Waltz with Bashir (2008) (Israel)

Explicitly well built yet grimly presented with high contrast animation Waltz with Bashir is a documentary film from Israel. Though it is a documentary its surprisingly entertaining in an equal way to a feature film that builds a strong plot using speculation and reaches a point of realism at it’s peak. The horrifying reality about Waltz with Bashir is that its not fiction but it is the story of a dark event that took place in West Beirut, Lebanon in 1982 which later the world identified as the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

Director Ari Folman is on a path of self-realization when he interviews several veterans from the period of the invasion of Lebanon. And this movie represents those interviews and the findings in a very creatively laid out animation based cinematography.  The style of animation it self looks unique and very original and when it mixes with the details of the story there is very thin line between reality and animated characters. As the story telling style is attractive and appealing the viewers are carried to a certain point when they are bombarded with a brief session of live news footage. It is surprisingly well made and the presentation of this certain event is built to last a lifetime in the memory.

Waltz with Bashir is not just another documentary about war and barbaric human behavior. It is something more that has the capacity to reach in to deep corners of the mind and haunts viewer for times to come. And when it comes to events like this being haunted is essential as nothing comes close to the true pain and suffering the real victims went through.

My score 4/5

Genre: Drama | Documentary | Biography | Animation

Director: Ari Folman

"Vals Im Bashir" (original title)

Ida (2013) (Poland)

Ida is like a beautiful yet painful poem. It portrays the same world we live in but it looks very different from the poets point of view. At times it’s slow and empty yet sometimes so full and moving. But with every word and every worse it become deeper and deeper so full of life and full of perspective. And from start to end in the readers mind it’s mesmerizingly picturesque in its presentation.

Ida who is an orphan rose in a monastery and a soon to be nun discovers that she has an aunt who is the only living relative sets off to visit her. But once she finds her aunt it opens up very unexpected history of her family and Ida decides to find her origins. But more she digs bitter it becomes.

The plot of Ida takes place in the 1960s. More than just a movie Ida is a collection of a splendidly taken fine art photographic quality scenes one after the other. Right from the opening scene to the one it ends each frame is carefully crafted according to a style that links photography and cinema together. And I paused the movie more than a few times just to enjoy the true beauty of those scenes. For me Ida is perfect cinematography and a presentation of true skill in through photographic composition. This quality vastly ads beauty and depth to the movie and gives a strong base for the emotionally deep story to unfold.

The performances of Ida is fine as its cinematography it self. They are natural and emotional driven. They speak little words but much loud messages are given out. Ida uses minimal background score. Which solemnly binds with the emptiness in characters souls that again leads to the cinematography where most scenes use expression using empty spaces. In whichever the way the viewer feels the movie the experience is interconnected with the combination of all these elements. The vision of the director is impeccably visible throughout the movie and the viewer if engulfed by it.

Made in black and white in a very color savvy world Ida is a movie that touches the roots of cinema and the mind of the viewers.

My score 4.5/5

Genre: Drama

Director: Pawel Pawlikowski

Whiplash (2014)

Vernon Schillinger is back and this time he is having a brutal temper with a determination of vengeance. If you have seeing the great tv show OZ (1997-2003) you will know what I’m talking about. I have not seeing much from J.K Simmons in recent years as a groundbreaking performance but in Whiplash he is kicking some true ass. This hot headed no mercy high school music instructor and his band of music students will make you forget the real world. When they make music you will make music and whey they sweat you will sweat. And most painfully when they bleed you will also bleed. Whiplash is a freaking intense movie that we get to see rarely and 2014 is the year we got lucky.

Andrew (Miles Teller) is a first year music student at a prestigious college and he surprisingly gets selected to play in the college band lead by instructor Fletcher (J.K Simmons) who has a reputation to be downright tough. While Andrew being one of a kind determined and truly talented young man, Fletcher breaks him down to the core. When Andrew realizes that he have to give more than the best he could offer to survive in the band Fletcher raises the bar higher and higher.

While J.K Simmons is a veteran actor with lot of experience under his belt the main role is played by Miles Teller who is a young actor whom we have never seeing in a role that’s worthy mentioning of. But in Whiplash he delivers a thundering performance and at times you might wonder, “Who is this kid? And why is he so good?”. Well these two fantastic performances combined with the ear-blowing amount of jazz music, this movie is an experience beyond experiences. I mean if you’re a fan of jazz and especially a fan of drumming I’m sure you will hit orgasm more than a few times.

It is evident that Damien Chazelle has directed this movie with sheer passion and commitment.  There is very good flow, super duper music and lot of heated up harsh one-sided conversations throughout. And none of it goes a waste and when the final showdown happens the point of enlightenment unfolds. I’m certain that many who watched this sweated and intensely raised their heart beat in the last 10 minutes and it would have taken at least another half hour for the blood pressure to stabilize. Seriously, how can a movie about music can do that sort of thing?

Genre: Drama | Music

Director: Damien Chazelle

My score: 4/5

Birdman (2014)

I mean seriously what can you expect when the director of Amores Perros (2000) and Babel (2006) Alejandro González Iñárritu teams up with the cinematographer of Children of Men (2006) and Gravity (2013) Emmanuel Lubezki? It is nothing less but mind-blowing piece of cinema with brain breaking cinematography of epic proportions. Until I watched this I thought Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) had no fit contender for this years Oscars in cinematography category but boy I was wrong. And now the battle has got mad.

Birdman is a very unique movie that actually gives the feel of a stage play. This is directly related with the plot of the movie, as the movie is all about a former celebrity actor who used to star in a superhero movie is making his debut in Broadway through a stage drama that is actually written and directed by him while playing the key role.

The movie from start to end is pretty much simulated to be taken in one long shot. There are one or two places where it breaks the flow and jumps times but still the director has made a brilliant effort to keep everything in line so neatly that somewhere down the line you start to appreciate this amazing quality of Birdman. I have no idea how the team has managed to pull this one out (Guess it’s the technique they call as tracking shots) but for me it is nothing like I have experienced before in a movie and it simply blew my senses away. “This is one hell of a movie magic,” I said to my self.

Backed by this excellent cinematography Birdman tells a story so brilliantly that thins the line between reality and imagination.  There are certain moments it manages to play with the viewers’ minds (definitely at the end). And it is obvious that the performances of Birdman is nothing but phenomenal as well.  Michael Keaton, Edward Norton Emma Stone seems to be giving their very best here and it’s a pleasure to see them so stunningly brilliant in their roles.

While Birdmnan does not completely fall in to the genre of a psychological thriller it does have some elements in common with Black Swan (2010), which I was eagerly comparing when some scenes unfolded. Yet Birdman is a completely new movie experience that has lot of genuine qualities all the way.  Just to keep it short but do the top honors, Birdman is a movie that combines best of the best in to a heart-stopping film for two hours and it sure deserves to be in those golden pages of history of cinema.

Genre: Drama | Comedy

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

My score 4.5/5

24 City (2008) (China)

This piece of Chinese movie is dramatically thought provoking as it has a very thin line between fiction and reality. Being masterfully directed by renowned Chinese director Zhanke Jia  I believe there is nothing less you can actually expect from it.

The plot is based on the demolishing of a factory complex known as factory 420 in the city of Chengdu which has stood there for over 50 years. The property is now set to build a luxury apartment complex known as 24 City. The movie one by one introduces several people panning through 3 generations who have had connections with the factory 420 in different ways for many decades. These people reveal uniquely different stories from their lives surrounding the factory 420 and it ultimately leads to the history of China and its recent economic revelations effect on its people.

Though 24 City has a strong documentary type narrative and structure, it’s actually a movie made with real actors and actresses.  I’m certain that for anyone who is not familiar with the cast might immediately have a belief that the events that take place are certainly for real. However, it is not entirely wrong either due to the fact that some strong elements of the movie do exists for real and the director has very skillfully combined these fiction and nonfiction elements in to a single storyline. Due to this nature 24 City is definitely a movie that has the capacity to play with the viewers minds no matter in which way you would like to interpret it, as a documentary or as a movie.

24 City has very best of cinematography and storytelling structure. Every scene and story is built on certain theme that differentiates with short verses mostly extracted from old and contemporary poems. And each of these story segment has a wonderful feel of its own and its certain that the viewers would connect with some stories more than others with relatively close personal experiences of their own.

Even from a view point of a person who has very less knowledge and experience of China and its people 24 City will open up new windows of realization. Its indeed is because of the magical touch of Zhanke Jia.

Genre: Drama

"Er shi si cheng ji" (original title)

Director: Zhanke Jia

Rating: 4/5

Nightcrawler (2014)

Are you bored with movies that call them thrillers but offer the same old formula of blood and gore over and over again? Are you sick of stereotype villains and over dramatic performances by the actors in them? Have you lost your faith on thrillers that all the time is so far fetched and has no real meaning by the end? Then to restore your faith on the true colors of a thriller movie and what makes a darn good dark character possible, watch Nightcrawler.

Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) used to be a jobless yet very enthusiastic man desperate to find his way out of the day-to-day petty thefts that makes him survive the day. But now he is a crime journalist doing his own pursuits for crime scenes at night and sells the footage to a local new broadcasting agency. But he is so desperate for a breakthrough story of his career finds an ideal opportunity one night. Lou draws a master plan to put him on the spot of a true crime scene and he is all set to get it on tape.

Nightcrawler’s plot is not common and unheard of. It peaks in to bitter yet very real circumstances of contemporary media culture.  And the movie brings in a very unique kind of a villain who is surprisingly the protagonist of the whole twisted plot. This character is very effectively and powerfully portrayed by the talented Jake Gyllenhaal, who is currently appearing in repeatedly challenging and better roles in his career. After last year’s less talked about yet one of the best of the years psychological thriller Enemy, his performance in Nighcrawler is indeed a plus point.

Nightcrawler has proper flow and very good cinematography. There is no moment where the movie unhooks the viewer from its grip. The plot rapidly grows with the main character and it builds the intensity at the correct phase. This movies is fine at its start middle and end. This is something very rare for a crime thriller and Nightcrawler is brilliant in its nature.

Genre: Crime | Thriller

Director: Dan Gilroy

Rating:  Genre 4.5/5 | Overall 3.5/5