Cape Fear (1991)

Cape Fear (1991)

Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro

The film is about Max Cady, an ex-convict who finds out that the lawyer who defended him hid an important piece of evidence which would have saved him years in prison. He’s out to get the lawyer. But there’s a catch. The case was about Max brutally raping a woman, so the lawyer purposefully hid that piece of evidence about the victim being promiscuous because he thought Cady deserved to go to jail. So the lawyer’s a good guy. Robert De Niro is absolutely menacing as Max Cady, especially because of his abilities. He has the abilities to charm women, and the scene where he talks to the lawyer’s daughter who is 15 and kisses her, had me gasping. That entire scene was beautifully constructed. After the girl gets to know that he’s Max Cady, she doesn’t flee the scene but her body turns away from him and she keeps gazing at the exit and that is enough to convey that she’s uncomfortable. That’s how they build tension in that scene.

What I love about the film is, it gets into the story right off the bat without beating around the bush. And it almost plays out like a survival thriller, but also like a character study of a menacing guy. Although I felt that the whole ending, where he almost rapes the lawyer’s wife, would have been more shocking if Max Cady didn’t rape the lawyer’s secretary. But because of the brutality of that scene, the film successfully carried tension throughout the film. It goes by Hitchcock’s bomb theory – the way a bomb suddenly going off can just shock the audience for a bit but if they know that there’s a bomb under the table, there’s tension throughout. So it worked like that. I loved the ending, but I didn’t get why it was set in that ship. It could’ve been set in his house too, that would’ve brought in even more tension because nothing can save at that point. De Niro is so charming that at times, I was rooting for him and I love films that make me hate myself for rooting for bad guys.

Match Point

Match Point (2005)

Written and Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Matthew Goode, Scarlett Johansson
Nominated for Best Original Screenplay

It’s the OG Gehraiyaan. After watching this film, I realized that Gehraiyaan was heavily influenced by this to a point where I don’t feel that good about Gehraiyaan anymore. Because all the major plot points are derivative, although what Gehraiyaan did better was to make us buy the affair. I never felt uncomfortable watching Gehraiyaan, but Match Point made me very uncomfortable. I remember watching these sex scenes as a kid and enjoying them, but now when I watch them in context, they made me mentally squirm. The way he lies to his wife’s face, when she has no clue if he loves her anymore or not. Especially because everything happens so fast. We see Chris falling in love, going on a date, making love, getting married and because Woody Allen’s films are generally so tight, it felt like life was happening very fast and then he meets Nola and he likes her, and all it takes is one moment of passion to forget everything behind.

All of the discomfort that the film makes you feel throughout, has a terrific pay off by the ending. Though Chris doesn’t get caught and doesn’t get punished, we get to see how a normal man could be capable of doing something extraordinary, when in difficult situations. The film is a beautiful warning that even if you come across someone as hot as Scarlett Johansson, the situations to deal with could be so out of control that you may end up discovering ugly parts of yourself, which probably never even existed. The conversation Chris has with a man on the bench, is a beautiful encapsulation of the moral dilemma of the whole film. I needed a fun Woody Allen film to watch, I didn’t sign up for this. I gotta watch another Woody Allen film to make up for this now. 

10 Cloverfield Lane

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Directed by: Dan Trachtenberg
Streaming on Prime Video
Spoilers Ahead. 

A terrific thriller. Set in the survival drama, one location set up, people trying to save their lives, this is always an interesting space to explore extreme emotions we go through. Even though there are only 3 characters in the film, the film has a lot of depth and detailing with the way they used the plot and the way they reveal certain details about the character. At first, we as an audience travel with the idea that Howard is lying to them and that he has other intentions. We root for Michelle to escape from the place and get free. And after an act into the film, we see Michelle finally stealing his keys, smashing his bottle with a glass of alcohol and fleeing the scene. But as she's about to open the door, we see someone mutated from the outside. Turns out, Howard was right. It's dangerous outside. This is such a killer turn in the film. Here on, we are filled with a lot of questions, but it also settles down the tension because at least the characters are on the same page. They get together, they bond well and almost live like a family. 

All of it again comes shattering when she goes to turn on the air conditioner and finds something shady. She talks to Emmett about it, and as they put pieces together, they realize that Howard actually kidnapped a young girl and killed her who he claims to be his daughter. There's a terrific scene in the film where they play a game to guess a movie, and the way they show Howard guessing words is a terrific way of revealing his character. The mystery slowly creeps in, till a point where it goes all out and becomes an action survival thriller. Finally, after she gets out, the film takes a complete tangent which I didn't see coming. I liked the absurdity and the unpredictability, but it didn't seem like a great pay off because of the setting of the film throughout. Although, I think it's a brilliant way to set up the film for a potential franchise - from an ultra low budget set up. 

Modern Love: Hyderabad

Modern Love: Hyderabad (2022)

I really enjoyed this show. Although some stories seemed totally Western, they incorporated these stories into the Telugu world pretty well. We usually don’t have a lot of films in Telugu which talk about feelings, nuances within relationships and conversation driven dramas with this tone and nuance. So it was very interesting to watch. Though I really enjoyed all the episodes, I was expecting to see these stories being set in the context of romantic relationships. Only 3 out of 6 stories deal with romantic relationships. That was my only setback, but having said that the episodes that made me feel the most was not about a romantic relationship. 

Episode 1: My unlikely pandemic partner, starring: Revathy, Nithya Menen

It’s a beautiful story. I was deeply moved by it. Relationships with parents is always complicated. There is tons of love, but there are a lot of issues hiding under them too. Sometimes they come out in unexpected times and create some discomfort for a while, and they again go away or go under the rug and it again gets back to being good. This is exactly how the episode is. We know there’s a conflict between them, it comes in between once in a while, but otherwise there’s a lot of love. 

I loved the scene where the both of them sleep beside each other and talk about their relationships. The writing of the scene and the tone, and the style in which it was shot was beautiful. Reminded me of some conversations in one of my favorite shows, Little Things. The ending of this episode was absolutely heart-warming. It beautifully talks about the situation of a person after their spouse passes away in the most bittersweet way. This ending is a nice tribute to Hyderabad, and anyone who loves the city cannot help but be charmed by this ending. 

Episode 2: Fuzzy, purple and full of thorns, starring: Ritu Verma, Aadi Pinishetty

I really enjoyed this episode. I like how it takes off and jumps ahead in their relationship. The moment Ritu opens the cupboard and finds the purple sandal, my mind paused for a second and imagined what the film would be about. I thought, Ritu’s lost sandal at the temple is this purple one, and Aadi was the one who stole it so that he can find an excuse to talk to her, and that’s what happened. So their entire relationship is based on a lie, and now she wants to talk about it. But no, this story wasn’t that. 

This was about how she’s insecure about him keeping his ex’s things. And they both are on different pages about this. I always see Ritu in this calm, composed manner and in this film, she has this side, but she also brought out a neurotic side along with it, which was very interesting. Although I enjoyed the premise and the tone, and where the film goes, I would’ve liked to see more justifications from each side for their arguments, or maybe explore more problems in their relationship starting with this.

Episode 3: Why did she leave me there? Starring: Suhasini, Naresh Agastya

This episode deals with abandonment issues – which is very relevant in the context of romantic relationships. But this story explores it through the roots of abandonment, when a kid feels abandoned when he’s left at a hostel by his grandmother who he deeply loved. I felt that the episode was middling, till the point where we realize that she’s going to leave him in the hostel and from the point where the kid realizes it, the episodes takes off beautifully and ends in a heart-wrenching place.

The issue with this episode for me was that, throughout the episode in the present, it doesn’t deal with the core point of the episode – abandonment. The setting in the present story has nothing to do with his issues. We just see that he’s doing well in his career. I wish I could draw more parallels from the present to the past in terms of where he is emotionally. That would’ve been really interesting. 

Episode 4: What clown wrote this script! Starring: Abijeet Duddala, Malavika Nair

I enjoyed this episode. I love how it was shot and performed. Both the actors were good. Abijeet had a heavy, glum face which spoke a lot and Malavika is this mysterious, charming girl who seems very deceptive, in a nice way. And I particularly liked the tone of the conversations in the episode. Although the stand-up bits didn’t land for me, I don’t know if they were meant to, but I feel like doing a stand up set in a film is the toughest thing, unless the actor writes the set and performs it by themselves. Because when you write jokes and ask someone else to perform them, it’s very challenging. 

I like the whole concept of the ‘telugu abbayi’ and how it was used as a running joke throughout the episode, and I liked the love story too. Although I wish I could feel a little more than what I did. I definitely enjoyed where the episode left me, it left me a bit hanging to see them together, it left me bittersweet to see them split and it left me smiling when there was hope in the ending. 

Episode 5: The rustle in the bushes. Starring: Ulka Gupta, Anirudh Pavithran, Naresh

This is the episode that moved me the most in this season. It’s a beautiful story, it works even on a story level and the actors just made it so better. The story is about a controlling father, who keeps an eye on his daughter all the time, and I feel like a lot of Asian people would relate to this on some level. Ulka Gupta was so good, her innocence added a beautiful layer to the character. Anirudh fits very well in his role. But there were a lot of jumps in their love story. I couldn’t figure why a seemingly traditional girl like her is interested in someone like him. 

Although I didn’t mind the incompletions because at the end of day, it’s a father-daughter love story. The ending broke my heart, because to me a controlling father is a villain. Prakash Raj in Bommarillu is not a character, he’s a villain to me. That’s how I’ve seen controlling fathers all my life. And here comes a film that suddenly makes me see the other side, and in the most heart-breaking way. I can easily say that this episode changed me as a person. 

Episode 6: Finding your penguin. Starring: Komalee Prasad

I really enjoyed this episode, because it talks about finding a mate from an evolutionary perspective. Since I’ve been reading about evolutionary psychology, mating strategies of people, inherent mate value that all of us have, this episode was quite fun to watch. It talks about how different animals find their mates and what mating strategies they have, and the character keeps trying to find love by the strategies taken by different animals. 

This episode stood out the most to me, in terms of the creative voice. It was very solid, especially with the cut-aways to the sequences where she’s dancing with weird costumes and set pieces. I really liked the casting too, the girl looks very Telugu and yet she brings out a beautiful modern-ness to the character and this makes the character urban as well as grounded and I thought that was a very interesting space to put the film in. I like the girl’s confusion and how her heart is all over the place.

Amour (2012)

Amour (2012)

Written and Directed by: Michael Haneke 

Palme d'Or at Cannes

Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film

It's a love story of a couple in their 80s. They're dealing with deteriorated health, they're struggling with getting daily chores done, they're sometimes even struggling to talk to each other. What seems like the most unromantic film ironically felt like the most romantic thing I've ever seen. Because deteriorating health and old-age is reality that all of us, hopefully, will go through. And I feel like if you want to go through all of that with someone, then that's the one. You could go through your 20s with a lot of people and still have fun. Who'd you be with in your 80s and have fun? That's the question. Being there for each other at that point feels like the pinnacle of love. I feel like Amour is a film to watch with a date, and then think if you'd want to go through that with that person.

Spoilers alert here on. In this minimalist setting, with one location, very few characters and the film moving very slow, with small small moments between them, all of this builds up to the shocking and the unfathomable ending, where he kills her to let her off that pain she's going through. How did he do that? I was wondering, wouldn't he want a few minutes more of her? But his love is beyond that. He wouldn't want her to suffer for even few more minutes. The film made me thinking who had it worse, her or him, and I could never reach to an answer. Because she knows it's heartbreaking for him too. And he knows that she knows. And it's an endless loop of how they both keep feeling for each other, till the point where there's no difference between one and another. Both of them are the same living in different bodies.