Pluribus: Though I don’t read Sci-Fi, I enjoy watching the genre on screen. The philosophical angles and the mind-bending scenarios always make it worthwhile. Pluribus didn’t disappoint and got me thinking about loneliness, Big Brother, conformity and free will. It was also nice to revisit the landscape of Breaking Bad – Arizona.
Burn After Reading: Despite a star-studded cast, this movie hasn’t aged well.
War Machine: Battleship which came out in 2012 is still the best exploration of alien war machines invading the planet and the American forces (yawn) fighting them off.
Bugonia: A surreal thriller about two conspiracy-obsessed men who kidnap a powerful corporate executive, believing she is an alien sent to destroy Earth. The surrealism and absurdity went over my head. I’m just not cut out for certain genres.
Sirat: Hailed as a masterpiece, Sirat was splendid. A father searching for his daughter in the deserts of Morocco amongst rave revelers was powerful. Anna Gat’s review
Hard Eight: I began a Paul Anderson binge and watched his movie in chronological order. His first mainstream movie had shades of his brilliance and also establishes his format of the protagonist being a ‘loser’
The Substance: This was body horror at its worst. I watched half of it with Sruthi a few months earlier and left it midway when she couldn’t take it. I continued where we left off and regret having done so. But well, I atleast now understand what the genre is all about!
Boogie Nights: Anderson’s exploration of the porn industry centered around the Valley in the late 70s and early 80s has Mark Walhberg and Julian Moore deliver a standout performance. It was fun to see a young Philip Seymour Hoffman as a lusty, gay character. He later went on to become a regular in many of Anderson’s movies until his tragic early death.
The Father: Again, a difficult watch of a daughter struggling to come to grips with her father’s (Antony Hopkins) dementia, especially when one realizes this is a fate that’s awaiting most of us. Either as a caregiver or as a patient.
Magnolia: I realized that the Bollywood movie ‘Life in a Metro’ was inspired by Magnolia. Tom Cruise’s pelvic thrust and his role as a hyper-masculine self help guru teaching men how to dominate and seduce women were not stuff that I expected to see on screen. Its undoubtedly one of his best performances on screen. I had earlier linked an unforgettable clip of Julian Moore delivering a stand out scene. Do check it out…
Punch Drunk Love: Considered by many to be one of Anderson’s best, this one didn’t work for me.
Inherent Vice: Thomas Pynchon’s novels are not easy to adapt on screen. But I enjoyed watching Joaquin Pheonix and his shenanigans
The Master: Philip Seymour Hoffman was an Anderson regular and here he essays the role of a fake Messiah who encounters a radical follower in the form of a sex-addicted Navy veteran (Joaquin Pheonix) suffering from PTSD after deployment in the Pacific.
There will be Blood: Still wonderful even after twenty years. My memory of the opening one hour covering Daniel Day Lewis’ initial years as an oil speculator was still accurate.
Licorice Pizza: I simply loved this movie. I wouldn’t mind watching this again just to see Alana Haim on screen. Anderson brings a lot of energy to this movie covering a teenage problematic romance.
Iranian Cinematography: Wrote about this here
The Salesman: With the war raging, I ended up watching a bunch of Iranian movies beginning with Farhadi. Amazon Prime has an impressive catalogue of Iranian movies streaming.
A Hero; This was one was sad and depressing. The story is simple in which a convict lies about a heroic deed that makes him popular. Soon everything spirals out of control.
The White Balloon: Panahi’s work that made him a celebrity was fun to watch for the cuteness of the child artist.
It was Just an Accident: Panahi examines the brutality of the regime in this brilliant movie. A man randomly encounters a person whom he suspects of being his prison interrogator and kidnaps him to take revenge. But before completing the deed, he gathers his former inmates prison-mates to reconfirm his identity! Little wonder why the Mullahs hate Panahi.
The Circle : The movie that established Panahi as one of the greatest. I loved this exploration of womanhood in Islamic Tehran. The Left that cheered for the Ayatollah’s return after seeing the excesses of the Shah has some answering to do.
Taxi: Panahi acts in this movie as a taxi driver and captures conversations with a range of passengers – conservatives, lawyers fighting the regime, a young girl, superstitious oldies…
3 Faces: Panahi, despite being banned from film making, made 3 Faces which was shot in a remote corner of Iran. Three generations of women actresses are portrayed to examine the repression of cinema by the Iranian government and by the men who control the women.
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