Everything Everywhere All At Once

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Written and Directed by: Daniel Brothers

It's a hypermodern masterpiece. It's the modern Pulp Fiction. This film makes you go gaga, because it keeps expanding your horizons of imagination of one side, and on the other side it also freaks you out about how the effect you've had while watching this film, is perhaps how we've been feeling with our overwhelming consumption of internet. While our attention spans are going down and down, this film comes to us like 'hold my beer' where sometimes we process what just happened after the scene is finished. Hyperreality is a very interesting concept that talks about how art imitates life, and after a point life starts imitating art (which is already an imitation/exaggerated version of life) and now art has to imitate life which is already an imitation of art which is already an imitation of life. A never ending loop. This film probably lands after 10 loops of art, life, art, life and so on. 

In spite of the technical plot, about how they have to prevent something bad happening in the multiverse, the film works at a dramatic level too. It beautifully talks about dysfunctional family, by her daughter being one of the antagonists, the divorce with her husband and it also talks about existentialism with the subplot of the IRS officer. I'm just blown by how this film talks about a lot, a lot, a lot and yet it sticks to its style and form. After a point, I started wondering if talking about a lot of things was also part of the style of the film. This is probably the most original film I've seen since Super Deluxe. It's not a derivative of any existing art forms, it's in fact an integration of existing art forms and non-existing art too. Films like this will influence a lot of art that's going to come by. So let's get ready for a lot more films, shows, music videos that just make us go, 'what were they smoking?'

Oke Oka Jeevitham (2022)

Oke Oka Jeevitham (2022)

Written and Directed by: Sree Karthick
Starring: Sharwanand, Ritu Varma, Vennela Kishore, Amala, Priyadarshi

It's a simple story at an idea level. A story told so many times, but it's told really well. Time travel. Characters wanting to change their past so that they can have a better life in the current times. Them realizing that no matter how much you try to change the past, you can't change your destiny and all you can do is make the most out of your present. Sharwanand was terrific in this film, he carried beautiful vulnerability throughout the film. A sweet surprise was Vennela Kishore, I never saw him like this. A comic actor doing drama hits so hard. Sharwa goes back in time to spend time with his mother and be with her, and perhaps save her life. Vennela Kishore goes back in time to make his younger self study and not end up like this. The best apart about Vennela Kishore's subplot is, it talks about self loathe. The way he looks at his younger self, his inner child, he's angry at himself. At one point, he's almost about to hit him. I really liked the arc this character had by the ending, it talks about acceptance but it's done in a simple way. They use one scene where he sells the question paper to talk about acceptance, instead of making it complicated. They use this scene to redeem the character from his own loathe. Priyadarshi's subplot is really funny. The auto scene where he's ignoring the girl as a kid was hilarious. Happens happens. 

What I enjoyed the most about the film was, the heart of the film is in the right place and though the emotional scenes land, for me the most compelling scenes were the parts where there were plot turns. Like the interval scene, the scene where Amala sees that Sharwa is his son and then the bang, the tension in these scenes was terrific. Also, I particularly liked the scene where Sharwa is afraid to sing in the beginning, the sound design was terrific in that scene.