Forensic Analysis

Forensic

Written & Directed by: Akhil Paul & Anas Khan

Starring: Tovino Thomas, Mamta Mohandas

Streaming on Netflix.

Spoilers Ahead. The film starts with a horrifying scene about a kid who goes to a butcher’s shop with his father and on the way back home, he sneaks the chicken’s head into his pocket and adds it to his collection of animals. This is the first sign of most of the psychopaths, they start harming animals in their childhood – we’ve seen this in The House That Jack Built and many other films about psychopaths. The film progresses to another setting, a police procedural where the protagonist is a forensic expert – we come across the murder of a young girl. From here, the film takes about 3-4 turns in the plot, sometimes I was impressed by the plot twists and sometimes I was slightly disappointed because the drama in the promised setting would’ve probably been more interesting than the plot twist itself.

This film talks about children being capable of murders, they give us a shock when they talk about a real case of the youngest serial killer – they also use the original identity of the killer and it being a real case, it makes us more uncomfortable. This is the exact reason, why crime documentaries can give us chills down our spines and movies have to be so good to match up to them – a good example would be the recent limited series by Netflix, Don’t F**k With Cats. When we come across incidents like these, the reason it makes us uncomfortable is – it questions our faith in humanity and it questions our whole purpose in life. After such a dramatic event, we see a brilliant twist in the interval. After this the film again takes different directions which is what I was a bit disappointed with, children being capable of killing in itself would’ve been a strong theme to explore for a film and since they don’t stick to it – it feels like they haven’t used the opportunity to explore that from all facets. I was definitely excited by the plot twists, it filled my puzzle solving appetite – which is at the maximum while watching thrillers like these but it didn’t fill my appetite of experiencing and exploring different levels of drama in such extreme cases.

The ending scene is a testament to the writing capabilities of the Malayalam film industry, they have a scene where we see an accident happens and the villain dies. This doesn’t even feel like a setup which needs a pay-off, but they give an outstanding pay-off where we see that the hero unhooks the seat-belt of the villain and hence, he dies. This might be a little inappropriate, considering the vigilante justice that has happened there but the underlying message of ‘wear seatbelts’ could’ve have been plugged in better because such cliché messaging immediately puts the audience off, unless it’s used as a tool for such an amazing set up and pay off scenario.

Synecdoche, New York Analysis

Synecdoche, New York

Written & Directed by: Charlie Kaufman

This is a complex and an intimidating film and yet it seems so personal and intimate - similar to Charlie Kaufman's previous screenplays like Adaption, whose logline in itself blew my mind and of course, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Charlie Kaufman's protagonists are empathetic, they aren't really flawed - they seem flawed because of the brutal honesty with which he writes them, they are actually like people we see in real life. Charlie Kaufman in a BAFTA masterclass encourages students to not let anyone tell them what they can write – he encourages people to write what they feel like writing and not get influenced by who they are writing it for. He is a champion for true artistic expression.

We see a lot of motifs and symbols – one of them is a burning house. It’s so funny, that a person is shown a burning house and that person agrees to buy it and stays in it. I think it’s a commentary on how we buy houses with money that we don’t have – through loans and how on such a quest for wealth, we end up getting burned out. The play that he is arranging, gets so big that it becomes difficult to figure out reality. He gets doppelgangers to a lot of people, to play them and they start acting like how they should have been behaving honestly – they play the real self. There’s a funny scene where Cotard is walking and an actor of the play walks by and asks him if the walk seemed good enough, to which Cotard asks him to be himself, to which the actor tries a more genuine version of the walk. It’s a commentary on how we try to live on our terms and act independent – in order to impress others and get validation. The mistake of the actor was that, he asked for Cotard’s feedback – else he wouldn’t even have noticed.

The film is definitely abstract and it didn’t leave me emotionally satisfied by the end, but it definitely spiked my interest in terms of what it did to my brain. I was thinking about how many this films reflects what we do in our daily lives as the film kept going. Kaufman’s writing makes us uncomfortable and laugh at the same time – whether it’s the scene where Cotard’s wife says that she fantasizes about Cotard dying, the scene where his daughter asks him to ask her an apology in a specific way. These writings come from a place where you engage and entertain with the most cruel and idiosyncratic thoughts that come to our head. It’s difficult to even make sense of them a lot of times – even Bong Joon-ho’s writing has the same quality. If your writing is unique and idiosyncratic, and if people get what you are trying to say – it straight away becomes a modern classic.

Kappela Analysis

Kappela

Written & Directed by: Muhammad Musthafa

Starring: Anna Ben, Roshan Mathew, Sreenath Bhasi

Streaming on Netflix.

Spoilers Ahead. This is a film which doesn't at all seem like a film which needs this disclaimer - it has similar tonality as the other Malayalam films where they build the setting, depict the milieu and introduce the world of the characters for a good chunk of the film. This film feels so predictable - Jessy falls in love with Vishnu over a phone call, she is brought up in a strict and conservative household - so she elopes with him. This feels like a counter-culture, anti-authoritarian film but when we get to the ending - it shatters our entire expectation of the film. When Vishnu turns out to be someone who he doesn't seem to be, we feel as scandalized as her. The film goes on normally till the scene we see Roy, played by Sreenath Bhasi from where I should say the script gets high on drugs. They cut to his story and show us who he is, the writers make us, the audience, judge him by his body language and because he says that they'd steal. In a matter of some time, the hero and the villain swap their roles and it happens so seamlessly - I was taken aback when I came to know that the person who we were thinking she'd be safe with turns out to be a predator. I felt a bit cheated but I realized that we never got to see his true self, we only saw how he behaved in front of others, and how he behaved with her. The other person, we are the ones to blame - we judged him and since we took Vishnu's side, we hate him too. The last time I felt this cheated or messed up about my senses of right and wrong was when I watched Asghar Farhadi's A Separation and The Salesman; I'm guessing the filmmaker must've definitely been inspired by these films.

The unpredictability of the film is added by that scene where Roy finds Vishnu's phone and he meets her like he is pretending to be Vishnu - athough he returns the phone; Roy still seems like a threat. The plot makes us think that the rest of the film will be Roy cheating Jessy and she finds out later and the drama that unfolds there - but the direction that the film takes is brilliant. As we see in other Malayalam films, the cinematographer here too takes good advantage of the beautiful landscapes. Roshan's transformation in the last scene, from trying to convince her to outright assaulting her - is beautiful acting.

Krishna and his Leela Analysis

Krishna and His Leela

Directed by: Ravikanth Perepu

Co-Written, Co-Edited by and Starring: Sidhu Jonnalagadda

Streaming on Netflix.

The theme of this film is familiar to Telugu cinema - it's about how a small lie can cascade into big mistakes and put you in a helpless situation. In spite of the familiar theme, the setting of the film is refreshing - it's set in the urban IT world: we see engineering colleges, relationships, offices, parties, weddings and a self actualization trip to Ladakh. The film sucks you in right away, since it starts with a break up scene - the scene is shot very well. The mobility of the camera is used to portray their immature and unstable minds. I was badly wishing for this film to start a counter-culture movement in Telugu or maybe even in Indian cinema and have an ending where Krishna, Radha and Satya live in together - that'd have been such a kickass ending. I was a little confused the way they used Krishna's father character - was it a genetic reasoning for Krishna's flaw? One of the main reasons the film works is, because of the performances and the characters - they seem like real people and they fit the tonality of the world of the film. Sidhu's performance is so fluid, he does well throughout the film.

Breaking the fourth wall, is being done too many times these days - mostly people use it as a lazy tool to narrate how the character is feeling instead of showing it. Legends like Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese have used it too in Annie Hall and The Wolf of Wall Street - but the difference being that they never use fourth wall to convey how the characters are feeling. In Wolf of Wall Street, he talks about other things, about his wealth, his drug usage and his world so that we can get an understanding of his pysche - by the way he looks at money, women and life. In Annie Hall, I've seen the most creative usage of breaking the fourth wall I've ever seen and this film was made more than 40 years ago. Here they use it in a style, David Fincher used in House of Cards - but the most brilliant breaking of fourth wall happened at the emotional moment where for the first time he cheats - when he lies to Radha when he finds out that she was pregnant. It was least expected that it'll happen there.

The Hundred-Foot Journey Analysis

The Hundred-Foot Journey

Directed by: Lasse Hallström

Starring: Helen Mirrer, Om Puri

This film is about an Indian family who move to France and set up a restaurant opposite a Michelin star rated French restaurant. This film starts with the Indian family being underdogs, they are small yet unique and their approach towards food is: No one has tasted our home food yet, let's serve them that. The French restaurant is a fine dining restaurant where they can't afford to experiment at this stage. But soon the film moves from this conflict, like a cat and mouse game between the two restaurants into something else. Although the theme remains the same, about food coming from a sense of feeling of home - but the setting entirely changes, it turns from a rivalry between two restaurants into self-actualization of a person. That's the only problem I had with the film, the conflicts it sets up didn't pay off that well. We never get to see how well does the Indian restaurant does. But having said that, the world of the film is so endearing and sweet that it's difficult to not like this film. It opens with a woman who invites them home and feeds them delicious food, after they have a small car accident. Kadam played by Om Puri says that I'm afraid if I died in the accident and just entered heaven. We also see the theme of inclusivity and equality, the Indian family's backstory and what they face there in France, is the same thing and that makes us ask, where do they go and feel at home? The visuals are so good, they capture the landscapes of that place very well; a lot of the film happens in low light and colors like blue and green are seen in the background most of the times, it's interesting because usually films with such slice-of-life tonality, are shot in daylight.

This film approaches self-actualization very carefully, it doesn't blatantly say that Michelin stars, symbolizing money and success, is not important. It says that it is important, but not at the cost of not feeling at home. So when he quits his job and comes back home, he says that he will get those stars here - he doesn't say that he doesn't care anymore and that he's happy with what he has. In this film, they consider food to evoke emotions - a lot of times we see people eat food and almost cry. I haven't experienced that ever and after watching this film, I badly wish I do. Here they say that food can evoke a sense of nostalgia, it can remind you of your first love and it's apparently more than just taste. It's interesting to see that angle, because I haven't ever thought about food that way. I really wish I could see more of how the Indian family manages to get more customers and run the restaurant decently. They understand the Indian nuances decently, it doesn't feel entirely authentic - of course mainly because the characters are speaking English, but apart from that the nature of bargaining, speaking for their children and such nuances are decently portrayed.

Cast Away Analysis

Cast Away

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis

Starring: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt

This film on the surface looks like a survival film - even I was wondering why they took about half an hour for the plan to crash because usually the inciting incident happens in about 15 minutes from the beginning. It's a beautiful film - it's about hope. It's about how he doesn't give up - in spite of not finding any logical reason to live. The film says - just keep breathing and one day things will fall in place. The survival parts have terrific visuals, editing and sound, especially the scenes where he is swimming in water - I could feel the breathlessness he was feeling. The Kuleshov effect is used extensively in this film to enhance tension, the scene where the plane is going to crash - that was a brilliantly shot and edited scene, especially because how they could bring in the effects of being hit by something so authentically. It's also used in a scene where a wave is about to hit and he overcomes that and leaves the island forever - before the wave hits him and also after it hits him, when he looks back at the island, the Kuleshov effect is used well. There is a lot of silence in the film, when he is alone and everything is conveyed visually and it's done in an engaging way. This film and Forrest Gump, by the end of the hell of an experience the protagonist has gone through - we feel like we've seen a lot in life and when they go back to their normal lives, it feels so good. The last 30 mins is the best part of the film, right from when we see Kelly's husband - it hits us right on our faces; it's another failure in spite of facing all odds and finally surviving everything. The scene where they finally kiss; tension is built up so well. Here, they use a certain technique to make us emotional - they have put us, the audience, feeling more bad for the characters than themselves. It feels like we are almost waiting for them to cry and let it out, we subconsciouly beg them to cry and feel better and then when they cry - it feels cathartic.

Wilson symbolizes how we often associate people to certain parts of our lives and cry for them, but in reality we miss that part of our lives and ourselves. The theme is blatantly spoken out by the protagonist in the ending, but it's very cleverly merged with a plot point - which he narrates and hence it doesn't feel preachy. It feels emotional because we know, what he had to go through. The ending was so good; when he goes to deliver a parcel which saved his life, that was an outstanding pay off - because here the setup is something that we don't expect a call back to. This film is inspiring me to write drama. Tom Hanks, in this film and in Forrest Gump; personifies us and takes us with him throughout his journey and comes back to makes us feel that we've grown up as people. If we can feel that we've come-of-age after watching a film, what more can the filmmaker ask for?

8 ½ Analysis

8 ½

Directed by: Federico Fellini

Starring: Marcello Mastroianni

Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1963 and Best Costume Design

This film is about creative block, specifically a filmmaker's block in this case which Fellini himself faced after the success of La Dolce Vita - and he ended up making a classic out of it. This film is surrealist, it uses abstract visuals to depict his psychological state. The terrific opening sequence is where he is stuck in traffic and people around are stuffed in vehicles - he is trying to get out it which depicts suffocation and then we see he being asphyxiated in the sky - a more bizzare visual of suffocation which wakes him up from his dream. It's inherently about a director's creativity not finding space to breath after a success when there is lot of expectation from the producers, critics, cast, crew and the audience. This sequence doesn't seem intimidating because it's just a dream sequence, but going forward we see more abstract imagery. The best part about this film is, even though the setting of the film is film - it doesn't make it inaccessible to non-film people too by using a lot of film specific jargon. It is about any creative block, told through the lens of a filmmaker. There have been a lot of imitations of this, Woody Allen's Stardust Memories; the recent Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory, Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation and a huge chunk of Hong Sang-soo's filmography. When filmmakers make films about themselves, we can see idiosyncratic storytelling, a strong sense of individuality and often the stories are unique or at least told in a unique way. When the filmmakers make films about themselves as filmmakers, it can be the most self indulgent it can ever get and I can only imagine how complicated it can be to decide what not to write - because there would surely be a lot to write.

The scenes are shot and edited in a way, that we can feel the chaos around that Guido is feeling as well. The pans, the tilts and the motion felt so seamless - it felt like I was watching a film made recently. The cinematographer of the film is Gianni di Venanzo who is also a collaborator with Michelangelo Antonioni whose films are known for their striking visuals. There is a scene where Guido is going in a car with another woman and the lighting of that stood out to me, light falls only on the eyes of Guido while the other's person's entire face is lit. In spite of the abstract storytelling, there is a sense of story in this film - although it is told through dialogue/voice over in a revelatory way that he has to accept his life for what it is. European films have that notoriety for having style over substance - by saying that people want to discourage filmmakers who try to push visual storytelling. Film is beyond story - definitely storytelling is a huge part of filmmaking but sometimes it can just be evoking emotions out of random visuals or shots. A lot of times, everyone won't experience the same way, especially to abstract imagery. There is this short travel video, 'Watchtower of Turkey', it is a compilation of a lot of shots, done with speed ramping and fast cuts - I had goosebumps while watching it and a lot of people I showed it to, felt nothing. Let's stay open to that, if you love cinema - try cinema that you think you might not enjoy and see how it will surprise you.

Safe Spaces Analysis

Safe Spaces (2019)

Written & Directed by: Daniel Schechter

This film talks about morality, political righteousness and how it is being forcefully imposed on everyone to an extent that you have to think before every breath you take. You can't speak what you feel like, you have to censor your feelings before you put them out and see if it satisfies everyone's senses of morality. This isn't freedom of speech, I guess. An important part of the film's story lingers on how a professor in a class encourages a student to talk about a private moment in her sexual life in a creative writing class - this triggers another woman in the class because of her personal experiences and almost everyone in the class boycott his class in support for the woman who was triggered. When you are an adult, people trust you that you can take care of yourself - if everyone has somethings that would trigger them in a class - how could anyone speak anything? When a person has to double check something they say, for productivity and efficiency reasons, that is alright - but for moral reasons, especially when the intent is something else? In this film too, everyone knows his intent wasn't anything bad, and yet people hang on to what they seem to think is politically correct. The problem isn't about pointing out someone who's racist, sexist or homophobic - the film doesn't say that. The film says that when you accuse someone of these terms, be careful - you can't use these to win an argument or just to get the other person defensive. There is a scene where one of their students turn on his phone to record him and then starts talking, almost provoking him. This complex theme is dealt with a lot of humor, I was laughing out loud in a few scenes. A lot of times, people don't want to engage or listen to what others have to say - they are busy labelling them or psychoanalysing them with intellectual terms. It feels like we're slowly going towards a place where if someone takes a chance of saying something that might be politically incorrect, they might need extra empathy and love because of opening up honestly. It feels like a loop. In a scene, he says - all of this wouldn't have happened if I was a black, lesbian, muslim. Yet, the filmmaker doesn't take a rigid stance here - he doesn't judge the people who demand political correctness, he tells us where they are coming from too. It's just like if we know a flawed person and we have aversion towards them, but when we get to know the reason for their flaw, we tend to empathize with them.

The rest of the film deals with his family, which includes his siblings, their spouses, their father and her matriarch who is about to die soon. There are a lot of conflicts and tensions in the family, their father has married a woman and has a kid with her and the kid is rude towards the siblings. The wife hates the siblings, she thinks that they are the one who give him existential crisis and make him feel worthless. The siblings want their dad to be there with the matriarch and finally when they go and confront them - it felt like a showdown. That's a brilliant scene. Although I wasn't able to figure out how the themes, dysfunctional family and the political correctness fit together in this story. The performances were interesting too, Justin Long, who plays Josh has a sense of skepticism throughout in his dialogue and his body language, which properly manifests the theme of political correctness.

Axone Analysis

Axone (pronounced Akhoney)

Directed by: Nicholas Kharkongor

Starring: Sayani Gupta, Lin Laishram

Available on Netflix

The plot of the film in itself is so heartwarming and slightly tragic, that a bunch of girls from the North Eastern states in India, gather to secretly throw a wedding party in Delhi for a soon-to-be bride. The timespan of this story is one day; we see their struggle to cook a dish, Axone, which releases a pungent smell while cooking - the bride's favorite dish. This states us about how when it is about things related to the dominant group of people, everyone accepts and celebrates the discomfort - whether it's Holi and Diwali while if it's something related to the minorities - no one seems to co-operate for it. There is a sequence where everyone in the apartment come to them and shout at them that they should not be allowed to stay there - one of them goes out of breath and it visually shows us how they are made to feel and how they find it suffocating. It's heartbreaking to see when the protagonists of a film are fighting for something, which might feel trivial and small to us like how in Majid Majidi's Children of Heaven the entire movie is about a pair of shoes - here they are fighting to cook a dish a throw a small party for the wedding of their friend. The best part is that the house owner's character - who is obviously racist, she is also not judged by the filmmaker. She is presented in a real and honest way and it is for us to feel what we can feel for her - usually such characters are deliberately made to do and say awful things. The music adds so much for the setting of the film - in spite of it being set in Delhi; apart from the plot and the characters the music is what adds to the world of the film. This film doesn't just focus on showing us the world of the film - it has a lot of things happening which makes it so accessible as well. The world is presented through the plot, whether it's the scene where one of the girls is slapped by a stranger, when she goes out of breath, when they are asked to leave from the place where they have started cooking.

The film is shot in the street of Delhi and it feels shockingly authentic, while watching a lot of scenes I was wondering how the background artists could seem that real. I doubt if they shot these scenes in a guirella style; if yes then Nicholas Kharkongor should definitely be a master at it. Anurag Kashyap's guirella scenes can be understood, that how they could've secretly shot it. There is a funny subplot in the film - the guy who is helping these girls is caught by his girlfriend twice on the road with different girls and that girl's character is also fleshed out beautifully. We see this quality in Coen Brother's films where a character which appears for even one scene stands out. The film in spite of its themes about inclusivity, racism and oppresion - it is a slice of life film which is heartwarming and accessible. Sayani Gupta was so authentic as her character in this film, also the film is shot in a way that the chaos is captured properly and all of it adds to the realism.

Blue Jasmine Analysis

Blue Jasmine (2013)

Written & Directed by: Woody Allen

Cate Blanchett Won the Oscar for Best Actress, Nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

Woody Allen's films manage to flesh out multiple characters in such a short time span, we usually rave about films which even have one character which is written well. This film and in Hannah and her Sisters too; we see four characters and we know a lot about them from the third scene in which they appear. In this film, he does that through contradicitons - the characters contradict with what they say and stand for multiple times that it makes them more human. The other couple in this film, played by Sally Hawkins and Bobby Cannavale - they break up and fight madly in the previous scene and in the next scene after we see what Jasmine goes through, we see that they're cuddling. Jasmine is a woman who wants to be passionate about something, who wants to be productive, who wants to work hard and get tired by the end of the day to get some sleep - but she just can't. It is one of the best characters I've seen in film. She wants to learn interior designing, as she is told by a friend that she could be good at it and since she wants to do that course from home - she first enrols in a Computers class to be good with technology. That makes no sense, but that's that I guess. This story is set across two timelines and they seamlessly cut to here and there; when we see how her son has ended up and what she has turned into by the ending - it feels tragic. She is at a stage where, she doesn't have money but she can't afford to cut down her costs as well because she associates her lifestyle to her self-worth. She is broke; but how could she not travel in 1st class. I'd say it's a dark film if you get deep into her state of mind, Woody Allen talks about such dark subjects and doesn't even make us realize about it. He wraps all of his intellect under the disguise of the rom-com genre; but he is talking about way more things that relationships. The cinematography and editing, are similar to his other films in the 2010s - these are just invisible. 

When the men initially approach Jasmine and Ginger when they're sitting at a restaurant, Ginger's friend comes and forcefully kisses Jasmine on the cheeks. This scene resembled the scene in Vicky Cristina Barcelona where Juan Antonio hits on Vicky and Cristina and one of them is totally into him and the other is repulsive - but the repulsive one ends up hooking with him earlier. I was wondering if something like that would happen here too; but I'm always in awe of Woody Allen - he writes and directs one film every year - most of his films are 90-100 mins long and yet we see easily 3-4 characters in every film who we can't forget. I will take one of his scripts and break it down and try to figure out what he does, but I'm sure it won't be that easy to understand his magic. Watching his work, studying and analyzing his work should be equivalent to a film course, for the volume of work he has put out. 

Gulabo Sitabo Analysis

Gulabo Sitabo

Directed by: Shoojit Sircar

Written by: Juhi Chaturvedi

Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Ayushmann Khurrana

Exclusively on: Amazon Prime Video

The core of this film lies with the character of Mirza, played by Amitabh. He is an old man, who still has that greed for money. Mirza might seem like an unlikeable character, but I believe we all have a part of Mirza inside us which we are unwilling to admit. I felt bad for him when at the ending, he didn't want to do anything else because he has lost his purpose in his life. It's not entirely about the mansion and the money, it's also about something he lost which he plotted for his entire life. This film also talks about how people brought up in a certain socio-economic background can't somehow estimate what their worth could be, it's a question of their ambitions. He sells his antique sofa for 250/- at the end and when we know the actual worth of the sofa, it's utterly heartbreaking. Amitabh's performance was brilliant, it has similar arcs to the character he played in Piku; he is unlikeable till the ending and something inevitable happens to him at the ending which makes us forgive him. 

The milieu is captured very well, cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhyay lets the shadows stay, he doesn't fill them with lights all the time. There is a constant theme music playing, which sets the tone of the film and it's that of a breezy comedy drama. The physical drama is also captured very well with long takes, especially the scene where they announce that the tenants have to vacate the house and they fight over the cash, the drama is amplified with the use of sound and it being a long shot. It feels like we are watching the hussle happening from one of the nearby houses. Mirza not being able to stand properly, he picking himself up is a brilliant physical gesture which tells us two things; one about how determined Mirza is to get that mansion in spite of his physical inabilities and two it's also a funny take on how in spite of it reminding of his inevitable death, he isn't living his life and is running behind something which he can't take with him after he dies.

Chef Analysis

Chef

Written, Directed and Performed by: Jon Favreau

It's a such an inspiring, fulfilling film that you should revisit this film every once in a few years and it'll rejuvenate you.

A chef quits his job at a star restaurant and starts his own food truck because he wants to cook for himself. He gets into a fight with a food critic after not being able to explore creatively because of his manager in his restaurant. Now, he starts everything from scratch. It's the story of a comeback, but in a different space. The story of this film resonates with the director so much, because he's doing this independent film after doing big studios films like Ironman, it feels very much inspired from his own life. He has a passionate son, who wants to work in a kitchen and he's enthusiastic to learn and work hard. The usage of music suits the mood of the film very well, the cinematography and the edit as well. The screenplay is well structured as well, all the conflicts in the film are addressed and it leaves us satisfied. I was satisfied watching their journey itself and when they have the critic coming back to bankroll them into a restaurant and when he gets back with his ex-wife in the ending, all the arcs are closed. 

The food sequences are delicious to watch, especially they create that effect with the sound design. When they toast the cuban sandwich, the sound of crisp in the sound design is what adds to our response to the food. The relationship between the father and his son is so interesting, he treats him like a parent in the beginning but as they travel, he starts to treat him like an adult. He realises that the kid can think for himself. It's coming of age for every character in the film, the chef, his kid, his friend who joins them and the critic. Everyone gets new experiences and learn new things out of the incidents happening in the film.

Eat Drink Man Woman Analysis

Eat Drink Man Woman

Directed by: Ang Lee

Nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 1995.

This film is about a semi retired master Chinese chef and his three unmarried daughters who have different issues in their lives, although all of them sit together for an elaborate dinner on every Sunday and discuss the developments happening in their lives. This film reminded me of Hannah and Her Sisters, Our Little Sister and such coming of age films where we can distinguish every character very well. This film also deals with the conflict between the traditional Asian culture values and the individualist Western values, which the younger generation is drifting towards. It has interesting food sequences, the opening titles sequence and whenever the dinner is being prepared. This film along with Ang Lee's first two films are unofficially known as the 'Father Knows Best Trilogy'. One of his daughters, wanted to cook and her father couldn't see her being successful in it or probably that she could get more respect elsewhere, it's such an Eastern thing where parents know better about what their kids should do for them to be happy. One thing I liked about this film is, it didn't take sides and it showed all the facets of certain themes without judging them. It's difficult to do that, especially when you feel strongly for something.

The editing, sound and cinematography don't call attention to themselves; they just blend within the storytelling. It felt like this could've actually been a show, not only this, all of these films which deal with individual lives of a group of siblings or friends, if the characters are fleshed out well, the writers should get a chance to explore more of their characters. It's tough enough to distinguish characters, to flesh out each of them in such a low runtime, is a challenge. Woody Allen's films do that very well and Kore-eda's Shoplifters was also a brilliant film which explored the lives of every family member and it didn't feel like we needed to know more. 

Sisterhood Analysis

Sisterhood

Directed by: Tracy Choi

We Are One Global Film Festival

Curated by: Macau International Film Festival

A coming of age, beautiful, heart-breaking love story. 

It is a film set in two timelines, 15 years apart. It starts off with a young girl who starts looking for jobs in a massage parlour in Macau. She makes friends there, they have petty fights and help each other. Slowly, it turns into a poignant tale of heartbreak, when we know that one of their friend is dead now after 15 years. As we go deeper into the story, the heartbreak keeps on increasing as we get to know that they were close friends, they fell in love with each other but couldn't express it to each other. They together raise a child. It's such a beautiful film. We see the character grow and come of age, in the older timeline and now we see how things have changed. It evokes a sense of nostalgia in us, making us feel how different life used to be back then. This contrast is brought visually, they use bokeh effects and they use vibrant and shiny colors and lighting in the older track, in the current track we see dull, blue colors depicting melancholy. The present track reminded me of Kieslowski's Blue of the Three Color Trilogy. It also reminded me of Jersey, in a way how brilliantly information is withheld and revealed when it can give the maximum amount of emotional impact.

This film making style looks a bit like Hirokazu Kore-eda in a way how he portrays emotions sensitively. The lighting also looked that way, it is just less than being overexposed a lot of times. This was especially there in Kore-eda's Our Little Sister. The milieu of the massage parlours in Macau is beautifully explored, their teacher, the person who gives them jobs at his new parlour, the pastry shop owner and it is dealt in an empathetic and a sensitive way. I'm eager to check out other films by Tracy Choi.

The Graduate Analysis

The Graduate

Directed by: Mike Nichols

Won the Oscar for Best Direction, 1967.

This film was a key film in the New Hollywood Wave, mainly due to its anti societal, individualistic themes unlike the community adhering films being made till then. The antagonist aria, as Michael Arndt says in his lecture 'Endings: The Good, The Bad and The Insanely Great' is about how youngsters are often adviced by elders about what they should do in their lives. This is the dominant ideology of the film, the mother who wants Ben to have an affair with her, this is direct and all the people who keep advicing him is a subtle portrayal of that aria. The climax is intellectually cathartic, in a way that all hell breaks loose and all the conflicts get solved when the use the cross to lock the door, symbolically telling them to stay locked in their own rules, religion, society or whatever and that these people won't be affected by it. 

There is a scene where Ben's girlfriend gets to know the truth that her mother and Ben have been in an affair and they use rack focus brilliantly there to visually depict her angst. As Michael Arndt pointed out, this film has various levels of conflicts and all of them are resolved in less than a minute in the ending which is what makes it a great ending. Throughout the film, Ben is trying to belong and by the end is when he takes a stand and does what he feels like. The messaging and the moral order of the film is turned upside down. The ending would've definitely been a shocking ending back then, because everyone thinks that she's married now and it's too late, who would've thought that they don't care about marriage as an institution.

Chintu Ka Birthday Analysis

Chintu Ka Birthday

Written & Directed by: Satyanshu Singh, Devanshu Singh
Produced by: Team members of AIB

Available on Zee 5.

Though this film is set in a war zone, the external conflict of this film is small that it grounds the world of the film. Usually in war films, the world is set in a way that sometimes even a death doesn't affect us as much whereas in this film, when they kick Chintu's father, we feel bad. The external conflict is just about a kid who is excited to cut a cake on his birthday. This reminds me of the Iranian film, Children of Heaven by Majid Majidi where the goal of the protagonist is designed in a way that it reminds the audience of their privilege. All the characters are designed in a way that they evoke empathy, the father is always on the leap to help others sometimes at the cost of himself, Chintu is an innocent child and his mother, his sister and his grandmother, all are distinguishable characters. Because of the differences between the characters, there is interesting drama happening all the time. The plot is constructed in such a way that there is escalating tension throughout the film, at the beginning, the soldiers don't even lay hands on anyone. After some point, they start manhandling the father and after some point, they threaten to kill him. This simple tool, was also used in Money Heist which is what made it engaging for that long. If in the first scene, we have the soldiers threatening to kill them, or in Money Heist, if in the first episode they are ready to kill the hostages, then there is no way there could be escalating tension for the rest of the runtime.

The backstory being told in animation, was a new experience to me. I remember the opening 10 mins of Pixar's Up, gripping me for the rest of the film, but here the backstory was just to explain the characteristics of these people. I can't really judge if without the backstory, I'd have understood the characters as well as I do now, but it felt expository. The performances were good by all the actors. The sound design was one tool which let them make this film in a single location, by not using so many special effects and yet making the film authentic that it's set in a war zone.