Run Analysis

Run (2020)

Directed by: Aneesh Chaganty

Written by: Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian

Spoilers Alert. It's an engaging thriller, made by the makers of Searching. Watch the film before you read it. 

It's a survival thriller. 2 characters. Primarily 1 location. Good twists and turns. The writing also has depth, it doesn't feel like a plastic puzzle solving murder mystery. Though, it had generic characterization - of an underdog protagonist, who fights an antagonist - it has well defined emotional journeys of the characters. Especially Chloe. She's a curious girl. She wants to live. We feel empathized towards her because of her simple aspirations - to go to college, to have fun, to have a normal life. When she realizes that her entire life has been grabbed off of her by the mother - I could feel how she'd have felt. It's nice that the mother was kept a little mysterious even till the ending of the film - they didn't have her talk her version of the story - like we generally see.

The underlying theme of the film, that I interpreted, was about how insanely people try to control others' lives and have the audacity to think that it's for their good. I think that's what the film talks about - how would that turn out if it goes to an extreme. I think this is an interesting way of writing horror/thriller films. Take something problematic that's existing in the real world, and exaggerate it creatively, and make a thriller/ a horror film out of it. Get Out, Us, Kumbalangi Nights, The Platform and this film. The ending felt like a tit for tat - I'd have preferred something else. I'd have wanted to see her quietly move on, probably after getting some closure - instead of doing the same thing in return to her. I think this is a difference of opinion in the way we look at Crime and Punishment in general.

Soul Analysis

Soul (2020)

Directed by: Pete Doctor

Streaming on Disney+Hotstar. 

It's an interesting idea, although for me the movie started only after the souls got swapped. We saw something like this in Bogan. Although there, things were superficial - here they explore how it would be if you could do things a little different. How would it be if you could muster up some courage and talk to your parents? How would it be if you talk about something different too, with your friends? Joe looks at all these and introspects. It's brilliant, how he has a bittersweet feeling after his first gig - about how he expects it to be different, and it doesn't turn out to be that. He doesn't realise that he's always been pursuing music, and already playing at his home. If you choose to do something, you do it - how "successful" you become doesn't change the way you feel about it - it just makes other things easy. You're a writer, if you write. How well know you are, how much you get paid - don't matter.

It's beautiful how PIXAR makes popular films and yet makes us introspect and reflect all the time - which is a little rare in the blockbuster era. Joe realizes the little joys of life, after looking at 22 - by the end of the film. He's always been wrapped up about his dream, that he forgets to embrace the small things - which would help him make music as well. The things that he disregards to not be purposes, are what he learns to be important parts of life. For me, the scenes in the pre-birth and the post-death worlds didn't work for me - they weren't as fun. But I could let go of them, because they build the plot to get to the part on the Earth. Also, to tell this story - I was wondering why they choose the protagonist to be a passionate jazz player - he could've been anything to realize what he did in the film.

Another Round Analysis

Another Round (2020)

Directed by: Thomas Vinterberg

Starring:  Mads Mikkelsen

Official Selection - Cannes 2020.

Four friends read a theory that having a blood alcohol content of 0.05 keeps us more relaxed and creative - and they decide to experiment by start drinking. They end up drinking more, and more. The film was initially meant to be a celebration of drinking, based on the thesis that world history would've been different without alcohol - for example: people like Winston Churchill, Ernst Hemingway would drink a lot, and Hitler wouldn't. But one week into filming, Thomas Vinterberg's daughter died in a car accident - who was initially  the one who pushed Thomas to make this into a movie. After this incident, they apparently reworked the script to make it more life affirming. The film is dedicated to her.

The filmmaking is top notch, the way it's shot and cut - it exactly captures the state of mind of the characters. Especially the last song, and the scenes where they are confronted by their families after going home drunk - the way they act and behave is one thing, but the camera movements also convey the feeling of being high - the handheld movement, and the edit is also strange at certain parts. The text on the screen is an interesting tool, they use. At the starting, it felt like a film about alcohol addiction - it is to an extent, but the film says that despite of the bad things alcohol does - it's fun. That's the worldview here. Despite of their friend dying, they have some hesitations - but they move on and still have fun drinking. It falls in the optimistic nihilism zone, where anything we do doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things - so we might as well have some fun.

AK vs AK Analysis

AK vs AK (2020)

Directed by: Vikramaditya Motwane

Streaming on Netflix.

It's a kick-ass idea. Right from the trailers, and the marketing campaign - it got me super psyched. AK and AK playing an exaggerated version of the image each of them have, and that along with the premise of a survival thriller - it's bang on. The form has a lot of scope for doing weird, funky stuff. With this film, they still didn't go to inaccessible zones - probably because the form in itself is experimental.

I was laughing at a lot of instances, wherever Anil Kapoor was giving a dramatic performance - like how he begs the cops at the police station, it's making fun of the overdramatic acting we generally have in films. Anurag Kashyap's worry is if they've got a shot, when he knows that a car hit him. I'm sure that's how he would've made his initial films. 

The ending twist felt like they wanted to balance, the AK vs AK thing. I would've loved it, if there was a new turn from there. I would've loved if they addressed that this is a film made by Vikramaditya Motwane for Netflix, and that he added these elements without Anurag Kashyap knowing. Improvisation. "Fuck the script". That would've been another level of meta.

The Disciple Analysis

 The Disciple (2020)

Written and Directed by: Chaitanya Tamhane
Executive Producer: Alfonso Cuaron
Won the Best Screenplay at Venice Film Festival. 

The Disciple is a story of a young man who is in the pursuit of excellence. It's a heavy film, it's highly reflective - especially if you are an artist. It is set in the world of Indian classical music. The film has such strong imagery that after watching 5 mins of the film, I remember feeling that I know every shot till then, in the exact order. Every scene has on an average 2-3 shots in it. These shots are shot in deep focus, hence portraying the world more than focusing on one particular character. I remember one of the shots in the first scene, where the camera slowly tracks into the disciple being in awe of his guru. That shot was equivalent of a 10 min introduction of the character. I could see Cuaron's words coming through the film, about how even with small setups and budget - we can create cinematic imagery. 

It had a Moonlight sort of a coming-of-age vibe to it, which I absolutely loved. The film doesn't avoid truth, for the sake of being reverent - we see the guy jerking off to porn. There is a line said by the woman in the tapes - "technique can be taught, what can't be taught is truth and it needs bravery to look within oneself with unflinching honesty". This line stuck with me. The film succeeds in doing so. By seeing Sharad jerking off, we see his loneliness. My favorite parts of the film was, where he rides his bike in slow motion and there is transcendental sound and voice over of the woman - speaking truths of being a purist form of an artist. I was wondering about the kind of worldview the film was trying to present. It doesn't operate from a prejudiced worldview, where we select what falls within our theme. It neither says that purism works, nor do they say that it doesn't work. They present us with the truth, and capture it. What we take out of it, is up to us - if we want to be in the pursuit of excellence, or be content with what we are.  

Paava Kadhaigal Analysis

Paava Kadhaigal (2020)

Streaming on Netflix.

Sudha Kongara's Segment: It worked emotionally, the way Sathaar sacrifices his love and helps the both of them to get together - falls in the Aarya-2 space. That worked, but for me - the way they were portraying Sathaar - it was evident for me that Sathaar will die. Although the heartbreaking aspect was the mother asking Sathaar to go die. Apart from the little predictability, and the way the flashback is narrated - it worked for me.

Vignesh Sivan's Segment: It's an interesting tone that he arrived at, I'm sure it would have felt so risky. But apart from that, the twists and turns fell apart. They didn't work me. I was expecting something on the lines of the dead sister, actually being alive and she'd be the one filming the people in the ending. Kalki was not utilized to her potential. 

GVM's Segment: It's interesting how he tells stories of young people getting into trouble, I was reminded of a short film that he produced - Maa. This was in similar lines, except here it's rape and there's a lot of trauma. The sad part of the world of honor killings is that the focus isn't on the girl facing the trauma, it's the family facing the trauma of their honor being at stake - the way the mother finds her daughter to be disgusting, which otherwise would be some random injuries.

Vetrimaran's Segment: I think this is one of the best piece of cinema I've seen this year. It's the way Sai Pallavi performs the entire stretch of going through various ranges of emotions - from discomfort initially, to disbelief, trying to convince him by talking some sense, begging him, cursing him, and finally crying it out realizing that nothing could be done. It's phenomenal. 

Y Tu Mama Tambien Analysis

Y tu mama tambien (2001)

Directed by: Alfonso Cuaron

Cinematography: Emannuel Lubezki

Nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars.

The film starts with a sex scene. It's a long take. The camera is handheld and lingering. Raw and intimate. Sometime later, there is another scene where the two guys are jerking off by laying on two diving boards on a swimming pool, each - and they cum into the water, which is captured by an underwater shot. These scenes show us the way they treat sex to be very casual and open in the film. All of this punk tone, makes sense with the contrast they bring through the last scene where they are almost grown ups and are ready to finally face life.

It's a road film, where these two guys meet this women and travel with her. The way she ends up having sex with the both of them to not upset the other person, is funny. Especially, the guys end up fighting about infidelity all the time but they themselves can't resist themselves when they see a beautiful woman. The sex scenes are more effective because of the long takes. The camera feels so intrusive into their personal space. We can feel the motivation behind the camera.

The film uses an excellent editing technique, which practically any film can use to alter the film on the edit table - of course, it's an intimate and a personal film. The frame suddenly gets completely silent, we don't even hear the ambiance and then the voice over starts. We only hear the voice over, and after it's done - we go back to the scene. Something like this could be done with any film on the edit table. 

Irrational Man Analysis

Irrational Man (2015)

Written and Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone

Premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2015.

This film is a creative cocktail of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, and the classic Woody Allen - it's a blend of philosophy, infidelity, crime, morality set in a funny, light hearted world. The film has a difference in the way the characters emote, behave; and the way it's intended for us to feel. In a lot of scenes, the characters are going through a lot of conflict, and intense drama - for example: the revelation of a partner cheating on them, the revelation of a partner being a murderer, break ups, etc. But we never feel the intensity of these scenes, they are all shown from a very large perspective, about how all of this generally happens in life - the absurdity of life. The light hearted treatment of heavy scenes, puts the filmmaker on a higher stance. The way the scenes cut from an intense scene, abruptly - to a light hearted scene with jazz music, with poetic voice over - is what makes the transition to be seamless, between both the tones.

Woody Allen's way of portraying women - though he portrays them in his zone, free spirited, promiscuous, liberated, open to life - the depth and layers that he adds beyond this, makes every woman and every character in his film so unique and different from each other. The unique aspect is that he doesn't judge his characters, he sort of plays god and presents everyone with some honesty. He establishes characters with simple tools like, body language and dialogue. The ending of this film sort of surprised me because of the way it brings everything to normalcy, and this whole thing is just a phase in her life.

Andhagaaram Analysis

Andhagaaram (2020)

Written and Directed by: V. Vignarajan

Streaming on Netflix.

It's a psychological, supernatural thriller. My only complaint against this genre of films is that - they present a riveting mystery - we have no clue how things would happen that way and they answer the mystery by saying that it was done by a ghost. Even The Wailing (2016) had the same issue. I'm also generally not a fan of watching visuals like a bottle following a man walking, a cell phone hanging in the air - these visuals seem unconvincing and hence they don't look as scary. The shot where the man in the chair gets up - though I expected it - that scared the shit out of me, because it's not an unconvincing shot. They've to be sparingly used.

Having said that, the film grabs us into its world and keeps us in it. With the intercutting between different scenes, between a hypnotic manipulation and an exorcism - there's a certain sense of eeriness that's maintained throughout the film. The intercutting between scenes which are supposed to be in chronological order - was interesting. But the film being boiled down to revenge plots by the end - that was a little underwhelming, because of the generic pay off and for the lack of a theme. With such psychological thrillers, there is a hope that things will fall into place and that we'd see pay offs for every question asked and for everything that's been set - but when the answers are disappointing, then the experience feels underwhelming.

Tenet Analysis

Tenet (2020)

Written and Directed by: Christopher Nolan

This film definitely deserves a theatrical viewing, it's a visual spectacle - and the usage of music in this film is unapologetically riveting. I can only imagine how complex it would've been - writing this film. It has a couple of characters in a scene, and then they return from the future in reverse - and the scene keeps intercutting between different perspectives. What to show, and what to hide - would be the crucial choice to make at every stage. The dialogue felt like it went through a lot of trimming, and it was back to back all the time. This film is high on tension throughout, we hardly get a moment to relax. The plot, and the rules of the world being spoken out has become a trade off for him to try out new stuff.

The sequence on the road was my favourite among the spectacles, and I loved how we see some random people during the sequences and later realize that they're the same people from the future - these twists (aha moments) have satisfying pay offs, because the set up was clear initially. The ending twist wasn't exciting for me, because there weren't pieces to join, or I couldn't find them. I couldn't figure out everything that was happening in the film - I just had a sense of what was going on and even the film says it - 'don't try to understand it, just feel it'. 

Mank Analysis

Mank (2020)

Directed by: David Fincher

Written by: Jack Fincher

Streaming on Netflix.

In this day and age of franchises and big tentpole films Netflix has been the only studio to be so generous to auteurs. It gives them money, and let's them make whatever they want to make - Alfonso Cuaron's Roma, Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things and now David Fincher's Mank. These films are dream projects and they wouldn't be possible to make, at least in the way they want - if it was not for Netflix.

This film immediately plunges us into the world of Hollywood in the 1930s. With the opening titles, and the images that follow - we don't see pristine g that we usually see in a David Fincher film, it sort of replicates the look of the films made back then. This is unlike Cuaron's interpretation of capturing the past - I liked that more - because a film made in 2020 capturing the 1930s will be different from a film made in 1950 capturing the same world. This variation could also be artistic in a sense, how Roma was made.

I'm not a person who would take sides of either Welles or Mank, I respect both of them and with this film - I understood that they had certain differences and I have respect for the both of them now. After knowing that Mank had written that script, while going through troubles himself - it makes it a more personal story. I loved how the way, the film kicks off - 'there are millions to be made, and your only competition is a bunch of idiots'. It feels like Mank has a time blur throughout the time he's writing the screenplay, and only after writing it does he realize - that it's the best thing he's ever written.

It also captures how some things don't matter anymore, like the screenwriting credit here - though he fights for it, after a point he lets it go. He knows that he's done it and he's good at it, this only makes me wonder how many legendary artists, creators and sportspersons in the world are unheard of, because of bad luck or circumstances. Citizen Kane is a film that represents the megalomania that humans feel, and this film, Mank, about the story of Citizen Kane - is no lesser in representing the same.

Obvious Child Analysis

Obvious Child (2014)

Written and Directed by: Gillian Robespierre

A struggling comedian, who has a recent break up and an unwanted pregnancy - must navigates through the murky waters of adulthood.

The simplicity of the film is endearing, it's about a woman who's struggling through her career, who's been recently dumped by her boyfriend for her best friend. The entire film flows seamlessly from one point to another, the scenes are designed in a simple way too - the camera is static, the drama isn't high-key and there's nothing that's spectacular about the film - which works for the casual tone of the film. It reminds me of a micro budget indie film - Vanilla, which also has a style which is very simple and blends it with the tone of the film. Coming-of-age is interesting because in spite of the story that happens externally, there's a deep sense of story internally too - and when they blend thematically, then they work like wonders.

This film visually captures her state of mind very well - the way she goes home and behaves after she is dumped. The film mostly deals with abortion, and the guilt that prevails the choice. When she isn't able to deal with things - she goes to her mother, cries and simply asks for help and that's all was what she had to do. She finds an answer, something which won't make her feel so bad. They apparently marketed the film as an 'abortion comedy'.