Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The season of movies

Yes, oscars are going to be held next Sunday. This is the official season of movies.

I am glad that i have seen almost all the important ones that i care about (except the foreign language nominations , for which i am truly sorry). Yes, i have not seen SocialNetwork and i do not intend to watch it. Here is an overview of how i am celebrating this season this year -

1. The music never stopped - This month's Camera cinema club screening. A movie about a mentally handicapped person who when played music from his past suddenly makes him remember his memories. And this music is the music of Greatful dead, Dylan, Beatles etc. An awesome performance by JK Simmons and rest of cast, this movie is a delight to watch because it is so simple and heart warming. Every one cried in that cinema hall in the end. Everyone.

2. The kids are all right - A lot of buzz was created by this movie and i missed all of my chances to see this movie in hall. But i saw it yesterday and i liked it. I am a big fan of Mark Ruffalo and he is great to watch in this movie. That also goes for the young actress Mia something, who was also there as Alice in Alice in wonderland. The cast is very strong, so acting is top notch, story is quite expected given the premise, but still feels new as it unfolds.

3. Dogtooth - Watched it just after the kids are all right. In the kids are all right, the premise is simple and then a pressure cooker situation is developed from an ordinary situation. Dogtooth is simply opposite from this - The premise itself is so complicated, so extra-ordinary that the entire movie to a viewer is just a revelation and after some time the viewer just stops expecting anything and just accepts whatever is presented. Dogtooth is a very scary movie, scary because what if it comes to be true. It reminded me of Dogma productions, like The idiots, like movies made by Lars von tiers. Dogtooth is a bold movie, because it tries to depict a society which does not appear to be that far away but its consequences are disastrous. But without going into the details of story, dogtooth cinematically is quite amazing . The best part is that not a single part of movie is spent in justifying the premise, it just expects you to accept the premise and see the implications of premise. This to me is a sign of good film making. At many instances in film, there is no sound, just visual imagery. Very little background score and even natural sounds such as jumping into a pool are turned off just so that the visual sense can dominate other senses. And then there are some scenes where there is background music and it just stands out then. Dogtooth is nominated in Foreign Lang category. Haven't seen others but this one is quite a force.

Other movies -
1. Extraordinary measures - A feel good movie about how a cure for pompe disease came into production. A good watch on a Sunday evening kind of a movie.
2. The Straight story - I had to watch this movie again, just to get rid of the pain that was reminding me to watch this movie again.

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