Sunday, April 20, 2008

In the name of Art

I happened to watch a couple of movies recently. I imagine both of them, in their own respective right, deserve all of their critical acclaim. Including whatever came from The Academy, no surprise. Somehow, I beg to differ in the way I'd like to reconcile my views...



No Country for Old Men - by the Coen Brothers.

A cold-hearted zombie-like toss of the coin, followed by "Call It", seems more like a punch dialogue from a typical Tamil film.

Otherwise, arbitness personified.






Fight Club - starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton

Two words - Mindless Violence!
For everything else in the movie, the protagonist could have been characterized as a Rules Ramanujam. It could've atleast scored on humour.



I think I better trust my own instincts, than be affected by reviews.
God save those who fell for Pitt or the Brothers.

4 comments:

Sushanth said...

Taking into account that blogs are places where one expresses one's opinions, I do feel strongly about both the movies mentioned, so here are my 2 cents. (Also I thought I'd support BS in his blogging efforts by indicating that the foghorn was not falling on deaf ears... :D )

About NCFOM: Pretty simple plot and
Predictable ending but thats where all the ordinariness ends. I am not a movie critic and am not pretentious (hopefully) to think I understand the nuances of direction and acting. But even a layman like myself was awed by the intensity that flows through the entire movie. The direction clearly distinguishes itself from other similar movies like ... hmm i dont remember any thriller genre movies that caught my attention last year..so there, it clearly distinguished itself :) The acting was brilliant; again, maybe my standards are different, but if I watch a movie and don't cringe at the actors' attempt to make real whatever's happening on screen, I see that as brilliant acting.

2: Fight club: Dude, cmon, How can anyone not love this movie? The violence was bloody brilliant, introspectively "impactful" and alliteratingly indescribable.. :D
This movie just had so many damn levels, (ok let me be lame and point out the most obvious one: your own mind being ur only enemy/best friend ) (showing that u can eff helena bonham carter like a rockstar :D ). I guess I would expose my lack of ability to appreciate the movie if I went on. But dude, seriously you got to revisit the movie, its a life enhancing experience in as much as any piece of art is life enhancing ....
Peace bro,
btw, p.s: when did u write this blog, cos coincidentally scott adams (thedilbertblog) also reviewed NCFOM yday and kinda shared ur views

MaVeRicK said...

Thanks, Sushanth!

I completely agree with you that filmmakers have much more to communicate than just what may meet the eyes of the laity. However my only crib is that there is so much that can be accomplished without violence taking centrestage. I mean, even a movie like 'A beautiful mind' had a similar scientific basis for the plot (how one's mind can be his own enemy/best friend as you've mentioned), for example. Somehow I see that these days most (if not all) films end up being distressing. It isn't much of a surprise to me that there are increasingly so many people out there who swear by mindless violence. Am still waiting for a new movie that celebrates our joie de vivre - towards that, I'd recommend "Paris, je t'aime" if you haven't watched that yet.

Disclaimers -
1. Like all things less mortal, I could be so wrong!
2. Never heard of Scott Adams. I'd say that's coincidence.

PS: Thank you for your time! :)

Manu M. said...

Rule 1:
You do not talk about the Fight Club! :D :D

MaVeRicK said...

@Manu.. good one.. lolz

@sushanth, everybody... erratum...

please read my disclaimer -
1. Like all "things less mortal", I could be so wrong!

as

1. Like all "lesser mortals", I could be so wrong!

My bad! Apologies ;-)