Ides of March - Mesmerizing !!

There is a scene in which Gosling and Clooney meet in a hotel that’s shut for outsiders. They engage in a conversation where they both try to outdo each other and attempt at proving the other person wrong. It’s a simple scene but the director employs clever lines and great style in conveying the emotional turbulence that both the characters go through during that chat.

Political thrillers are always interesting to watch. There is always a plot of people involved in betrayal, cheating and treachery. This movie also does that. But, where it stands out from the rest of the lot is in its realistic depiction of the behind the scenes events. It doesn’t get too dramatic at any stage nor does it try to over-sympathize with the characters. It is bold, hardnosed and to the point.

The story revolves around the presidential campaign of George Clooney which is ably lead by Philip Seymour Hoffman as his chief campaign manager, Ryan Gosling who is Hoffman’s assistant and their team. Paul Giamatti, who is the chief campaign manager of the opponent camp tries to entice Gosling into working for them and pushes him into turmoil. Principles and ambitions clash with each other but Gosling prefers to stay with Clooney instead of joining the opposition camp. But, unknowingly this event and another critical one (a major spoiler) lead into sequences that threaten to derail the whole presidential campaign of Clooney and career aspirations of Gosling. The story then revolves around these lead characters to show how they battle tough situations trying to come out clean and successful.

This movie belongs to Ryan Gosling. This is his 3rd movie this year after Drive and Crazy, Stupid, Love. He continues to try different genres but still emerges unscathed by the burden of intense characters and difficult scripts. He is truly one of the best ‘actors’ around and has again done one hell of a job. It was an uphill task for him to perform alongside movie heavyweights like Clooney, Hoffman and Giamatti. But, Gosling works like magic. He takes the centre stage with utmost ease and carries the movie forward with his brilliant performance.

George Clooney is impressive as a director. He takes a backseat in terms of screen time and lets the story unfold from Gosling’s point of view. Clooney’s control over the narration is amazing and he doesn’t lose the grip over the story at any point in time. The performances are duly enhanced by smart dialogues and they add a punch to the already impressive package.

This movie may not appeal to everyone because of its pace and the style of film making. But, it’s a definite watch for every moviegoer. Miss it at your own risk as ‘The Ides of March’ is mesmerizing.

Moneyball - Engaging!

        Making movies about true events from the sports world is one of the toughest jobs in movie industry. The audience get associated with the movie easily and its then a big gamble from the movie maker's point of view. The passion towards the sport would reflect in the opinion towards the movie and it will get easily discarded by the audience if the maker keeps even one wrong step.

Moneyball works very well given all the gambles it has to play with. It is a simple story told beautifully!

Moneyball talks about the baseball managerial career of Billy Jeane(Brad Pitt). He is incharge of a club that has been mediocre in recent past and its upto Billy to revive the fate of the club. In his pursuit of revival, he asks a young,bright economics graduate Peter Brand(Jonah Hill) to assist him. They both team up and try to "replace transfer of popular players" approach with that of statistical computation of cheaper but good players. They face obvious opposition from the core group of advisors and the coach Art Howe(Philip Seymour Hoffman). But, they relentlessly try to implement their approach and the story is then about how Pitt and Hill try to take the club to pinnacle of success.

The main story track is interlaced with two sub plots. One of Billy Jeane's career as player when he got spotted by a club in his teens. Another story track is that of his current personal life. He is a divorcee and gets to meet his daughter every now and then. Director focusses on how Billy coped with his personal conflicts and devils of past to divert all his angst into his baseball job.

The narration basically is made up of extended scenes consisting long conversations. These conversations are made very engaging and interesting by the dialogues that have been written in a clever way. Not once does the pace drop drastically to make the viewer uncomfortable or bored.

Although the story in itself  is good and inspiring but its the performances of Pitt, Hill and Hoffman that takes the movie to greater heights. This can be considered as one of their best performances of all time.

The interaction between Pitt and his daughter are very catchy. The sequences are written and executed beautifully.  Brad Pitt's internal turmoil has been portrayed very well and the director shows how good he is at his craft.

This movie was touted as Brad Pitt's shot at the Oscars. I'm not sure if he'll be the leading contender but I'm certain that  the academy will reward him with a nomination at least. This is more than a wish than a prediction.

Its a very good movie and definitely deserves all the accolades. Watch it!

DRIVE - Brilliant!

        We've watched a lot of heist movies. We've also watched many 'heist gone wrong' movies. But, this one is not quite like the ones we've watched before.

DRIVE is a movie about Ryan Gosling who works as a movie stunt man, car mechanic at a garage and a wheelman helping the burglars getaway from the scene of crime. He leads a lonely life and gets sucked into his neighbour Carrey Mulligan's life when he meets her by chance. She is a married woman with a kid and is waiting for her husband to be released from Prison. Gosling forms an emotional bond with Mulligan and her kid and becomes part of their lives. Mulligan's husband gets out of jail and in interesting circumstances gets along with Gosling for a heist. But, this heist goes wrong and Gosling falls into a web of dangerous backlash from the mob and this gets intertwined with his relationship with Mulligan and her kid. The story is then about how he manages to break all the shackles.

Its a simple story with no great layered approach to the narration. But, its the treatment to this story by the director Nicholas Wending Refn that makes this movie go from good to brilliant. Ryan Gosling is mindblowing in his understated and subtle performance. His interactions wih Mulligan are the highlights of the movie. Through out the movie, director goes for fewer dialogues than what would have seemed adequate. He lets the scenes unfold using clever pauses and great background score. He also loads confrontation scenes with violence and doesn't shy away from showing the brutal side of the leading character.

I would be pleased to see Gosling fetching an oscar nomination for his performance but the chances are next to none going by the genre and the tone of the movie. Academy prefers to stay away from this kinda movie.

Fast paced thrillers are ruling the roost these days but its a slow paced, stylish and effortless movie like this one that comes across like a breath of fresh air. Its not your regular edge-of-the-seat thriller but it is more in the space of a Mulholland Drive in which there is no visible urgency for the story to unfold.

Watch this movie and be sure to get treated with this stylish side of Hollywood that entices the audience of better movies in days of mindless, 'heavily loaded with routine action' and cliches days!

Contagion - Touchy!

       Director Steven Soderbergh has an impressive CV. What stands out is his audacity to try different genres and subjects in every new project of his. Good directors often do that.

This time around he has delivered a movie on an epidemic that creates mass hysteria. Its a unique subject material and Soderbergh is more than capable of doing a good job at it.

The story revolves around how the people and global health organisations cope with an epidemic that threatens to wipe out a major chunk of the population on this planet. The movie dwells into psyche of common people and at the same time gives us the picture of how intelligence agencies and government health agencies react to this uncontrollable phenomenon.

To garner public attention, director has casted hollywood heavyweights like Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cottilard, Kate Winslet and Laurence Fishburne. But, the director doesn't get startstruck and ensures that he does not give more attention to any character more than what the story dictates. Each of these stars have done a good job at what they have been asked to do.

This movie works because of various things. For me, the best aspects were the narration, camera work and background score. Camera lingers on certain objects every now and then to magnify the effect that object would hold on the spreading of the epidemic. Director uses this effect among others to create a thriller out of a story of how a disease takes lives and baffles everyone.

The first and last 10 mins of the movie have fewer dialogues and are brilliantly executed.Director plays with the pace of the story telling almost faultlessly.

The only part of the movie that could have been better is the story track of Jude Law for the first half of the movie and kinda pull the intensity down. But, director makes it up but by adding extra meat to that track and giving it an important place in the narration.

Watch this movie for its unconventional take on a subject that itself has not been tried many times.Watch it for stars who turn into mere characters. Watch it to know how the 'controlling groups' of the society go about their affairs in situations like this.Watch it to witness how common people like us become hooligans for the sake of survival.

Don't be afraid of the dark - A disappointment!

        I think its the imperative that horror movies should contain few horror elements that can give some 'scary' moments to the audience and make the movie worth watching. This movie fails miserably at that.

This is a story of a kid(Bailee Madison) who moves into her father's(Guy Pearce) house battered by distancing herself from her mother. She also has to adapt living with a step mother(Katie Holmes) at the same time.

The mansion they live in has an unpleasant past attached and the kid discovers those elements and the story is then about how those elements affect the family and their efforts in coming out of this situation.

The story unfolds at a leisurely pace and the director has good hold on the proceedings. He has been let down by a weak script and forced to work in a limited space.

The best parts of the movie are the ones that show the uncomfortable interaction between Bailee and Katie. 

There are no good reasons for me to recommend this movie to anyone. Give it a miss and you won't be sad about doing so!!