2018 Archives | Straight From a Movie

Category: 2018 (page 1 of 4)

The Grinch Movie Review (2018) | A Middling Entertainer

The Grinch movie is entertaining, yes, but it feels like an arrow missed. Based on the popular Dr. Seuss book, the flick is a good adaptation of the story that shows Max, Grinch’s dog, in a great avatar. It is fun to see the relationship Grinch shares with him. However, there is something that you feel amiss owing to the movie’s editing. The two parallel stories that the movie carries run hand in hand and feel a bit stretched. Owing to that the Grinch movie feels like a drag. It is painfully slow sometimes because of the lack of proper punches and some mediocre editing.

Another big issue the movie has is that it fails to leverage its plot. The part where the creators try to answer the question of why does Grinch have a change of his heart, in particular, feels unjustified. If you try to see what this movie tries to offer there, you can’t help but call bullshit. That scene, in particular, is such a big bummer that it kicks you in your groin. Because you are waiting to be enthralled by a life-changing moment for Grinch but it ends up becoming really shallow.

Then again not judging the movie on the basis of some scenes alone, you will realize that the Grinch movie has plenty of depth as well. But it is mostly when you think of it and not that it lets you. On the bright side, the CGI of the movie is simply mind numbing. All that green feels so tangible that you could almost touch it.

The Grinch Movie Characters

The Grinch is quite close to the character painted by Dr. Seuss. Giving it a palpable form are such visual artists that make him extremely relevant. If you pay close attention to his expressions, you realize they suit his character perfectly. Dr. Seuss’ imagination has been downloaded brilliantly. You can’t help but consider Grinch to be akin to a wretched man who has voluntarily chosen to be grumpy, in a way like a misanthrope, who chooses to live with his dog.

The Whos down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot, but the Grinch – in his cave north of Whoville, did not!

There are many around us who do not like a social gathering and wish to be left alone. Grinch was created with that very thought in Seuss’ head as he tried to reason with all those malevolent creatures who chose to remain in hiding even during festive seasons. Grinch is basically us, or a version of us that tries to escape the audacity of a boisterous multitude.

But to drive a message loud and clear he makes this character more diabolical. That despite all his malignant efforts, Christmas still survives. That it is the unity in people and the spirit they are in that saves it. That it is never about gifts but the well being of each other that one is really after. Ergo even though the gifts get stolen, they remain unfazed by it.

Max

Even the character of Max, who is this adorable dog, who is constantly trying to please his master even though Grinch is like literally an epitome of evil, has been done beautifully. It gives your head a new vantage, as the dog proves his colossal worth in Grinch’s life. However impossible his daily job is, probably because it is supposed to be comic, you have to image all these things as something a dog brings in your life – exultation.

Even though it is gnarly to budge a guy like Grinch, Max does his very best, trying to shower unconditional love on him. Pleasing him all the time to make sure he gets everything to his satisfaction. It is sad though, despite everything a dog does for you, despite the fact that it stays eternally hungry for your love, when you are grumpy or angry at life, you end up overlooking it all.

Cindy-Lou Who and Her Friends

Humour is not that great, but it has a dose of cuteness overload in the form of Cindy-Lou Who voiced by Cameron Seely. She is another one of those adorable characters who play a crucial part in the story. Her story runs parallel to that of the Grinch and is supposed to be the primal reason for Grinch’s change of heart. Given her age, she does everything that a child could imagine with a noble and innocent thought in her head. She and her friends are on a mission to trap Santa so that she could ask something for her mother, Donna.

No, I can’t, I have a list of errands today a mile long, and the babysitter left the sink clogged up! No, I’m not complaining, I’m venting, there’s a difference.

Cindy is unlike others. She doesn’t want things for herself but something to ease the pain for a single mother who is sandwiched between her responsibilities of looking after her children. Taking the spirit of Christmas in her vanguard she embarks on a sojourn to set things right.

Fred

Then there is a reindeer called Fred that appears like a cameo who shows you a good time before leaving you mid-way. It felt like a flung boomerang that failed to come back. But it does come back in the end (with its entire family) but still ends up getting sidelined.

Fred has been brilliantly imagined. It is the right kind of cute, cuddly and adorable. Although you can’t help but question his existence in the movie. Fred’s presence felt just for a gag that the creators had in mind. Even though he does not mess with the story at all, it still gives the audience something to chew on.

Well, Santa had eight reindeer, he looks like he ate the other seven.

Poetry and Theme

Keeping in mind the literary origin, there is ample poetry in the flick as well which sounds very soothing. They are all really rhythmic and fall into your ears like brilliant musical notes. That is one of those good things that the movie has constantly going. It provides depth to the story taking away your attention from its flaws.

If you look at the theme of the movie it is basically preserving the spirit of Christmas, why one should choose to come out of their comfort zone, lose their cantankerous self for a day and enjoy a festival which is all about caring, sharing and giving.

Unfortunately, all of the above messages get overlooked in the final moments of the movie when Grinch is shown to have a change of heart which feels like emanated from nothing. That part could have been more emotive, so you would have felt something at least. But it is all very superficial. I think they should learn a lesson or two on how to touch the emotional chords of the viewer from Pixar movies like Coco or Inside Out.

You can order The Grinch movie from here:

The Final Verdict

Yes, there are tons of good things in the movie apart from its apparent flaws, but the movie’s editing just impels you to lose interest. Even though the plot of the film has been kept very similar to that of the original story, it still changes things hither and thither which ultimately affects it and its pace.

The Grinch movie had the potential to become something extraordinary but it ends up giving you ‘meh’ feels. Illumination is always ending up missing something. They have to figure that out now or end up being branded as a production house that helms average animated movies.

Check out the trailer of the Grinch movie here:

First Man Movie Review (2018) | Now Everybody Has Visited the Moon

November 27, 2018 / scottshak / 0 Comments

What an enlightening experience! First Man movie lets you get into the shoes of Neil Armstrong, the first man to land on the moon, to experience his space sojourn firsthand. Damien Chazelle is the mastermind who weaves his magic once again after making an epic unforgettable musical La La Land two years ago.

First Man movie once again casts his lucky charm Ryan Gosling in an avatar that helps in immortalizing Neil with an intense perspective. Ryan forever carries a rare grave demeanour of a laconic man throughout the film, and successfully brings him back to life by playing Neil with a brooding conviction. Yes, Damien’s splendid take of him literally revives the dead and places him right in front of your eyes.

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

First Man movie’s final moments are so intense that you will have your heart in your mouth during that segment. It is a recreation that plays on a whole next level. It is immediately transcending and tries to see things from the eyes of Neil himself. In those final moments, you realize the quiet to be deafening and you can literally hear your heartthrob. It is so powerful that it needs to be experienced in a proper movie theatre to feel ensuing goosebumps. The powerful score of Justin Hurwitz makes sure of it too.

The Direction of First Man Movie

Alright, first things first. You can’t even begin to imagine how much effort might have gone in recreating the moon. It all feels legit. As if you have yourself stepped on Earth’s natural satellite. Damien Chazelle’s efforts are so humongous and meticulous that they beat every other clumsy director in the industry to a pulp.

He is so careful with his direction that if you stop to think of all the incidents that made Neil’s life, they are all in there, properly framed for emphasis. A proper research has been done to ensure things were just as they were in reality. Even the insides of Neil Armstrong’s house was created just the way it was in reality. There are extraordinary simulations that rebuild the real thing thus allowing its actors to completely immerse themselves in a scene. You know, letting them forget the concoction so that they could leverage their drama to the maximum.

Green screen hasn’t been used at all to direct this one which goes on to explain how serious a filmmaker Damien is. All the space scenes that were used in the First Man movie were in perfect reflection of all the video footages that the world had seen. Such beautiful coordination! It is like he shot for perfection and the end result simply blows your mind away because at the end you realize, it is.

You cannot even begin to imagine how painstakingly the team might have worked on matching the exact communication that went on the static to repaint history. For people who had experienced it back then, it is like reliving it word by word. The world skipped a heartbeat then to experience a gargantuan feat happen on a distant enclave. You will skip a heartbeat now to experience it on the big screen.

Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong

Ryan Gosling as Neil stays phenomenal. Although one could argue that the character he plays is quite taciturn so it doesn’t require a lot of animation or expressions from him. But if you pay attention to him, a rare gravitas plays in his thoughts at all times. You can see how serious he is about the job at hand. That he forever carries a profound eye for what’s going on. That he is conscious about his death at all times, and yet he is not afraid to do the one thing he has prepared himself for.

When you are down here in the crowd and you look up, it looks pretty big and you don’t think about it too much. But when you get a different vantage point it changes your perspective.

It is as if Ryan knows the tremendous importance of the work he does. Challenges are met with an equally grim reaction and an expert eye as he reckons his options. His humour is deadpan but right on.

The Serenity (Spoilers)

Ryan wears an armour of Neil creating this serious avatar that’s so much inside his skull. You show him and you notice that it is his eyes that do the talking for the most part of the movie. There are so many moments in the First Man movie where you see Neil being extensively calm whilst an enormous mishap has just happened in the backdrop. It is like riding your car even though you know it is on fire.

I don’t know what space exploration will uncover, but I don’t think it will be exploration just for the sake of exploration. I think it will be more the fact that it allows us to see things. That maybe we should have seen a long time ago. But just haven’t been able to until now.

You can’t help but fall in love with this guy who is so much more than meets the eye. Every second he is brooding, carrying the weight of a dead daughter on his shoulders. You know he would never be the same when you see him henceforth and that’s how he proves Neil to be. Drenched in his pain, unable to experience anything truly magnificent until eventually it matches something as big as the moon.

Claire Foy as Janet Armstrong

If you talk about the First Man it is hard not to talk about the First Woman who sacrificed so much to see it through. Janet Armstrong, in a world where one cannot be simply what one aspires to be, literally abdicated her throne of life. Where love generally tumbles, she stood there like a rock understanding him at every juncture. She knew what she was getting into and yet she trusted her guts with it. A love like him came with a cost, and it is worth an ovation how she hung around like a warrior.

You are gonna sit them down. Both of them. And you are going to prepare them for the fact that you might not ever come home. You are doing that. You. Not me. I am done.

Claire Foy does ample justice to Janet playing her like a woman in constant battle with her undying resolve and occasionally with her husband who was nothing less than stardust. The constant apprehension she carries is killing and you can’t help but wonder who was really living on the edge? How her life entangled with Neil so fine. There seemed absent love, and yet there it was in its strongest form. Unheard and unspoken.

Aftermath

All these protocols and procedures to make it seem like you have it under control. But you’re a bunch of boys making models out of balsa wood! You don’t have anything under control!

Aftermath moon is one of the best parts of the movie where you see Janet getting to see Neil after his sojourn to the moon. They look like mere blank faces but there is so much emotion boiling under that it is hard to see past their sea of calm. They don’t say a word. Their presence on the same planet feels like a story per se. To have returned from a distant dream feels like a whole new life, and yet their acknowledgment is not a big hoot you would have expected but a calm eye-nod which remains unspoken. They look at each other as if there was a rare silent understanding dangling in their air and you can’t help but fall victim to this uncommon unsaid love.

On the downsides, if you try really hard to think would be the screenplay which could have been better. We could have dabbed the throttle on theatrics a bit, but life has no theatrics so it still feels like a perfect gel. Also at times, you feel that they could have done so much with the drama but it ends up becoming sidelined.

You can order First Man movie from here:

The Final Verdict

First Man movie is hands down an epic contender for the Academy next year and I am pretty sure they are going to win big. It has ‘Science’ written all over it that tries to imitate the reality. All the facts check out as if the creators went back in time to ensure that they did. Witness some really serious film-making take shape and fall in love with a movie that deserves an ovation! A man that needs to be celebrated like an unflinching pioneer he is, who put his dream ahead of his life.

To end this on a final note, I would say – Watch out for that last spellbinding moment of the moon. It is made so tangible that you are almost tempted to reach out with both hands for it. It is a completely immersive experience that picks you up and puts you right up there. For the first time, you might realize how lonely it could mean to be on the moon all by yourself. Experience it yourself to understand why!

It is so impactful that it gives you jitters knowing that with that giant leap, mankind had successfully demarked a place of human reach that one could only once dream of.

Halloween Movie Review (2018) | The Brutality Still Breathes

November 17, 2018 / scottshak / 0 Comments

Halloween movie resuscitates what seemed like a dead franchise with some extraordinary direction. There are plenty of creepy chills and watch out moments strewn across the movie to keep the thrill going. The slasher horror film breathes on its brilliant direction at times picking you up and dropping you inside the big screen, amongst all the terror being perpetrated on the victims.

Halloween movie has gore written all over it but it isn’t still contemptuous which is one of its strength. It is remarkably subtle. The Shape still marvels you and the mask looks more terrifying so as to elicit more horror. You are forever biting at trepidation. At the same time, your anxiety meter is at the highest level. It doesn’t stop you from watching and you are constantly wondering what might happen next. The creation of this very powerful antagonist just forces you to think of ways you could be trying to overpower him if you were trapped with him in a room or a place.

The movie thrives on its direction, this time under the radar of David Gordon Green. It does ample justice to the monster who is out on loose yet again. Somebody kill him already! Like seriously, why does nobody learn?

Jamie Lee Curtis – Born for the Role

Even after so many years, Jamie Lee Curtis hasn’t lost it. She reprises her role of Laurie Strode once again like she was meant for it. Still playing it to perfection as if she were indeed lost in the story somewhere for so long. Waiting for Mike to be released or to escape so that she could kill him herself. A card well played!

Some people are born for a certain part. Seems like Jamie’s is that of Laurie. Her fame shot with it and still flies hand to hand with it. She comes back to it, and you can’t help but wonder how Michael is such an integral part of her in his very own monster verse that trying to separate these two would be like totally unjust and unfair to its fans. If one wishes to learn how to keep a franchise going, there’s so much Halloween has to offer.

An evil like his never stops, it just grows older. Darker. More determined.

Gordon along with Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride, the writers of Halloween movie, together swing a granddaughter angle to keep that teen magic alive. The spirit of Halloween too is kept intact as Mike the monster unleashes himself on a bunch of nobodies to get to Laurie. So every Halloween you are constantly dreading the idea of The Shape showing up to slash you to death.

Theatrics Galore (Spoilers)

What Gordon does is leverage the theatrics to the maximum. Honoring the franchise truly, Mike’s real face is still kept behind the mask at all times. Hinting at his eyes and the age sometimes but his true face is never revealed.

It is so easy to paint a monstrous picture when you have never seen the face of the villain. More importantly, it keeps you speculating all the time thus driving that fear factor further in. If you were to show the face of him, he wouldn’t be dreaded as much. Kind of like Kane in WWE. Now that people know how he looks, he is no longer dangerous.

There’s a reason we are supposed to be afraid of this night.

The brutality continues as Michael Myers goes on his killing spree once again starting with an escape killing everybody in the vicinity. It is all brutal death from that point onwards as the movie tries to revive all its lost characters. Yes! Halloween movie primarily feels like picking Easter Eggs from a shopping mall as you keep bumping into its characters from the past. It helps you connect the dots from the past that are lost somewhere. It sticks to its origins nevertheless.

The very first scene where you see Michael standing in broad daylight as a reporter tries to obtain answers from him is written in sheer pizzazz. Such stunning cinematography. Takes your breath away! The entire scene is shot in subtle psychology. You could see every minuscule reaction of the people on the screen and create your own case study out of it.

You don’t believe in the Boogeyman?

Catering Two Generations

Made for a generation that hasn’t come across the monster yet, and a generation that grew up watching it, Halloween movie literally tries to cater to both kinds of audiences. It survives owing to its thrill and horror and does it so wonderfully well that you don’t hear anybody complaining about time.

The character of Allyson (Andi Matichak) is squeezed into the story as a quintessential teenager to a slasher movie to get the entertainment going. So they had plenty of friends for slashing.

Karen (Judy Greer) is the kid who grew up with a messed up childhood owing to Laurie’s obsession with the boogeyman. Karen constantly thinks that her mom is just crazy that she is having a hard time letting things go. But Allyson, the grandkid understands her grandmother Laurie. But The Shape does show, ergo, we have yet another angle of “told you” so. It all boils down to Laurie’s retribution in the end.

Halloween movie does ample justice to both its protagonist and antagonist. Together they are the heart and soul of the movie who literally drive the story forward justifying it like a cat and mouse chase like they always have.

I would suspect the notion of being a predator or the fear of becoming prey keeps both of them alive.

You can order Halloween Movie from here:

Obvious Issues

If you remove all that part that thrills you, there are certain obvious issues lingering that literally try to push the events to meet a certain end. It is something that is hard not to overlook. Like Laurie trying to be the inevitable tough girl and still failing to cash checks her mouth was writing all this time.

He has waited for this night. He has waited for me. I have waited for him.

There are instances where you could literally feel David Gordon Green dropping his guard when it came to direction. When that happens you would know and try to erase it overlooking the minor inconvenience. Since he is the most attentive during the beginning and ending part of the Halloween movie. Some moments are there in the movie that might compel you to shake your head.

The ending is converged deliberately so that everyone ends up together so that it becomes easier for The Shape to attack them. In doing so the creators end up overdoing some implausible things. I guess, it’s fine since you have a film to make, right?

Also, some parts remain cliched and you know what’s coming beforehand. Even towards the end, you are sure that since they are trying to revive The Shape he couldn’t be shown dying, leaving threads open eventually that he might have actually survived.

The Final Verdict of Halloween Movie

Whatever the case may be, the presentation of the movie remains top-notch which is one of those great things that constantly do wonders for it. Halloween movie is a perfect feast if you have an appetite for horror especially during that time of the year when you are secretly wishing to be terrorized.

A definite must watch for the fans and for those who wish to know what it used to be all about.

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Tumbbad Movie Review (2018) | Can’t Stop Thinking About It

November 4, 2018 / scottshak / 0 Comments

What an extraordinary piece! Tumbbad movie is a consequence of superlative imagination. It blends with mythology to create a tale of horror to teach us life’s most valuable lesson. Tumbbad is reflective of exemplary human nature, of how greed swallows a person alive, that one should know better when to end it or it ends up ending you.

For a movie that took a difficult course of time, Tumbbad does remarkably well for itself releasing in a forefront that feels like its very own. Yes, times are changing in India. People are beginning to witness and appreciate this ingenuine paradigm shift in Indian Cinema, giving opportunities to intelligent movies like Andhadhun and shunning dumb mainstream cinema that has forever acted as an underlying inescapable root. It just feels great to be thriving in such times.

The Theme of Tumbbad movie

Tumbbad movie impregnates in such a womb as it takes down the perspective of a common man high on greed. What would you do when you discover a full proof way to earn infinite gold? Wouldn’t you be, I don’t know, all over it? The theme of Tumbbad movie drives itself on it, never losing sight of the mission it wishes to accomplish. Greed is a curse and we are cursed to feel it gnawing into our soul. It is a decision we have to make to look past it, if we really want to have a shot at living or we end up digging further into a web that swallows us whole.

Goes without saying, it is an ingenious thought to have imagined Tumbbad . To bring it to the big screen is an effort per se. Don’t get me even started on its casting or even finding Sohum Shah as the producer. Tumbbad movie was brilliantly crafted with all the resources at hand.

One could not appreciate its writers Mitesh Shah, Adesh Prasad, Rahi Anil Barve, and Anand Gandhi enough. Rahi, Anand, and Adesh who have helmed this concept into cinema did us all a tremendous favour by never letting this story go. Even though it took a lot of time to reach us, what matters, in the end, is that it finally made it.

The Plot of Tumbbad Movie (Spoilers)

The plot of the story primarily explores a man Vinayak (Sohum Shah), who brings gold coins secretively from a village called Tumbbad.

Where is the gold coming from? How is he getting rich?

The cardinal story is kept under the wraps for a majority of its run, mentioned only in passing in its prologue. It keeps you riveted so as to prepare you before dropping the bomb on you.

Vinayak leads a prodigious life, so grand that he even begins to loan money to his loaner Deepak Damle. Curious as to how Vinayak has been coming up with all that insane amount of ‘mudras’, one day Deepak tracks him down to Tumbbad to the dilapidated palace where Vinayak’s secret lurks. Unaware of the fact that Vinayak has already figured out that Deepak is onto him, he decides not to warn him (or the audience for that to matter).

Vinayak, in his brazen contempt for others, so as to keep his secret safe from the world, lets Deepak figure out the big secret himself. He wishes to teach him a lesson. At the same time somewhere deep down he is aware of what’s going to happen.

The Curse of Hastar

So the A-bomb gets dropped on us in sheer pizzazz as we figure out how Vinayak has been ending up with the golden mudras all this time. The lore mentioned in the prologue is of a firstborn of Goddess of Prosperity named Hastar. Even though 16 crore Gods and Goddesses were born after him, Hastar remained to be her favourite.

When the Goddess of Prosperity offered him the ownership of either of the two:

food
gold

Hastar chose gold. Ergo, he is always hungry. His greed, however, was insatiable as he tried to fight for the ownership of food as well. A fight ensued as all of his 16 crore brothers and sisters united against him. Hastar lost in the end. When they were about to kill him, Goddess of Prosperity intervened and asked for mercy. An agreement was made that he was never to be worshipped and that his name should cease to exist.

How to Trick Hastar

Hastar found refuge in her womb where he was banished to stay forever. So we know that there’s a God (here a demon) named Hastar who is eternally hungry who would literally do anything for food. He has a bag of gold that is forever full, you know, as a metaphor for everlasting fortune.

Now, getting to gold is tricky. Somehow a circle of flour made strong with mantras cannot be broken by Hastar. It is this disadvantage that can be leveraged. So you have to basically walk in with food and offer him so that it distracts Hastar. Then you can grab as many gold coins from his bag as you can before making a run for the exit, as Hastar stays distracted.

Understanding the Beginning

So there lived Hastar in a womb as Vinayak tapped into his existential secret from a certain cursed caretaker who had ended up becoming Hastar’s fodder. The so-called “Dadi” or Grandmother played by Piyush Kaushik tried to bring in horror aplenty to the story right in the very beginning of the Tumbbad movie.

It is assumed that the old man, who we saw being masturbated by Vinayak’s mom in the very beginning was one of those guys who knew about Hastar’s secret. He must have been regularly going down the well and into the womb, to take out coins until one day his body might have failed him.

Why was the grandmother brutally contorted and looked like some kind of witch?

The answer to this question is that if Hastar bites you, or eats you, you end up becoming a part of Hastar’s curse. You become eternally hungry just like him, also you don’t die. For it is clear when we see Grandmother still alive after 15 years when Vinayak returns to Tumbbad to the same place where he had babysat the Granny. So you are conscious, at the same time, in eternal pain. The only way to escape that hell is through death which can only happen through fire.

Victims of Hastar

There’s a scene where we witness the face of Granny up close. There are nails on her face. People must have tried to kill her in many ways but have failed, later might have accidentally come up with the saying:

Sleep or Hastar will come.

That’s one way to make cursed victims dormant. The mere mention of Hastar scares the bejesus out of its victims and they end up going to sleep at once.

As is obvious, the grandmother might have been saved by the owner of the house, who would have then asked for a caretaker to feed her regularly (here Vinayak’s mom). Thus saving her eventually in the process.

Greed Supersedes Life

Young Vinayak is shown greedy right from the very beginning of the movie. Even after an unfortunate event takes away the life of his brother, he still doesn’t see past his greed. That he has lost something huge doesn’t affect him.

Yes, his mother too wanted to have those golden coins, but she understands it the hard way that greed is not everything. That the presence of fortune in one’s life doesn’t matter if it comes with a horrendous cost like that of losing a child.

To ensure Vinayak understands the very concept of it, she makes him promise her not to go back to Tumbbad as they leave it. Breaking that promise after 15 years, after her mom dies of course, Vinayak ends up being drawn by greed once again. Some people don’t change.

As is depicted earlier despite being afraid of the Granny, young Vinayak still goes to her to garner knowledge about the coins. Even after he is grown up, he revisits the Tumbbad village all by himself. That just goes on to prove there is nothing in the world that could scare a person if he has greed written all over him.

Greed Beats Fear

Greed has blinded him so much that he fails to see the sheer horror that he brings the coins from. Literally tricking a God, a demonic entity, to serve his purpose. He is fighting for his life as he barely escapes making an exit in the nick of time via a rope. The sheer horror of it all! And yet he does it religiously without failing. What makes him do that? Greed is the answer.

So he has been asking his wife to make some dough, add some stones to it so it becomes harder for Hastar to chew upon, and then makes a circle in the center of the womb so the demon doesn’t enter it. He then throws the dough, Hastar goes after it, and as he stays distracted, he grabs as many coins as he can before making a run for it.

It’s like a regular regime and we see him getting insanely rich in no time.

Vinayak’s Son

Tumbbad movie becomes all the more interesting as it paces forward. Your head is already trying to reckon what would happen in the long run. What if Vinayak grows old? Enters Vinayak’s son into the equation as he is being trained right from the very beginning on how to steal coins from a statue that looks like Hastar. The child has no idea what he is getting into but is being prepared nevertheless, trained to be a part of someone’s greed.

This part makes you wonder how we subject something similar to our kids. You know, prepare them upfront to fight a battle they have no idea about. Honestly, we prep them up for the sake of our own benefits. We are moulding them, training them through schools and institutes so that one day they become good enough to earn us money.

They have the faintest clue of what they are getting into. They are just bothered about that look of satisfaction in their parent’s eyes the only reason they do what they do.

The Analogy of a Job

There’s disappointment in his father’s orbs as he tries his level best to prove his worth. His innocent eyes are constantly thinking:

How would I make my father happy? Why am I not good enough? What is good enough for father?

Finally, that dreaded day arrives when Vinayak goes low on resources, that it becomes important for him to acquaint his son to the job he does, in order to continue the inflow. The obedient child follows, still hopeful and without a clue about the horrors, he is about to witness.

I can’t help but imagine a child being asked to grow up and start earning for the family. Doing what his father does, make a living. There’s an apparent simile here that cannot be overlooked. Little does he know that he would be slaughtered and butchered by his bosses, a ruthless punishing world that would swallow him whole, and yet he is being thrown into the pit as the real intent is to make a man out of him.

Son’s First Run

His son’s first run happens then as Vinayak fills him in on the details about Hastar. Even though he hasn’t seen the demon in person, the son is pretty hopeful he wouldn’t disappoint his father. Vinayak keeps the first run as practice and so hasn’t brought any dough with him, but his smart ass son ends up sneaking some dough. In his defense, he had no knowledge about the life-threatening ordeal inside.

They narrowly escape as his son grabs up some coins to make his father happy. But is thrashed badly for not listening to his father in the first place. However, the son is a huge hit later on as the father-son duo keep making visits for the golden coins.

Vinayak finally acknowledges his son’s worth appreciating his efforts and the intelligence he retains, even admiring his avarice and lust for it reminds him of himself. The madding desire that he sees in him is like a self-reflection which is appreciated only till the day the son sets his eyes on Vinayak’s girl.

Shortcuts in Life

In midst of one fine day thrashing, his son comes with a brilliant idea of taking enough money all at once instead of scrounging for few coins every now and then. He suggests they go with plenty of dough balls so as to buy enough time to steal all the gold coins from Hastar’s pouch.

Acting upon it instantly the father-son duo reach the womb with a lot of dough balls. But to their surprise, the plan backfires. Hastar multiplies and takes as many forms as there were dough balls. It was something they didn’t foresee and they end up getting stranded in the womb.

The Symbolism of the Multiplication

It is almost as if it is saying that just like how greed multiplies, its consequence too multiplies accordingly. And it’s a neverending cycle of rapacity that only satiates when you decide to get out of that circle. If you don’t, it keeps on spreading its wings as you spread yours.

There are no shortcuts in life. You have to go the hard way sometimes even if it appears punishing. The plan to outsmart Hastar ends up outsmarting them, as the duo end up stranded inside the circle to a leering cavalcade of Hastars.

On seeing no way out, as the son goes for a quick nap, Vinayak ties all the dough on himself and makes a run for it thus diverting all the attack towards him. He gets devoured even though he ends up killing all the Hastars in a single go by forcing them to cross another circle he had created outside the well.

It’s a sad end for Vinayak as he pays the price for his greed at the same time goes for penance eventually. As a lesson learned, we see Vinayak’s son destroying Vinayak’s cadaver with fire after he has turned into one of those cursed disfigured victims of Hastar. The disfigured Vinayak offers gold but the son finally sees past it and for the first time does the right thing.

Sohum Shah as an Actor

It would be hard not to finish this account without talking about Sohum Shah’s acting in the Tumbbad movie. He is hands down brilliant. There is so much confidence seeping through him in his portrayal of Vinayak that he brings to mind an image of Ranveer Singh from Bajirao Mastani. Extraordinary acting by the bloke. He makes his character that of a tweener, something you can hate and love at the same time.

If you take a good look at Tumbbad movie, Sohum is one of the major driving forces that take the movie forward. His acting is really intense and sets a benchmark that’s hard to beat. Lost in his character, he brings just the right expressions that dictate the mood. He is impactful with his words and executes them in a deafening roar. Just the right actor who could have done a character like that of Vinayak justice.

Some Issues

Places, where the Tumbbad movie fails to score, is the creation of its characters. They are all paper-thin. You sense of a lack of emotions in a lot of places. It is as if it is all happening in a different world, away from this one. Most of the shots are very close to the body forcing you to see only what needs to be shown.

Then there is that being afraid quotient. Even when we see them facing real horror none of the characters in the movie are really scared. However dreadful the milieu was created, it ended up becoming not so. There was something missing in the child’s perspective that the filmmakers failed to understand.

For instance, you take Vinayak’s son into account, he is only terrified for a moment. For a kid that age it would have been absolutely heart-numbing or even next to impossible to face a demon. Yet he does so as if he weren’t a child. Same goes for young Vinayak when he was about to face the Grandmother. The horror in that portion, even though had a great build up, wasn’t leveraged to the maximum.

Music and Cinematography of Tumbbad Movie

Tumbbad movie hires Jesper Kyd, the legendary composer for its music. The score produced is absolutely ravishing. Horror finds a direction owing to Jesper’s brilliant compositions. They are terrifying at times, so powerful to jump scare you out of your seats. At the same time, they are also very soothing when it is gelling up with the story and helping it to move forward.

Get a cool Tumbbad framed movie poster from here:

At every juncture, however, you feel it play. Kyd’s music is so prominent that it aggrandizes the story giving it a palpable form that it needs.

Then there is the stunning cinematography of Tumbbad that is top-notch throughout. Some of the scenes are so brilliant that it picks you up and places you directly in the village. They are quite coarse and exhume a naturalistic feel.

The Final Verdict

Tumbbad movie is part horror and part mytho woven gorgeously to teach us a lesson. Apart from being what it already is, the movie forces you to think how it relates to our lives so much.

The period thriller compels us to compare it with our lives. It is hard not to tack it against reality. With the chore of getting a gold coin, being a pain-inflicting job one has to go to every day, the movie forces you to reflect on what we are doing on a day to day basis.

If we strive for more, we will have to face its repercussions. There should be no greed dictating our gait. Our primal focus should be not on the materialistic world but on all the things that supersede it. Be it be a life, emotions or health. Hold them close together and let go of this yearning to have more. Coz nothing remains!

Tumbbad movie is one of a kind, a rare original gem that Indian Cinema has produced. It has a plot that would forever play in your head and you would be constantly finding yourself discussing it with your peers. It’s just that powerful!

Check out the trailer of Tumbbad movie:

A Star Is Born Movie Review (2018) | Bradley Cooper’s Debut Is Arresting

October 24, 2018 / scottshak / 0 Comments

A Star is Born movie is powerful and plaintive, packing in plenty of great songs that sum up to be a perfect entertainer. Since, it being this age’s reboot of the same story, which we already know from the past, justifies from what Bobby (Sam Elliott) has to say:

Jack talked about how music is essentially twelve notes between any octave. Twelve notes and the octave repeats. It’s the same story told over and over, forever. All any artist can offer the world is how they see those twelve notes.

Debut direction of Bradley Cooper and he chooses a project so gargantuan that it gives you the jitters. So the bar was already set high. Good news! He nails it. Cooper has his own style of direction too. It’s slow, subtle, poignant and elicits emotions aplenty. A Star Is Born movie needed to be exactly that and fortunately it is.

Lady Gaga is the voice that sparks alive the female lead character of Ally in the movie. You had your doubts if she could do an actress justice. But she has done it in the past with her cameos in some movies. That experience of standing behind the camera helped her in nailing her big role. Gaga is very realistic as she gradually slithers into the skin of Ally making it one of her own. Somewhere down the line, if someone were to look back, they would remember Ally to be the face of a singer who could actually sing too. A good call in casting there!

Story and Theme of A Star Is Born Movie

Goes without saying that the story demanded its lead characters to be the heart and soul of the movie which they pretty much are. A side plot plays too with Jack trying to come to terms with his estranged brother Bobby which plays an equally important part in giving the story a great direction to traverse in.

Lady Gaga wears her flamboyance like a true star, channeling it into her character. She is unafraid of shaking her head, looking clumsy whilst she does it, unfazed by her looks onscreen, with makeup or without one. Gaga is an epitome of confidence that inspires you to lead life unbothered by people’s thoughts. She isn’t conscious but bold that’s what makes her perfect for the role. To top that she has a voice of gold and does Ally impeccable justice.

What the screenplay writers, Bradley Cooper, Eric Roth and Will Fetters, do is leverage Ally’s insecurity towards her looks, her long nose in particular and let it come into play dictating the direction of the story. That’s like a home run. Inventive! Improvising things and using it to their maximum advantage. That’s just smart thinking.

Bradley Cooper – A Powerhouse of Talent

Words fail to express the powerhouse that drives A Star Is Born movie forward – Bradley Cooper. The multi-talented star juggles his job well between playing the protagonist of the movie and directing himself into the scenes that evoke empathy.

Who is Jackson Maine? (Spoilers)

A drunk and a drug addict alright! Wrapping up a song in his opening scene. Could have been an encore to an ongoing concert. Who sings it? None other than Mr. Cooper himself. How talented is this bloke?

He plays Black Eyes in the beginning before making his way to a waiting car. Brad directs himself to show the soothing of the numbness he feels after a performance by taking a gulp directly from a bottle. You can listen to the tangible concern of his driver as he channels into a small talk, nevertheless looking for something to drink in a bar.

Hitherto you are thinking, there is nothing really likable about his character, to begin with, just his songs that paint him in a picture rad. But you gradually begin to love him as he unfurls showing what goes inside his thick head, as he pinpoints talent in a destined bar. Falling in love with Ally the Lady who didn’t have to go gaga over him since he made it effortless – How, you ask? Well, he listened to what she has to say. Taking care of her, letting love happen slowly.

I think you might be a songwriter. And don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody. But I am not very good at keeping secrets.

Ally’s dreams were painted up quick as this lad invites her over to one of his gigs. And guess, what he sings? One of “her” songs that she had only once mentioned in passing. Can you imagine how painfully attentive he was? As if he remembered everything she said that night in a parking lot. Had he played that conversation over and over in his head? Not hard to fall in love with this guy then.

Ally – A Dreamer

There is something about watching someone experience a life full of grandeur from the eyes of someone who has never experienced it before. Ally is one such character as she embarks on a private jet that catapults her toward her dream. Even though she secretly knows it that being with Jack meant ushering into a perfect life, deep down she is reluctant and insecure about her looks and questioning – what does he see in me?

She isn’t really prepared for the bomb Jack drops on her by letting her do the encore. It’s a huge opportunity that basically justifies the cliched saying of:

“When an opportunity comes knocking at your door, you gotta grab it.”

So she does. In that split second of her decision, she decides to go for it, that it was a chance that she might not ever have, that Jackson happened to her for a reason. So she dives in eyes closed trusting her guts, making up her mind as we see her nodding to herself that she could do it.

Then some serious music happens. The “shallow” song is probably one of the best I have heard in a long time.

Shallow

Here’s a peek into it:

Performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.

Watch Lady Gaga go Wohoooo wohooo wo! How intense is that? It’s lodged in my head and I can’t get it out. I am probably gonna sing it for a really really long time. You know, just what a good song should do.

Talent comes everywhere, but having something to say and a way to say it so that people listen to it, that’s a whole other bag. And unless you get out and you try to do it, you will never know. That’s just the truth. And there’s one reason we are supposed to be here is to say something so people want to hear. So you got to grab it, and you don’t apologize, and you don’t worry about why they are listening, or how long they are going to be listening for, you just tell them what you want to say.

Bobby – The Elder Brother

There is a side plot that runs in the form of Bobby in A Star Is Born movie. Bobby is played by Sam Elliott who is Jack’s older brother, and here the word “old” is literal. Jack has a lot of respect for his dead father, overlooking what he had turned him into. Drinking/drugs was a habit he took from him when he was just 12. He was a bad father but to Jack, he still remained venerated. Bobby’s thoughts about their father being bad, fumes Jack invariably as the youngling ends up having no chill.

Maybe its time to let the old ways die.

One fine day as Jack tries to visit their father’s grave with Ally, he realizes that the land has been sold off by Bobby. Feeling the pain of missing all the things he could have remembered him by, he punches Bobby who then goes on to quit being his manager. In his defense, Bobby tells him that he had told him before doing so, but Jack was too drunk to pay heed.

With that apparent tension, Bobby gets sidelined in the story of A Star Is Born movie as the focus goes on to Ally and Jack once again. With Bobby out of the equation and Jack seething in pain when Ally isn’t around or when things don’t work out, Jack realizes he doesn’t have anyone to take care of him. Bobby was his sole family whom he had punched in the face and pushed away.

The Apology

It is the realization of being wrong which is the most important thing in life. Accepting your fault, most important of all, saying it out loud in front of the concerned, hoping to be forgiven. Admitting things that, you know, would allay tensions. How do you live with your guilt if you knowingly don’t accept? It takes a lot of balls. In A Star Is Born movie, Jack grows them once he visits the rehab and decides to bring his life back on track.

You see him in tears readily then, which feels pious as he breaks barriers that held him from speaking out in admittance of all things he had done wrong. With hopes to make amends with his brother we see him apologizing to Bobby in what feels like a ground shaking moment.

It is one of the most powerful subplots that the movie cashes in on. Something that shatters you beyond the limit. It binds you in a soul-stirring conversation between brothers one of whom is trying his level best to get vindicated saying things that he, otherwise, wouldn’t have ever said. The reaction to that has also been captured painstakingly well through tears Bobby is trying to hide as he puts his car in reverse. It tears you up as you feel the pang slowly making its way into your gut.

That’s just really hard. We want things to automatically take a course when we grow up. We don’t want to spell out things that embarrass us or show us that we are less. In doing so, we don’t say a lot of things and things don’t mollify on its own. Strains remain. What Jack does is beyond compare and he leaves you in awe forcing you to love him even more.

The Debacle

Let’s go back to the main event fiasco. The place where the story was already headed, shows up where Jack, the protagonist of A Star Is Born movie, ends up doing something despicable. In a state of inebriation, he walks with Ally to the stage. It is almost defiant and obnoxious of him and makes you feel as if he was covetous for not having a Grammy himself. To make matters worse, he ends up peeing on the stage too. It is an act that can’t be forgiven, and yet we see Ally forgiving him all along, understanding him the way nobody does.

Relationships nowadays are paper thin. They end within a blink. You are not even ready for it as the gavel falls and nature seals your fate. But Ally knows when a person is truly sorry. She knows the colossal import of Jack’s life in hers, how she was next to nothing earlier and how she was picked up from there and put up on a dreamy podium. Contradicting it, even though it is a life mingled in gratitude, a person could only take so much.

What Jack does is beyond forgiveness, and even so, as it is happening, you realize how keen Ally is to save him from the laughing eyes of people. Even when he is rushed to the washroom as Ally’s father Lorenzo (Andrew Dice Clay) curses Jack, destroying him with his words in his inebriated state, Ally is still there with him, crying, not leaving him alone and taking care of him despite what he had just done to her involuntarily.

Feeling Sorry

It was his doing, everything, right from the beginning. His choices, the whirlpool that took everything down with him. It’s Ally who is suffering for the most part of it. He takes full responsibility for his actions as an aftermath in the rehab where he has full time to reflect on his deeds.

As Jack breaks into tears for the first time explaining how sorry he really was for his actions, how he made Ally look like a fool, how her father was really disappointed in him, she forgives him instantly. Driving the nail further in, she explains it really didn’t matter what the world thought of him, or what her father thought of Jack, what mattered to her was his importance in her life which was beyond compare.

It’s love unconditionally, and you know it.

Rez Gavron

Throwing in an inevitable bad guy image is Rez Gavron (Rafi Gavron) who is not really a bad guy in the movie if you really look at it. He does not come under the radar as one and does not identify as a villain. He is just a guy who is trying to set things right by being real, straightforward and blunt. What other movies call an antagonist for theatrics is simply a regular guy in here who is trying to do what is best for his company.

But the moment he steps into the ring, from the perspective of Jack, you begin sensing trouble. It is evident when Ally is first stopped by him for a record label deal. Jealousy and concern are painted all over his face as he paints a cake on hers. But he approves of it nevertheless. But what the record does to Ally is something only Jack is secretly aware of.

He didn’t want her to drift towards pop for cheap thrills which Rez really wanted her to do. She was extraordinary as a country singer whilst Jack wanted her to stick to it. He didn’t want her getting lost into the lost sea.

Ups and Downs

The concern is evident when he ends up drinking too much every now and then, sometimes failing to attend even her concerts and her special occasions. Once he wakes up at his friend’s Noodles’ (Dave Chappelle‘s) house where he apologizes to Ally for his behavior then ends up marrying her the same day.

Something Noodles said is so deep that it makes you wonder:

You know, it’s like you float out at sea, and then one day you find a port, say, “I am going to stay here a few days.” A few days becomes a few years. And then you forgot where you were going in the first place. And then you realize you don’t really give a shit about where you were going because you like where you are at.

It is like a series of ups and downs then, which is yet another unavoidable thing once you are engaged with another life. The mess-up, the apologizing, the messing up again. You cannot really run from it. It is the way of the world. That’s how things function and the wheel keeps moving. Saying his heart out loud, he messes things up by spelling out what he didn’t want her doing. He even calls her ugly to win the conversation. But just like it is so hard to take away things that mean so much to someone he fails to make a point. Ends up apologizing once again.

The Ending of A Star Is Born

After the big mess up at the Grammys and the aftermath, Rez the inevitable Gavron, walks in his house and flings at Jack what is on everyone’s mouth. That how ridiculous Jack made Ally appear at the Grammys. He wanted him to back off. But you don’t know what Jack has been thinking all this time.

To tell a depressed person you are worthless is like adding fuel to fire. So, he reiterates an anecdote from the past wherein he had tried to hang himself to a ceiling fan, only then, the fan had fallen due to his weight. This time it doesn’t happen so as Jack hangs himself in defeat in his garage to a waiting dog outside who had no clue what was going on.

You are constantly feeling it, how gut-wrenching an experience it is going to be if Ally found out what Jack was up to. Watching him “do the deed” your insides have melted already. Bradley Cooper spares you the crushing feeling of defeat as he chooses not to show his face, or the aftermath of death, or even Ally’s feelings when she might have returned from her concert to see a hanging Jack. No! He spares you the tears because he knows that moment is so shattering that a lot of people wouldn’t be able to bear it.

I felt this urge suddenly to fall on the ground crying but fortunately or unfortunately the direction of A Star Is Born movie walks past the pain and the grief that should have been an immediate follow-up ends up being not shown. It goes directly to a point in time which is some days later.

Aftermath the Deed

Parents are cursed to take the blame of their children. They want the pain to go away. A grieving Ally tries to explain how it never was her father’s fault.

Bobby helps her bounce back by telling her the truth: It was Jack who brought it upon himself. It wasn’t Rez as some might have already been insinuating. It was Jack all along. Him, the situation and his addiction that he often took respite in, in order to mull over.

It almost feels like cheating. As if it was one huge deception that swallowed both their lives. Ally deserved to know what was going on inside the head of Jack and in that final moment of them being together you wondered what could have happened had he told her what was bothering him.

Jack: Hey!
Ally: What?
Jack: I just wanted to take another look at you!

A Star Is Born movie ends at a high note as the camera oscillates to and fro to a singing Ally who sings one of Jack’s own songs he had written in Ally’s notebook in the rehab. His old school song was about never falling in love again. It metamorphoses into something which is simply apt for the moment, as she claims, if she had time in her hand she would have at least said goodbye.

It is powerful and just about befitting for the moment onscreen. A Star Is Born movie ends on a great note where Ally seems lost in the past with a montage of their happy images.

Songs in A Star Is Born Movie

Songs they have used in the movie are outright outstanding too. Here’s a list of all the performed songs that are there in A Star Is Born movie:

Black Eyes
La Vie En Rose
Out of Time
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Maybe It’s Time
Alibi
Shallow
Music to My Eyes
Diggin’ My Grave
Always Remember Us This Way
Look What I Found
Heal Me
I Don’t Know What Love Is
Is That Alright?
Why Did You Do That?
SNL
Hair Body Face
Before I Cry
Too Far Gone
I’ll Never Love Again

Here’s from where you can buy your own copy of all the songs in A Star Is Born movie:

Yet another freebie for you. Here’s a video of one of the songs called “Look What I Found” performed by Lady Gaga in A Star Is Born movie. Vevo has done a great job with the video btw.

The Final Verdict

There is ample gravitas pulverized in the story of A Star Is Born movie. It is consuming and overwhelming at the same time. You cannot relate to the characters enough. You are constantly wishing things to stay alright for them, forever vouching for a happy ever after at all times. But alas, no matter how many remakes it goes through, the story eventually feels only fulfilled, if it ends on a high note like that.

Luckily A Star Is Born movie has all the elements in it right from epic songs and epic acting to epic drama ingrained. Makes for a perfect watch. Go have a teary blast!

Like the review of A Star Is Born movie? Check out more cool reviews and analysis on our site.

The Predator Movie Review (2018) | Utterly Daft and Disappointing

October 18, 2018 / scottshak / 0 Comments

What a disaster! Terrible! The Predator movie almost makes you remember the Independence Day Resurgence debacle that we saw two years ago that drew out hating vibes within seconds the movie began. It is just as stupid and pointless and with so many flaws that you can’t count them on your finger. Why are we trying to even reboot movies when we don’t even have a proper story to back it up? Are we planning on another franchise? If yes, then this can’t be even counted as a foundation to hold any of the future runs.

I had almost forgotten how good Shane Black used to be. I mean I remember Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys to be good. These were movies that had defined him as a good filmmaker. Whatever happened with time? How did he end up falling from such good levels to become crass and unexciting?

There’s not a morsel of seriousness in The Predator movie. Terrible dialogues! Not to mention so many pointless scenes and conversations that are just sitting there without a direction. I mean, who has written this? Who writes like this? A child, maybe? The direction is so juvenile that you are tempted to walk out of the theatres on so many occasions.

Wasted Stellar Cast

With the inclusion of Jacob Tremblay of the Before I Wake and Room fame, I thought this movie was going to be interesting owing to his presence. But Alas! He has grown! The cuteness has disappeared. Well, that’s no topic to be frustrated about. It was his character of Rory McKenna in Predator movie that felt so daft that anyone could have played it really. Why bother, rope him in when you don’t have a proper dramatic bit to nail? That autism angle couldn’t elicit emotions either.

Then we have the badass Boyd Holbrook who plays Quinn McKenna who felt just so right for the role. But what does he do? Just talk tough! Then there is Olivia Munn playing a character called Casey Bracket. Watching her mood swings will make you go – is she for real?

Roping in Keegan-Michael Key as the essential funny guy to an action movie felt like at least we would have some good laughs. Well, guess what – bummer! He is so not funny in this. It is just painful to watch him even try.

Why did Trevante Rhodes even say yes to this? He plays a paper-thin character, unlike the serious one he played in Moonlight. Also, the presence of Thomas Jane will make you wonder – Does Jacob press on it? Like asked the casting directors to hire him as well for no good reason. They were together in Before I Wake after all. What was he even playing? His character of Baxley is just outright stupid. Wasted!

Sterling K. Brown‘s character Traeger felt like a child’s imagination. Full of attitude never letting his guard down, you know, the indispensable tough guy in movies, who has drawn his swords against the protagonist, despite there being a bigger threat lurking. Also, why is Alfie Allen even there?

Are You Serious? (Spoilers)

The plot for starters is an absolute mess. The Predator movie was written by Fred Dekker and Shane Black himself. Even though it seemed like a good idea to include an even bigger and dangerous Predator, the Mega Predator into the picture, they completely lose it when they find this new toy in their hand. I mean, giving people a headstart to run? This overconfident Predator must be the laziest of all the other Predators of his planet. No wonder he signed up to work in Hollywood. 😛

The Predator movie is all kinds of stupid. Like Rory killing a man accidentally Trick-or-treating, taking a life, as if the guy had it coming? And why is it alright, again? You know, this kind of shit messes with the heads of the younglings.

Casey for starters felt like a great character in the making but then she was a big let down with her puerile humour. Within no time you see her running after a Predator, trying to avenge his kin. Aren’t you afraid of that thing lady? That’s just plain doltish!

The biggest surprise that the plot decides to hold is through the ambiguity derived from the name of McKenna. The big dawg announces that he is after McKenna. Quinn, considering himself to be the hero of the movie, takes it for granted that the Predator was talking about him. But in fact, the Predator was looking for Rory, the small autistic boy, who was apparently an advanced form of humans, the next in the chain of human evolution.

You can order The Predator movie from here:

Visuals Gone Wrong

All this technology, and yet we fail. Aren’t we living in a time where the technology is at its peak? That we could have created something out of the ordinary if we wanted to resuscitate this antihero. Unfortunately, nothing changes!

What makes things even more absurd is the CGI, which at times feels laughable in some parts. The part where a force shield appears on the spaceship, toward the end, feels like two different distinguishable videos merged in a badly whipped frame. Blood and bones seem so unreal that it draws out guffaws.

There are so many moments in the movie where you are shaking your head owing to the ridiculousness of the situation. You create two rabid dogs, don’t cash in on the horror of their presence, kill one in a jiffy and then showcase the other one becoming friendly. It ends up following commands like an earthly pet. What is this, Disney?

The Final Verdict of The Predator Movie

I didn’t remember Shane Black to be this juvenile. Yes, making the Predator movie this bad, Shane Black feels akin to a child as if he is yet to grow up. That makes me sad because he has done such great movies in the past. There is a strong disconnect you feel as if an entirely different guy had shot this movie. This is so not you Shane! We know you can do better.

The Predator movie ends as if it were to make its own superhero movie. I highly doubt if it’s going to happen. Even if someone decides to go with it, please let it go straight to video and save us the trouble.

Andhadhun Movie Review (2018) | Artistry at its Best

October 9, 2018 / scottshak / 0 Comments

Epic deliverance! Andhadhun movie has been written beautifully and directed just so. The director, Sriram Raghavan, has done a fabulous job filling it up with thrill galore as it embroils and leverages the blind situation to the maximum. The story of Andhadhun movie is layered with wild ups and downs having plenty of twists to keep you riveted. You are constantly wondering what’s going to happen next as the improbable keeps giving you mini-heart attacks.

The writing credits go to an ensemble of artists who have cooked an extremely scrumptious meal. What a well-woven plot by Sriram, Arijit Biswas, Yogesh Chandekar, Hemanth Rao and Pooja Ladha Surti. You can’t applaud them enough for plotting such a brilliant storyline where adventure barely stops to breathe.

Andhadhun leaves a lot of questions open, compelling you to think about which part of the story being narrated by the protagonist is true and which parts are fantasized for vindication. As you keep brooding about the plot, you can’t help but wonder there are countless elements in the story that could all well be the protagonist’s creation, that only some part of what was being shown could have been true.

In doing all of it, Andhadhun movie goes on to justify what it had ambitiously decided to scour for in the first place. Its primal tagline:

Every artist has a secret.

Tabu as Simi

What hits you almost immediately is Tabu’s acting! She is simply superb as Simi. Blows you right away! Reeking of villainy she is one of those cardinal antagonists who stand out as necessary, literally driving the story forward with such wild innocence on her face that she feels gorgeous and venomous all at the same time.

She walks in with these realistic vibes that you forget who she is in reality, and start believing her to be this twisted character who is willing to do anything to set things right.

Tabu gets completely lost in this new character of hers with a rare innocent charm that you almost feel like forgiving her for being diabolical. She gives the story exactly what it needs and remains the driving force of Andhadhun Movie. Wouldn’t be wrong to call her, hands down, the heart and soul of the flick. Without her presence, the movie wouldn’t have been as much fun.

Ayushmann Khurrana as Akash (Spoilers)

Standing with his claws open on the other end is another winner portrayed by Ayushmann Khurrana. His character of Akash is an interesting piece per se. He is an artist who poses as a blind man who seeks to draw inspiration from nature’s sounds with hopes to complete a musical piece. In doing so he gets entangled in part of a murder mystery, him being the only witness to it. As guilt gnaws on his soul, he becomes torn between doing the right thing and keeping up the ruse.

His character is one that you relate with the most. Primarily because it doesn’t appear to do any harm in the first place and it’s the perspective of a hero that you are witnessing. You have secretly placed yourself in the shoes of Akash wondering how unfortunate of him to be caught in a situation like that.

But then you realize that the movie primarily starts with a narration. That it is a story being told by Akash and is basically his perspective, chugging the engines of storytelling, giving it a direction. Then the question becomes which part should be taken for real?

Other Characters

Manav Vij is another great actor bedecking the ensemble with his presence. He brings this crooked masculinity to the story by posing as Simi’s lover, Inspector Mahendra, never dropping his guard as a powerhouse of corruption. You are at all times scared of what he might do even though there is a comic element housed in his acts.

Then you cannot forget what characters of Manushi (Chhaya Kadam) and Doctor Swami (Zakir Hussain) drill in at a time when you are thinking that maybe the adventure is about to get over. They bring their very own taste of greed to the already messed up story proving once again how fickle money can make you.

They play people without a conscience those who are so well engulfed in a money deprived society, you know, the unlucky ones who are corrupt owing to their big dreams and with little resources to turn them into a reality.

Then one that wasn’t that memorable was that of Sofie played by Radhika Apte. Given her past records, this role didn’t demand much of her. She ended up being sidelined here since any other actress could have done her part. It was a small role for a big actress like her.

The Editing of Andhadhun Movie

There are moments when you feel editing to be desperate. Like there has been unnecessary chopping of frames where sentences don’t feel finished. Even so, the movie trundles on brushing things off your head, making you focus on what’s ahead. Once the story begins unfolding and you become engaged, every trivial shortcoming obliterates in thin air. That being said, at times the editing is great too, getting straight to the point wobbling towards the finish where it merges with the prologue.

Some building shots filmed are constant as if the director had asked a particular scene to be filmed in a singular succession. Like an empty shot from the top of the floor, that was later filled with a dead body.

Then there are some scenes that make you wonder how much amount of effort might have gone into it, that a cavalcade of fans might have tried to disrupt. Those are the best ones!

You cannot ignore the fact that the movie becomes badly in need of a direction at a later stage where the adventure seems to come to a halt all of a sudden. You are forced to wonder out loud whatever happened to the lives of all those crucial characters in the story? There is no finish line visible as it goes on to rant without revisiting its characters.

The final moments seem to be taken straight from La La Land where Sofie finds the big shot pianist Akash playing in a restaurant for an English crowd. Even though Sriram decides to let him complete his rendition, and insinuates that the unfulfilled artist is finally fulfilled, it ends up slaving away a lot of effort. You could argue he did it so that he could let things sieve in waiting for the ending which was imminent.

Some Issues in Andhadhun Movie

Amongst some drawbacks, I would say, you can say our CGI still needs a lot of work. In the prologue section, we witness a poorly animated bunny (so no animals were harmed in the making of this movie) that doesn’t feel is in the same screen as its predator. We are still a mile behind when it comes to CGI and it’s evident during such shots.

Then you can’t help but talk about the chemistry of Akash and Sofie which seemed to be tight early on but then loses its charm midway. She ends up becoming a forgotten affair for not being a part of the narration. The movie tries to cash in on it earlier but you could tell it was never about the love story. It was so fake that even when Sofie sadly remarks that she was leaving, you could sense that their relationship was a goner the moment she had discovered Akash with Simi, which again brings back the question did Akash really not sleep with Simi? After all, what we saw was the perspective of a fallen lover trying to acquit himself of the one crime he had committed. To what lengths could he go? That remains the main question.

The fact that the police can’t be trusted remains one of those boldly flared issues in a corrupt setup where the lawless is the law. Where would you turn toward? What’s really right? Even though the movie does so for its story, you are secretly wondering what would you do if you were put in a position like that? Can you really take all the risks that Akash took? Or approach someone bigger in the chain of law to deliver a finisher to a corrupt cop and his girlfriend who couldn’t stop committing crimes.

Leaving Dozen Threads Open

The ending of Andhadhun movie is akin to Hollywood style finish where the viewer is thrown into a fierce whirlwind of questions. Akash hits a can away resting speculations as to whether he is really blind or not. It is almost shouting out loud that he has seen so much that it is better to voluntarily choose blind.

But then you can’t help but wonder about the symbolism of a rabbit? Through the head of the probing cane that Akash forgets in the restaurant, Sriram tries to make a subtle remark. That the rabbit part could have been Akash’s creation, (why rabbit? maybe he had a thing for rabbits) and that there was no accident and that since his corneas matched with that of Simi’s he went on to get his eyes back sacrificing Simi in the process.

Buying Akash’s Story

Then you cannot help but wonder if one could really go blind with a medicine, can you? Really? Why buy into that story? I like to personally think that none of it happened and Akash created the whole story to win Sofie back that he did really sleep with Simi who was on the lookout for a quick sympathy sex.

Characters of doctors and Manushi seem far-fetched, and Akash posing as a hero feels unlikely too. It is highly probable that Akash could have accidentally or deliberately (you never know) killed Simi, then informed Mahendra’s wife Rasika (Ashwini Kalsekar) which he actually did to punish the corrupt cop to stop his wild pursuit.

Then there is the question of Pramod Sinha (Anil Dhawan). Did he really shoot himself? We had just taken the word of Simi who had said that it was an accident. How do we take her for real?

Bottomline – Andhadhun is a good movie since it forces you to think all such theories.

The Final Verdict

Ayushman chooses his projects carefully and so far the Midas touch has been checking out. Andhadhun movie is one such gold. Even though it doesn’t give you a satisfying lawful end, and it doesn’t answer a lot of questions it leaves plenty of things to the audience’s imagination.

The backdrop is set in Pune. If you have lived in the city, it feels great to identify places shown in it. If you know about what Magarpatta has turned into today, you already know about how tightened its security is. It is highly improbable that a crime of such levels could get committed today. A gunshot and nobody would hear it? Hmmph….They don’t even let the food delivery people enter the gates nowadays, it’s so bad. Anyways that’s just a perception.

Do watch this great movie for a thrilling experience. Andhadhun movie entertains you to the core.

Check out the trailer of Andhadhun movie:

hotel transylvania 3 summer vacation wallpaper

Hotel Transylvania 3 Summer Vacation Review (2018) | Just Stop Already!

October 3, 2018 / scottshak / 0 Comments

How should I put it? Umm….Hotel Transylvania 3 Summer Vacation feels like when you are changing channels on your Television and you stop to see what Drac is up to, and you end up seeing it anyway just for a smile. To frame it in a sentence – it’s not the greatest of things, and it’s not the worst of things. But it is definitely something in between.

To be really honest, nobody wants a movie that does not have a great plot, but Hotel Transylvania has these characters that people have slowly grown to admire. You put them in anything, and they are going to see it. Especially Adam Sandler‘s character of Drac. His voiceover remains as funny as it was when we heard it for the first time.

For all the characters of the franchise that we had grown to love in the past, this movie, unfortunately, doesn’t do all of them justice. Because Hotel Transylvania 3 Summer Vacation is not concerned about others. It is fully focused on finding Drac a girlfriend and how his daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez) reacts to it. It does all of it in the backdrop of a vacation spent on a cruise.

Period. That’s it! The whole story that the movie tries to sell. The rest of the things are mere fillers. The flick is terribly slow paced badly in need of a direction and what defines as good comedy.

The Bad Direction of Hotel Transylvania 3 Summer Vacation

Goes without saying that Hotel Transylvania 3 Summer Vacation tries to cruise in shallow waters without much substance to help it swim. Its jests feel a lot of times dumb and pointless. There are plenty of times when you feel even the transition from one scene to another appearing incomplete almost as if like a joke was zipped midway, lacking a punch or a proper closure.

There are so many moments in the movie when you realize the movie is badly in need of a direction that it is running out of content to hold the story. That’s when you realize how badly has it been edited.

For most of the comic stuff, it heavily relies on the clumsiness of its characters like Blobby (Genndy Tartakovsky) puking up Baby Blobby or Puppy wreaking havoc whenever it finds a bone. There is no genuine comedy embroiled in a situation that elicits some serious guffaws.

Genndy as a director needs to buff up his direction. What is he basically getting at? Maybe improve his script to milk all the great characters that he has.

Saved by the Final Showdown

I think what saves the Hotel Transylvania 3 Summer Vacation movie a little bit, if at all it swims through, is by its final showdown. Even though that feels really stupid in a way, it pays tribute to forgotten music bringing back all the classics making it all the way enjoyable. In a way, it tries to exhume a message that every father these days has been dying to blurt out:

Music, in our times, was good.

You laugh off eventually calling it an entertainer that blends in all the elements of fun by not taking anything seriously.

Just like Hotel Transylvania 2 had that GPS gig that was funny, this one might be remembered for playing Britney and Macarena competing against some deadly trance. I swear I could hear a father get up and say, “Yeah!”

Among other good things you can say the character of Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan) was well animated. I mean even his mannerism and the way he spoke managed to bring a smile to your face. The CGI of the movie was great as usual. The team has done an excellent job there once again.

Adam Sandler as an Actor

Now this series does not technically use Adam as an actor. Since he basically does a voiceover in all of them. But it is probably the only good thing going on in Adam Sandler’s life as far as his movie department is concerned.

As a dialogue from Funny People:

He is really funny. I don’t know why his movies aren’t funny, though.

That’s a million dollar question that we don’t have an answer to. Is it his choice of movies?

He is really good with his comic timing and slapstick jests when you are creating certain situations. But when you put him in a movie, you know, basically ask him to run a marathon, he ends up becoming not so good. I don’t know, we need to do a case study on him or something. Interesting!

You can order Hotel Transylvania 3 Summer Vacation from here:

The Final Verdict

Hotel Transylvania movies take time to show up, around three years to be precise, thus allowing people to forget things, and then it becomes a refresher once they hit the theatres again. But it is somehow surreal that despite taking all that time, they don’t work on improving their script.

Why not come up with a real challenge and stop creating extra characters when you can basically create better food from what you already have? Handling all these evergrowing characters in a single movie is becoming difficult for crying out loud. I mean they should learn that management from Avengers Infinity War. Okay, that wasn’t a comparison really!

I think the makers need to stop. Genndy, in particular, needs to move on to a different project instead of coming back to this franchise that has run out of its juice. Instead of grinding his gears to come up with another sloppy mix, it’s better to come up with a new and original setup.

Genndy, are you listening?

Searching Movie Review (2018) | A Genius Modern Age Thriller

September 28, 2018 / scottshak / 0 Comments

The Searching movie is a paragon of a genial thought, a modern age thriller that uses not a single piece of real imagery, but technology as a vantage point. It leverages it superbly depicting events of a crime and then uses it to solve it as well. Searching’s true genius lies in the fact that there’s not a single moment in the entire movie that does not use technology to depict what’s depicted. There are no conventional cameras here, just a pigeonhole perspective that runs amok. Makes you realize that you don’t need a camera really to shoot a movie but a will to think different. Aneesh Chaganti, the director and writer of Searching, proves that the crux of every flick remains in its plot.

The Searching movie unfolds beautifully as a thriller, as it progresses with plenty of frantic moments that will keep you on your toes. You are basically playing the father of a girl who goes missing and the mystery that it piggybacks along is simply killing. You are trying to find her throughout the movie with limited clues that appear next to nothing. Literally going through her laptop to figure out what path did she traverse before she disappeared.

In doing all of it, it tries to buzzer in the question of how distant technology has made us to each other. What it also shows at the same time is that you can also do a lot of things with the help of technology. Thus driving that rusty nail further in – it is both a boon and a curse per se.

Destroying Boredom

In a movie where it is easy to foretell (blame the trailers for that) that it is going to be all about staring at a screen, Searching doesn’t do badly at all. It shoos off boredom like a good novel when you are only a few leaflets deep. You wade through its suspense right from ground zero and you cover up every possible answer that’s ringing in your head. You are secretly imagining yourself in the shoes of a father and you are busy creating a theory yourself.

When you watch David Kim (John Cho) up on his toes you basically become the detective yourself. You are thinking of all the ways you could figure out the solution yourself. As David does all that himself, you are right beside him, reasonably checking everything he does, off your list too.

To beat the boredom of staring at screens, Searching movie uses facetime aplenty. Video calls depicting how we call our siblings in the real world too, and sometimes all those people we wish to see while speaking to. David does all that in order to elicit an answer. Aneesh makes sure it is all not boring by introducing characters that matter upfront and make everything appear quite realistic to look at.

Leveraging Suspense

The Searching movie quickly takes refuge from becoming a tragedy to suspense when it unfolds a knotted thread throwing light on the events of the crime. It opens speculations up early leaving you guessing. There are countless moments in the movie when you think you have figured it out, but you end up coming back to ground zero again. It is these ups and downs that dictate its flow, and that’s why you are never bored.

The movie builds up suspense to the maximum at first not revealing its key plot and then as you move forward, gradually leaving things for you to feed on. It doesn’t reveal everything, by keeping things under the wraps and then tries to give you one treat at a time for you to truly savour the taste.

The final revelation is something that you weren’t expecting at all. Also, the way it ends is quite gratifying to watch. You are constantly rooting for this hero who you have epitomized, batshit worried and when you finally get to see things fall in place it feels really good.

The Plot of Searching Movie

Aneesh finds a way to show the distance using a family calamity as David’s wife Pamela Nam Kim (Sara Sohn) succumbs to a disease and dies. That’s like a turning point in the life of David and daughter Margot (Michelle La) and the repercussions form a small unseen corner inside the head of the latter.

David and Margot end up being estranged even though they are not aloof physically, regularly chatting and seeing each other on various occasions. One night Margot goes missing when she was out with her friends in a group study, so the father thinks. But then the story unfolds as the father gets to know that she didn’t go to the study group. Checking in on with her Piano teacher, he realizes that she had left learning Piano long ago.

What had she been doing with all her piano money?

David checks that there is a transfer of 2500$ from her account to a deleted Venmo account. He informs the local police and a detective is assigned to him. Enter Detective Vick (Debra Messing) who finds out that the Venmo account was basically a fake ID created by Margot – a simple case of running away.

Do You Really Have a Friend?

David realizes he didn’t know any of his daughter’s friends. That in a way he was distant. Then turns toward Facebook to contact all her friends to ask them about her whereabouts. This is one of those moments that compels you to ponder. You have all those so-called friends on your FB account and they are just there. They are not really your friends but acquaintances, the hi and hello people that you rarely see, let alone meet. So cold!

As he calls them up one by one, there’s not a single person who has a clue about her whereabouts. Makes you shudder! One day you go missing and the world has no idea about you. They know you are alive only because you posted about yourself. What have we become?

None of these friends are close to her. David prods more and discovers that Margot had a YouCast (vlogging) account and that a user named fish_n_chips used to chat with her a lot. He also discovers that Margot used to frequent lake Barbosa which he then visits for clues. He contacts Vicks on finding something of hers and then informs Vicks.

The Brother

Her car is found dumped in the lake while the money is untouched. The lead once again goes cold. It is through the crime scene photos that David finds a jacket which he then links to his brother Peter (Joseph Lee). He checks out the conversation Peter and Margot had and becomes furious, plants cameras inside Peter’s house as he tries to elicit a confession. In a quick emotional outburst, it is revealed that the brother was simply giving her pot. On being instigated about what kind of an uncle he was, Peter points out how bad a father was David as he didn’t know what went inside the head of her daughter.

I didn’t know her. I didn’t know my daughter.

Lost in a painful introspection, his thought gets hindered when Vicks contacts David telling him that they have found the culprit. In a video confession, the presumable victim confesses about killing the girl before killing himself.

Broken David is browsing through Margot’s vigil service when he discovers the same girl in fish_n_chips’ profile picture in an advertisement. On digging further he finds out that the image was basically a stock photo ergo revealing fish_n_chips to be someone using a fake account.

As he tries to contact Vick, he unearths that it was the detective who had volunteered for Margot’s case, that she wasn’t assigned. As he becomes suspicious of Margot, he comes across an image of Vicks with the same guy who had claimed about killing Margot before suiciding. Smelling funny business about the detective he contacts the Sheriff as a cavalcade of policemen with David come to arrest her.

The Real Story

After being apprehended the real story is revealed. The so-called fish_n_chips was basically Vick’s son Robert who was trying to catfish Margot. Vicks was simply misconstruing facts to save her son. Robert, after stalking Margot, had befriended her and then earned her trust revealing that he needed 2500$ for a family emergency. Gullible Margot had complied and ended up giving him the money through Venmo.

It is almost like a lesson not to get lured by the internet. Anything evoking your sympathy tends to often misuse it. You have to be really wary in the monstrous world of today, where any amount of emotional sympathy is taken as a sign of weakness. Predators are forever on the prowl trying to make a fool out of you. You have to not give in or they will swallow you.

Robert felt guilty and he wished to return the cash but he didn’t want to reveal his identity to be fish_n_chips. So he followed her one night to the lake and surprised her by sneaking into her car. She attacked her which didn’t end up good as he pushed her down a ravine accidentally.

The Cover Up

Freaking out, he had called his mother almost immediately who took matters into her own hands in order to save her child. She didn’t even bother to go looking for Margot presuming her to be dead. Vick then dumped the car into the lake and manipulated evidence, then forced one of her ex-cons to confess before murdering him. The location where Margot was dumped is discovered as the police and David go straight to recover her. Luckily she is found breathing.

As an aftermath to this whole tale, we see Margot being serious about her piano lessons and through their chat messages that the father and the daughter had ended up becoming close.

You can order the Searching movie from here:

The Absence of Emotional Trauma

The Searching Movie might not be high on emotions since you are basically looking at a screen at all times. That disturbance of not seeing a face for long spans takes away a lot of emotions. If it were not for good acting and the great direction, the Searching movie might have appeared as a badly made video. But then that is something that separates a good filmmaker from an amateur. John Cho does ample justice to the character of a worried father who is constantly on the lookout. He makes the character very relatable.

Aneesh Chaganty proves why he is the next big thing in the industry. Why he is different and how he thinks different. How he was unafraid to make a movie feel entirely like a vantage point, something that people are really afraid to give a shot to. It is a bold choice but he comes through owing to the sheer suspense and thrill it exhumes.

Apart from that, the Searching movie is also not so much high on theatrics as well. Well du-uh! But if someone is looking for some gut-wrenching music to drop in, that wouldn’t be something that would be happening here. It is also less cinematic mostly because it is the screen you are staring at that basically feels like your own laptop screen for most of the time. How can that be cinematic right?

The Final Verdict

In a world that chugs its engines on social media and internet Searching movie becomes something that you relate to almost immediately. Because that’s how you have been witnessing your world now. Then you are well aware of the scams that have been duping people and catfishing innocents that feel so unjust and unfair but is extant nevertheless like every evil element that feeds on the less fortunate.

Like this review? Check out some other reviews of thriller movies as well.

Christopher Robin Movie Review (2018) | Understanding the Real Meaning | Full Analysis with Spoilers

September 6, 2018 / scottshak / 0 Comments

What an alluring analogy! Christopher Robin movie is a gorgeous satire pointing all its paws towards what we have become. It tries to remind us of our place in the world. At the same time, throws light on how jobs have turned us into something else altogether. Not only were we puppets to fate earlier, now we are dancing to the tune of extant “Heffalumps” in our lives too.

Christopher Robin movie makes use of numerous strong puns in its screenplay where it compares our life to the pointless chore it has become. It expounds the meaninglessness of the life we are leading, of how ugly job has made us. And it delivers the point in a way that’s easy to grasp.

Doing nothing often leads to the very best kind of something.

At the same time, Christopher Robin does not suck out all the magic from a fictional character like Winnie the Pooh. It serves both kinds of audience – people who don’t think too much, and those who do. While the latter has a lot to gain from a beautiful movie like this, it does not fail to impress the former too. The integrity of all the fictional characters in Christopher Robin movie is saved as if they were all real even though they were nothing but a figment of Christopher’s imagination.

If you are confused and wish to understand the analogy sandwiched in the gorgeous frames of Christopher Robin, I have decided to do a proper analysis of Christopher Robin Movie. Check it out:

The Plot Analysis of Christopher Robin Movie (Spoilers)

Members of Hundred Acre Wood are throwing a goodbye party for young Christopher Robin (Orton O’ Brien) as he is headed to boarding school. Imagine characters like Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo and Owl as soft toys Christopher has. He plays with them regularly until one day he is forced to leave them behind just like one has to when one crosses a certain age. Remember Bing Bong from Inside Out?

Pooh: What should happen if you forget about me?

Young Christopher Robin: Silly old bear. I wouldn’t ever forget about you, Pooh, I promise. Not even when I am a hundred.

But what happens to all your favorite toys when you grow up? Life happens. Christopher Robin, too, forgets all about them – his playthings. Until one day the topic is brought up by his daughter who he is not paying much attention to because of work. She has come across his old collection. With the collection tingled, we see what Pooh is up to in Hundred Acre Wood. It’s like a spark that ignites in Christopher’s mind making him imagine his favourite soft toy once again.

I would have liked it to go on for a while longer. Perhaps it’s our turn to save Christopher.

The Marionette

The company he is working for is run by Giles Winslow (Mark Gatiss) who has asked Christopher to lay down 20% of resources. Owing to that he is compelled to work even on weekends thus upending plans of enjoying with his family in the countryside. We all have those “Winslows” in our lives who call your shots, who have your rein in their hands. They have you under their control and there’s nothing you can do about it. You are forced to follow their command or it might cost you and your family everything.

Christopher Robin: You promised these people good jobs!

Giles Winslow: And I thought you’d do anything for this company.

In the back of his head, he is well aware of what he has been doing to his wife Evelyn (Hayley Atwell) and daughter by not spending much time with them. It is there inside his skull well-lit, the fact that he needs to stop being a marionette to his boss’s demands and take a stand, live a little. Unfortunately, that part is dim and surmounted by his feeble mind that has been wired to run timidly. Ultimately, he gives in to Winslow’s demand and decides to stay back while his family goes to Sussex without him.

Evelyn Robin: You won’t be coming to the cottage?

Christopher Robin: It can’t be helped.

Evelyn Robin: Your life is happening now, right in front of you.

The Arrival of Winnie the Pooh

It’s always a sunny day, when Christopher Robin comes to play

When they are leaving we see a bottle of honey falling to the ground. It is subtly placed by the writers to announce the arrival of Pooh and here honestly kept for Christopher to notice in order to bring back those memories from the past. Think of honey as a reminder that takes him back to the time when he was a kid. He begins to imagine once again how Pooh would show up into his world out of nowhere.

Winnie The Pooh: Your ladder is broken.

Christopher Robin: That was a shelf.

Winnie The Pooh: Well, that explains why it was no good for climbing.

So what we thought of as a ladder, the position or the status you thought you would get in a company is basically a shelf. We are all stowed in the same place and we are given an illusion of growth. We are not climbing but running, just on a treadmill.

Christopher is basically remembering things as they were. What would Pooh say if he were around? How clumsy would he be! And yet so intelligent by saying things that he would otherwise scoff at. But in reality, he is the only person putting words into the mouth of a motionless teddy bear. This notion isn’t imaginative anymore for the viewers now, even though in a way it is.

Christopher Robin: I have cracked!

Winnie The Pooh: Oh, I don’t see any cracks. A few wrinkles, maybe.

Dealing with himself and spending a night and a wrecked morning, Christopher decides to take Pooh back to his home. He catches a train to Sussex.

Christopher Robin: No, no, no! This can’t be happening! It’s stress.

Winnie The Pooh: But it’s not stress. It’s Pooh.

Catching the Train

It’s a whole lot of trouble for Christopher as he struggles to take Pooh back to his home. Winnie wears a childlike innocence that will make you go – “Hey! I used to be like that when I was a kid. Whatever happened?”

Christopher Robin: Just try and be a less, a less exuberant you.

Winnie The Pooh: Ex-Pooh-berant.

The bear is in love with balloons, surprises people by failing to “stay dead” and struggles to understand the weird world of adults. Why everyone behaves in a certain way? Why are they so cold? He calls the journey an expedition, an adventure, aggrandizing mundane things like we used to, back when we were kids.

Christopher Robin: I wonder which way.

Winnie The Pooh: I always get to where I am going by walking away from where I’ve been.

Making the Most of Life

Pooh is a creative bear making games, making the most of any situation and having fun – the very definition Christopher’s life is void of today. As a grown-up, there is lesser time for Christopher to be creative. His job is chewing him and he can’t squeeze out enough time to dive into possibilities.

Pooh makes some valid points that will make you step into a whirlpool of thoughts.

Winnie The Pooh: What day is it?

Christopher Robin: It’s today.

Winnie The Pooh: My favorite day.

On being told about the rest of the Hundred Acre gang, Christopher Robin is being hit with their memories one by one.

Christopher Robin: I haven’t thought about them in years.

Winnie The Pooh: Well, we think about you every day.

It is so sad. All the things we held dear are captured in time, and it will only take a moment to remember them and revive them, make them afresh and brim them alive. And yet we are oblivious to their existence. Good times are only a thought away. Yet we have forgotten our good times, our childhood toys and the way they used to rejoice us.

A Battle with Himself

Christopher Robin movie’s most poignant moment arrives when Christopher tries to reason with Pooh. He tries to make him understand the importance of his work. To an innocent mind, it does not make any sense. He knows that! It is like a battle with himself.

People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.

It is when Pooh asks Christopher about his “working” world that things begin to get grim. Pooh thinks that all the people he works with are his friends, which Christopher at once refuses. It is so true – You are spending so much time with them, why are they not your friends? It is a work culture that we have bred that makes us strangers even though we see each other every day. We are distant with people that are in our vicinity. Why is it like that? Aren’t we playing (working) under the same roof? Why are there boundaries separating us from being with each other?

We just need a leap of faith!

A workplace is no fun, and the very definition has been gradually instilled as we have started becoming aloof to each other. We have cubicles defining our place and whispers stopping each other from celebrating with everyone. We are no longer friends. Humans, nay, adults are wired not to work well with each other. Our differences set us apart and it is hard to make that clear to a child. But what seems like a juvenile question is, in fact, a soul-shaker. It only makes us see our ugliness.

Importance of Work

On being asked what’s inside his suitcase, Christopher brands it as the most important thing in his life, that his whole life depends on it. Accidentally Pooh opens the suitcase and all his papers jostle out with the wind miffing Christopher in the process. A fight ensues and Pooh realizes that Christopher is better off without him. That he no longer is that fun person he used to be when he was a kid.

Think of it all as a conscious mind fighting with his sub-consciousness, reasoning with him and seething in the pain that emanates from his actions. “Why can’t I be the way I used to be?” is what Christopher is wondering. “Why are these papers so important? All I am is a moment away from dumping them and having a time of my life. But why can’t I?”

Heffalumps and Woozles Analogy in Christopher Robin Movie

Heffalumps and Woozles are compared to bosses and managers who have your leash in their hands. So you already know they are monsters who force you to believe that the work at hand is the most important thing in your life, but it, in fact, is theirs or someone else’s. But you wheeze anyway under the load of their self-made work so much that you forget to live.

It is a constant tussle as we see him falling into a pit, here a “Heffalump Trap” that slowly fills with water. It is akin to a pool of tears when you are overwhelmed and you end up letting go. The backdrop of fog is a perfect setup of confusion and chaos. The vagueness makes you lose your sight. The vision becomes hazy and you gradually succumb to it.

Waking up he has a little bit clarity although he realizes he hasn’t yet paid attention or given a proper thought to what Pooh, his subconsciousness has been ranting all this time. Remembering the rest of his friends back when he was a kid he bumps into Eeyore. You could think of him running into the soft toy and then playing a conversation with him.

Eeyore – A Powerhouse of Despair

Eeyore is like a powerful emotion. A splash of negativity that you can’t get rid of. An essential too. His vision is more inclined towards seeing the worst of things. But he is necessary. You can’t stay positive all the time, can you? It’s just inevitable.

In Christopher Robin movie, we see Eeyore in the river headed towards the waterfall, a surefire fall, and yet not doing anything about it. It is kind of like our working life. We knowingly throw ourselves into the pit and refuse to take action. He even says that out loud:

Just have to go with the flow.

He has left himself to the hands of fate when he could have chosen to swim across and save himself. We see Christopher trying to put some sense in him but he is a paragon of despair. How many times have you become so complacent in life that you stopped doing anything to change it? The torpor just renders you useless and then a point comes when you just stop caring.

Laughing at my misfortune, just like a Heffalump.

Eeyore drives the nail further by confirming the analogy of Heffalumps in Christopher Robin movie. It is the boss, the manager or the leader who has the reins of your life and laughs at your misfortune. Christopher is very keen on proving that he is not like those horrendous monsters but their same old buddy. He wishes to earn back his respect. For that, he literally pretends to fight a Heffalump, the bad guy and successfully earns their trust.

Finding the Rest of The Team in Christopher Robin Movie

It is a tad childish I know, but the young imaginative Christopher is back now. He is trying his best to, if you remove all the animals out of the equation, earn his own good trust. Making a silent promise to himself that he would be more happening and fun.

He then discovers Pooh to be in his favorite spot and then apologizes for shouting at him and getting upset thus making amends with himself by being at peace.

Christopher Robin: I am not the person I used to be.

Winnie The Pooh: You saved us. You are a hero.

Christopher Robin: I am not a hero, Pooh. The fact is, I am lost.

Winnie The Pooh: But I found you.

But what seemed to be a newly acquired virtue of being fun, doesn’t last long as he wakes up. There is a mental alarm clock in all of us that wakes us up early in the morning preparing us to go to work, to be someone’s slave. Christopher is no different and he blasts past everyone he ever loved to catch that morning train.

It is a bummer for his daughter Madeline who had thought his father was there for her. She bumps into all of his father’s friends (you can read here as toys which he might have left in a hurry) and realizes that he has left all his important papers to dry. In that shot of madness, Christopher might have also filled it with things that were dear to him. Here in the Christopher Robin movie, it has been theatricalized to be done by Tigger primarily because its character is funny and clumsy.

The End Run

Now Madeline takes that as a mission to deliver the important papers to her father with all the newly found friends. Also, she isn’t willing to go to boarding school and wishes to dissuade her father from sending her there. She leaves a note for her mother before leaving for London.

Even on the train, you see different perspectives when Pooh wishes to play the same game of naming things he sees.

Winnie The Pooh: It’s called “Say What You See”. You, first, Eeyore.

Eeyore: Disgrace. Shame. Humiliation.

It is interesting that Piglet points out fear and stress, while Eeyore goes for what you generally feel when you try to be different.

At the office, in the meeting, Christopher discovers that the papers were missing. Just then Evelyn arrives and informs him about their missing daughter. They both start looking for her while Madeline and gang end up in Winslow company crates.

The Most Important Thing

Eventually, all of them meet and Madeline breaks it to Christopher that she wanted to deliver the most important thing – “papers” to him. It melts Christopher’s heart finally. The feeling that made him feel her void, the tension that he carried in his heart while looking for her, helps him realize that there was nothing more important than his family. That he didn’t care about the papers anymore. He even agrees to not send Madeline to the boarding school instead spend some quality time with them. Things in his office automatically take the right course when he becomes bold and takes a stand against his “Heffalump” Giles Winslow. Then he barges out with his family and toys.

Work finally loses to the family. With that, the Christopher Robin movie ends on a happy note with a new and reformed Christopher for whom family always comes first.

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The Reality Serum | Ending of Christopher Robin Movie Explained

To the viewers of Christopher Robin movie, Pooh is made real, and that happens on so many occasions to a gawking world around. Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet end up waving or talking to many people they come across in London. While it could be a jest that Marc Forster, the director of Christopher Robin movie, could be playing at but somehow it all doesn’t fit in the equation. How can others see them?

Madeline Robin: You’re talking.

Winnie The Pooh: No, I’m not talking. Well, I am now, I suppose.

To that you can say, these are all people who have begun to see the spark Christopher carries. They have started observing things, those imaginative and creative efforts that Christopher brought to the world when he was a kid. It leaves its shine on all those he comes across. So when the driver sees Tigger talking or when the policeman witnesses it too, you can think of it as Madeline playing with all the soft toys now. When you see a child making you a make-believe cup of tea, you never say no to that. So the characters she comes across too play along.

I know it’s a bummer to figure out fantasies are not real. But it makes a lot of sense when you tack them against an imaginative board. But all those stories that carry a handful of fairy dust of fantasies and miracles, they all simply try to layer up the crux that they wish to deliver. It is up to you, to look past the figments and figure out the true meaning behind.

Christopher Robin: If I work really hard now, in the future our lives will be…

Evelyn Robin: Impressive? Worse? We don’t care. We want you.

The Final Verdict

If you take all the members of Hundred Acre Wood out of the equation and try to understand the mindset of a guy who is having one of his episodes of nostalgia you realize the true meaning behind the Christopher Robin movie. It doesn’t elude it, except maybe towards the end where it becomes too childish to be taken seriously. It begins to dwindle by the end.

Some of those things are acceptable, only if you understand, the writers and the director were keen on catering to both kinds of viewers, ergo the resultant work suffers.

There’s always time for a smackeral of wonder.

But if you focus on all the goods that I have pointed, you will realize Christopher Robin movie is one hell of a film that has been brilliantly imagined. Hats off to everybody who was associated with it in any way. They have done a great job!

Pensive Thoughts on Paper | Movie Reviews and Quotes Website

Category: 2018 (page 1 of 4)

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