Review
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Warning: Beware of… nah, nothing here is a spoiler, given what the trailers give away. But who knows what someone might take umbrage at, so beware, anyway. Okay, so what exactly is all the hoopla about? Or is it just me who is unable to see the offensive material packed into a story about an Al…
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When someone asks me what genre Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels fall under, my usual response is ‘comic fantasy’. But the truth is, I don’t read Pratchett for the laughs anymore, although I will readily vouch for the quality of his humor. No, these days I read his novels for their humanism. This might explain why…
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At this point, I suppose, I should define “we”. I refer to peole like me, born in Madras in the nineteen-seventies and ripening into cinematic awareness in the decade that followed, in Mani Ratnam’s decade. We are possibly the most qualified to write about Mani Ratnam. We might also be the least qualified. — Conversations…
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What is this fascination for intelligence officers in mainstream Indian cinema these days? There was Agent Vinod, a secret agent who seemed to get caught so often and in so many countries that he clearly ought to have picked a different line of business. And Ek Tha Tiger, whose ridiculousness was redeemed by the fact that the…
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A CIA agent manages to help six Americans stranded in Iran by making them impersonate a Canadian film crew scouting for locations for a Star Wars-esque sci-fi action extravaganza named Argo. Now, this is Iran at a time when Khomeini has just ascended to power, and anti-American sentiment is at its peak. And these guys…
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There were moments during Skyfall when I wondered: How did they ever manage without Judi Dench? How many actresses can you think of who can recite Alfred Lord Tennyson and say “Take the bloody shot!” with the same amount of gravitas? George Orwell once said something to the effect that by the time he’s fifty, a…
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Here’s the thing: I suspect Christopher Nolan didn’t want to make this movie at all, or even if he did, I don’t think he wanted it to be about Batman fighting the bad guys. Long passages in the film feel like a meditation on the nature of superheroism. The tone is so bleak, only thing…
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You know that black screen with white lettering that appears before nearly every movie these days? The one that tells you that smoking and drinking is bad for you? Cocktail is the first one I’ve seen where, not only does it say there for a while, there’s actually a voice-over that reads it out. And…
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The Avengers is like an amped-up version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, that Jolie-Pitt starrer that worked wonderfully when it focused on its characters and got a little ho-hum when it focused on the gunfights. I say amped-up because, while a grudge match between two professional killers only trashes a suburban house, anything involving Thor…
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Beware: There may be occasional spoilers! I’ll try not to give the movie away, but no promises. I spent a fair bit of time trying to write this review, but the words came in fits and starts and the thoughts were a bit too disjointed. So I’m just going to dump them here. Let me…
24 frames per second 