This article contains spoilers for the movie in question. You’ve been duly warned.   In this piece I won’t talk about the decision to shoot and project in 48fps. I won’t talk about how the advances (or lack thereof) in special effects reflect in this new technology. I won’t even talk about the 3D, and whether Peter Jackson is – in this regard – an Ang Lee (in Life of Pi) or a Lou Letterier...

By all logic, conventional or otherwise, I should have written this post a week ago. An illness waylaid me, though, and I have only gotten around to it now. Sorry.   I don’t get sentimental all that often. I mean, it’s just easier to be aloof and indifferent. Moreover, it also seems cooler. Haven’t we often seen how the cynical joke about something gets more retweets than, say, an earnest plea? I look at instances...

The high school coming-of-age drama is my personal soft spot. It’s been so for a long time. For me, there was always an intrinsic appeal to watching an adolescent (or, as is often the case, a group of them) stumble through school, family, love and life and walk out of these adventures a different person by the end. And, sometime ago, I underwent something similar myself as I left my family, school and the city I called home from birth...

Originally, I wasn’t going to write a review for Looper. Director Rian Johnson’s third feature (he’s made Brick and The Brothers Bloom earlier) came out worldwide a fortnight ago and has already been the subject of intense reviews, conversations, praise and dissections online. Adding to the ocean felt redundant. However, as the film drew to a close, I realized that I had relished the experience so much I wanted to go...

Wikipedia describes Dark Shadows as a “Gothic horror comedy-drama film.” If I could only meet Tim Burton once, I’d love to ask him which one (or two) of those words did he really want this film to be. I am trying, but I can’t recall any film in recent memory that is as much of an atonal nightmare as the latest collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Dark Shadows is their 8th film together (feels like a...

I’ve seen The Raid (*) twice now. It’s the best action film I’ve seen in years and years. I tried to write a conventional review for The Raid. I really did. But, after staring at a blank screen for more minutes than I’d like to admit, I realized that trying something different for this particular piece would be better. So, here we are. In five points, I’m going to tell you why it would be a really bad idea to...

It’s nearly a year since The Artist first screened to audiences. And it’s nearly a year now people have been calling it a love letter to just about everything under the Sun. While I completely understand if someone likes the film, the reasons they give for liking the film often leave me nonplussed. I saw the film for the first (and only) time in October, and this has been bothering me since then. It has been said that The Artist...

I find it hard to review a film like Safe. If it’s a movie I love, I can’t wait to sit in front of the screen and fashion a paean. If it’s a movie I dislike, then I like to write out my gripes with it and, often enough, they come easily too. If it’s a movie I have conflicted feelings about, then I find it an extremely rewarding exercise to articulate my thoughts as they help me come to terms with my stance. However,...