gavin_f Reviews

King Kong (2005)

Kong Rules!

[10/10 · 20 December 2005]

• NO SPOILERS -

Yesterday I finally got to see King Kong ('finally' as in, three days since release were almost too much of waiting!). What a truly awesome experience! I'm a huge fan of the mega blockbuster, and in my memory, the last few films that even came close to King Kong were Spiderman 2, Titanic, Independence Day and Jurassic Park. That's like four films in ten years. And King Kong surpasses them all. Or I'm still in the glow of a great movie, and don't mind making foolish statements about it being the best that I've ever seen, which I've been guilty of doing several times.

By far the biggest thing at the movies is redefining BIG. Every year. Not only through technology, but also through storytelling. By now, the blockbuster has expanded to mammoth proportions. How do you then make a story about a huge monkey (for that is what King Kong is after all) bigger than journeys into distant lands, historical, outer space and fantasy? Peter Jackson totally nails this with Kong.

I think King Kong is a truly great movie, for many reasons, only one of which I'd like to go into in some detail. One of the most important criteria of a great movie is how it covers multiple bases, has multiple layers without seeming to, seamlessly. There are at least three layers of audiences that King Kong specifically caters to, so well, it is business-case worthy.

1. First there is the King Kong fan club: The challenge here is - How can the new King Kong satisfy this audience, while still remaining entertaining for those who don't know Kong at all?

2. Next is the special effects movie / blockbuster movie audience: The challenge here is – How can King Kong go beyond what this audience has seen before, while still keeping it about King Kong, only an overgrown ape after all?

3. And finally the general movie viewership: The challenge here is – How can King Kong be relevant to an audience that is not just males and fans, but also females, kids, looking for a simple movie that is hugely entertaining without being too complex, and critics and cinephiles looking for sophisticated post-modern storytelling even in simple commercial stories?

King Kong covers all these bases, addresses all these layers, superbly. It takes a huge length to do it, but it does complete justice to its over three hours running length, becoming eventually an epic. IMHO :-)

Downfall (2004)

A modern masterpiece, which brings to dramatic life the truism that the best movies made in the world are often outside Hollywood

[10/10 · 1 October 2005]

Just finished watching this modern masterpiece, which brings to dramatic life the truism that the best movies made in the world are often outside Hollywood. Germany is not generally known for very good movies, notwithstanding classics such as Run Lola Run and Das Boot, but Der Untergang is among the very best movies ever made.

The film, which literally means The Downfall, charts the final days before the unconditional surrender by Germany after the final siege of Berlin. Exquisitely subtle, (there are only about a half dozen explosions in the entire film, each one literally earth-shaking and so well positioned structurally in the film, we remember this is basically a war movie of a kind. It is much more of a drama though, as it charts the emotions of those involved in the final days, in Hitler's inner circle. Told primarily from the perspective of a very young secretary of Hitler's whose then unquestioned allegiance to him and eventual (after half a century, that is) double take on her naivety provide a metaphor for Germany's own relationship to humanity's greatest shame, the film succeeds remarkably in going where no-one could, before.

In taking this perspective, the film broke a half-century old taboo, going where it wasn't possible to before a new millennium brought a new freedom. Even then the film kicked off major protests across Germany and elsewhere in the world (mostly Europe) for allegedly 'humanizing' Hitler. That it does, definitely, more or less the way Satya humanizes the participants of the Mumbai underworld. Whether film has the right to allow reprehensible individuals and groups a say through an essaying of their first person perspectives is a moot and morally complex point and this is not the place for such a discussion. Der Untergang at no point glorifies the Nazis, but it does sympathize with their condition when all was lost, as any human being or group deserves sympathy, even those responsible for the worst of the worst crimes.

What is utterly remarkable about this film is its exercise of storytelling and film-making technique. Outstanding in all departments, and blended into a gestalt so perfect that no element can be singled out as superior to the rest, it is an experience to cherish – a perfect film. Film at its best takes us into a space and time radically removed from our own, yet so real a reality that we are completely immersed vicariously in it – and Der Untergang fits this to a T. Yet it is necessary to make note of one aesthetic stroke – the movie's take on Hitler as a manic depressive bipolar swinging between absurd visions and profound melancholies that often descended into rants and rages and Bruno Ganz's portrayal of this complex role. Never for a moment did I doubt Bruno Ganz was Hitler, the channeling is of the order of Jamie Foxx's essaying of Ray – simply perfect.

All in all – this film is the reason we watch films compulsively, so that among the dozens we experience, one may rise up to the true potential of cinema.

Iqbal (2005)

exactly what the abundance of word of mouth asserts - the best movie of this year.

[8/10 · 18 September 2005]

Watched Iqbal yesterday. Yes, this movie is exactly what the abundance of word of mouth on it asserts - the best movie of this year.

I don't think this is a great movie, it's just that it is so rare to see a film that works in Bollywood, which does not come from a masala genre, that works simply as a straightforward story - that this film looks all the better compared to the awful field it competes with.

Iqbal brings a smile to the face and a tear to the eye and a lump to the throat and a racing of the heartbeat in slight twist and sweet turn and more than makes up for the time and money it takes to invest in watching a film - much more than that.

Nagesh Kukunoor's minimalist narration (enhanced by rousing music by the creative genius duo of Salim Sulaiman) that we saw in his earlier films is here perfect - the rustic ambiance of the film seems to pervade the storytelling too.

The film reminded me of Million Dollar Baby and Shwaas at times - MDB, because of the minimalism & struggle against odds; Shwaas, because of the sweetness of the tale.

Lovely, lovely film.

Before Sunset (2004)

Haunting, Entrancing, every bit as wonderful as its already cult status indicates

[8/10 · 18 September 2005]

What can I say about Before Sunset? Haunting, Entrancing, every bit as wonderful as its already cult status (only one year old now) indicates. Ethan Hawke, gaunt, hunched and withered, and Julie Delpy, wiser and better, accidentally (or did fate set it up?) meet up a decade after their previous single day together to spend another day reliving it, and catching up with a decade that they eventually realize was all about that one day. What a love story this is! No love-making, but intelligent conversation that is orgasmic, covering the environment, Buddhism, the modern self, psychotherapy, relationships, America and Americans, sex and gender, God – pretty much everything that young people care about in ones and share about in twos. This is an even better film than the first one, sharper and tighter, and benefiting from the ground laid down by it, so that we now care so much more deeply for this couple that were essentially strangers to us the first time around. America meets Europe again here, as the couple walk around talking over Parisian backdrops that are not at all hard to look at. This is a must see, but only after you've seen Before Sunrise. I loved these two films with only a day in between viewing them. What would it have been to have seen Before Sunrise when it first came out and to then see Before Sunset a decade later? The heart aches at the thought…….

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)

.....a very very sweet movie.....not a great film.....but a really lovely one.

[7/10 · 18 September 2005]

This is the second time I'm watching this movie and I'm ashamed I forgot how much I enjoyed it the first time. I'm completely biased here – I've loved ensemble movies all my life. From St. Elmo's Fire that I watched a half a dozen times at least, obsessively, at the MAD (Movie A Day) Club at my alma mater more than a dozen years ago, to Indian Summer, one of my favorite movies of all time, to Peter's Friends, I've seen a good many of them, more than I can remember now. The two big ones I haven't seen (yet, that's going to change soon) are The Big Chill and The Breakfast Club.

Anyway back to Sisterhood. This is a very very sweet movie, that touched me in all the right places, cute without being cutesy. B, Carmen, Ilena & Tibby, four 17 year old 'young women' who have been inseparable best friends their 'whole life', on the verge of a summer vacation when they will be separated for the first time, discover a pair of jeans that miraculously (considering they are built sufficiently differently) fit all of them perfectly, and that they decide to share (by using in turns and mailing to the next in line) over the summer. A simple enough device to keep us engaged while the film charts the separate stories of the girls as they learn about Life and Love, it eventually does all come together as we see that the stories are not all that distinct. This is what makes this ensemble movie distinct from previous ones, here the four girls' stories develop separately, as they struggle with their issues which actually form a neat set, the discernment of which is the fulfillment of the experience of this film. This is a story of Trust and Judgement, of Self and the Other, very unassuming and pretentiously done. And beautiful. Very beautiful. Each of the girls is vulnerable and attractive and very easy to like. The film itself is visually a delight, with a lovely soundtrack to match, and I found myself feeling happy just with the images and sounds. At the start, one of the girls narrating the stories says 'It was as though we were all parts of the same person'. It is this magical sense of partness and wholeness and togetherness and distinctness and connectedness that makes this such a lovely film. Not a great film by any means, but a really lovely one.

The Horse Whisperer (1998)

The Horse Whisperer is an exquisite work........a gift

[10/10 · 18 September 2005]

Last night I was blessed with an experience that is the gift of cinema - a very very beautiful film that celebrates the glory of the human soul in a way that drove me to tears of joy and gratitude at having had the privilege of being a part of it.

The Horse Whisperer is an exquisite work, with multiple levels of relevance that are marvelously integrated into a seamless story. On one level, it is a celebration of man's great capacity for and heritage of attunement to nature and the limitless beauty that he chooses to return to, having tired of the unsatisfying world that he had created in its place on his path of discovery. It is also a testimony to the process of healing, of how it is an opportunity to delve deep into the recesses of the traumatised soul, and how it can only be undertaken with a simultaneous caring for everyone involved in the circle of influence. It is also an examination of relationships, of the relationship between the parent and the child, between man and woman, between human and animal, and ultimately between body and soul. Ultimately the film is a triumph of spirit, a paean to a long forgotten wholeness and harmony that is celebrated in the film as though it just were, and had never ceased to be, without the wrangling and flailing that one has come to expect of a piece of art that attempts to recapture the glory of the soul.

One of the very many great moments of the film are where the mother tries to understand the Horse Whisperer's failed relationship with his love in the past, as a love that was 'wrong' because they were not 'right' for each other. He says 'I loved her not because it was right, I just loved her'. This clear differentiation between love on the one hand and the rightness of the relationship on the other elevates both to a respectability that is incomprehensible when love is understood only as a manifestation of the rightness of a relationship. This kind of 'simple wisdom', so to speak, is the fabric of the entire film, it is the tongue in which the story is told. In fact much of the film eschews dialogue completely in favour of the vast visuals of American ranch-land, always with humans embedded as part of the landscape in a harmony that seems so obvious as to be almost unremarkable. Among the most poignant of these are the moments between Tom, the Horse Whisperer and Pilgrim, the horse, moments where they communicate wordlessly, often soundlessly, slowly going through the stages of distrust, caution, diffidence, examination, trust and sharing that are necessary on the path of friendship, here shown between man and animal.

The story of the Horse Whisperer is simple enough and I shall neither describe it, nor analyse the components of the film. Doing this would reduce its stature to that of a product.

The Horse Whisperer is a gift, accept it.