when stitching up his own bullet wounds. While The Joker may probably be the best negative character of the previous decade, Anton Chigurh provides stiff competition. While the Joker came across as the devil himself with all his devilish dialogues, Chigurh is more practical, letting his cattle shotgun do the talking.

Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh

The film works so well simply because it reminds us that cinema exists beyond mindless, verbose dialogue and redundant special effects. One of the major feats that this movie achieves is in the darkness that it creates, even though much of it set in bright sunlight. The funereal atmosphere hangs like a giant, gloomy cloud engulfing us and leaving us grateful.

At the risk of sounding like a sadist who enjoys violence,  I will say this. "No Country For Old Men" is a beautiful film, with beauty stemming from it's violence. This despondency is best summed up when the sheriff says " I always figured when I got older, God would sorta come into my life somehow. And he didn't. I don't blame him. If I was him I would have the same opinion of me that  he does."

There Will Be Blood

Paul Anderson is a director who i known for his exploration of different themes which quite uncommonly change from film to film. Starting with his look into the porn industry in 'Boogie Nights' and onto riveting drama in 'Magnolia' whilst taking a romcom detour in 'Punch Drunk Love', he has consistently reinvented his boundaries and been heavily praised for it.

His 'There Will Be Blood' is however a huge departure from his usual works. The oil epic is one of massive proportions and unlike anything he's ever done before. One would think that new territory for most directors is harder to cover but Anderson does a great job.

The movie is about one man and one man only, a certain Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis). We begin with him prospecting in the old Midwest and discovering oil. Despite certain setbacks, he manages to return safely and starts his own oil empire. His dogged determination and ruthless streak are apparent and it is these qualities that lead him to becoming an oil tycoon before long. However, he prefers to call himself an 'oil man’, playing to people's family instincts unlike the big state owned corporations. He adopts the baby son of an employee killed down a well and uses him as a mere prop to proclaim his respectability to the farmer folk whose lands he wants to buy. Privately, however he laces the boy's milk with whisky.

Upon being informed of a poor family that lives on oil rich land, his ambition leads him to become enslaved to corporate social ethics as he promises to build schools and better facilities for the local people. He also promises a donation to the local church run by Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) who is known for his frenetic sermons. Plainview is not impressed however, and believes it all to be a charade.

There is not as much blood as one would have thought but it is obvious that it wasn't intended to be. Oil is the driving force here and Plainview's lust for the wealth and power it brings are responsible for bloodshed. He loses an employee and his loses his hearing in an accident. It is here that we realise the extent of his callousness when he abandons his adopted son.

The plot goes on and on with a multitude of characters coming in, such as Daniel's half-brother and the big oil corporations that wish to quell the challenge of this 'oil man'. It draws on over the years with the struggle between Plainview and Eli very close to the centre. One could say that this is a highly pessimistic film with characters some way off from sanity with Eli and Daniel both shown to be almost deranged in their devotion to oil and the Church.

The film is one very long exploration of Daniel Day Lewis's character and fans of classic cinema with more dialogue and moments open to interpretation will devour it. Lewis confirms what we already know, he is arguably the best British actor of his generation and delivers a hypnotic performance with his measured syllables and pet hates all perfectly done to give us a look at who Plainview actually is. The ending sums up the paroxysm that he can work up if his beliefs are challenged and provides a fitting contrast to how we started the film, admiring him for his determination.

Another theme here at play is the father son relationship, with the sons having enough courage to stand up when needed. Indeed, the scene where Eli leaps on his father and calls him a 'stupid old man' is certainly revealing when considering how often Anderson's films have featured such a theme.

Western epics have received a huge shot in the arm in recent times with the release of movies such as 'No Country For Old Men’, ‘The Assassination of Jesse James' and 'There Will Be Blood'. While certainly not the best of the three, it is still a very intelligent film and indeed an eminently watchable affair.

The film majorly plays on the human curiosity that sociopaths stir up. It is best summed up when Plainview talks to his half-brother and says,"I’ve built up my hatreds over the years, little by little. Having you here gives me a second breath. I can't keep doing this on my own with these... people." and we all think about it for a small second only to condemn or nod our heads in silent agreement.

Sholay (1975)

Gabbar Singh, Jai, Veeru, Thaakur, Basanti , Sambha, Kalia. These are just some names which are synonymous with the masterpiece of Bollywood, an evergreen classic: Sholay.

The film comprises of an ex-policeman, Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) summoning two of his earlier-detained outlaws: Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra) – to hand him over a nefarious dacoit: Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) and that too alive !

At first, the amiable camaraderie between Jai and Veeru is portrayed in a very light and amusing manner which could not be depicted more exquisitely by the very well-known song: “Yeh Dosti hum nahi todenge”. They are shown to split the bounty on them with Surma Bhopali (Jagdeep) for getting them caught and how they dramatically beguile their ‘Angrezon ke zamaane ke’ Jailer (Asraani) and make their way out of the jail. After that, they agree to work for Thakur provided the compensation is right.

Upon reaching Ramgarh Vilage, Veeru falls for the blathering carriage driver, Basanti (Hema Malini); and Jai starts to have romantic feelings for Baldev Singh's widowed daughter-in-law, Radha (Jaya Bhaduri).

Gabbar sends three of his men to Ramgarh to get some supplies but they are intervened by Jai and Veeru and return back empty handed. It is now that Gabbar’s face is revealed followed by his psychotic nature where he plays a game of Russian roulette with his men and kills them deliriously. Amjad Khan is simply enthralling here making it one of the most memorable Bollywood moments ever. He retaliates back on the occasion of Holi and comes to know about Thakur’s measures. Also, it is now when Thakur sheds light on his past and tells how Gabbar slaughtered his family as an act of vengefulness on arresting him earlier. He also leaves Thakur maimed for life by hacking his arms off.

Hence, upon learning the truth, Jai and Veeru turn loyal and vow to bring Gabbar alive for Thakur. Meanwhile, the affection between the two couples flourishes in the village. They also befriend other villagers and instill a belief of freedom from Gabbar's villainous regime.

The movie reaches its climax when Basanti and Veeru are captured by Gabbar’s men and Basanti is agonized by threatening her to keep dancing or else they will shoot Veeru. Jai slyly comes to their rescue and in a chase sequence, asks Veeru to go back to the village with Basanti and get ammunition, to which he refuses. After vain convincing attempts, they finally decide by a toss as to who will stay and who will leave. Jai wins and stays back to ward off the henchmen from coming forward. He runs out of ammo before Veeru returns and is wounded severely. 

Jai dies in Veeru’s lap remarking on their very cherished friendship and that he won’t be there in his future endeavours. Lamenting Veeru finds the coin in Jai’s hand and realized that Jai always won in their tosses because the coin was biased. Yes, it had two heads! Now, he turns berserk and kills all of Gabbar’s men in a rampage, leaving Gabbar at the ‘legs’ of Thakur. Thakur stomps onto Gabbar with his spike-soled shoes and wallops him to death.

Though the underlying theme of the movie is revenge, but it is interwoven with many insightful messages on friendship, love and loyalty. By some accounts, the plot is said to be highly inspired from some cult Western films. Nonetheless, Sholay delivers extremely splendid performances by most of its actors. 

The masterful background score by R D Burman is immensely renowned and each song has become an anthem for a particular theme. Salim-Javed have created an eminent magnum-opus with their work on dialogues and story. Some of the most memorable ones are:
Hum angrezon ke zamaane ke Jailer hai. Ha Ha.-  Asraani
Humara naam bhi Surma Bhopali aise hi nahi hai.- Jagdeep
Arre o Saambha, kitne aadmi the? - Gabbar
Tumhara naam kya hai Basanti? - Jai

Sholay is, at heart, timeless and stands as a testament in world cinema and particularly as an enduring example of what Bollywood can create, but prefers not to.