Cinema Connoisseur's Cave

Narrative that follows the 'whodunnit' approach often relies on the climactic twist. Herein lies the craftsmanship of the filmmaker to keep you on the edge even if there is nothing but a simple conversation is going on the screen. You can feel the Hitchcockian bomb is there somewhere. David Fincher showed us how to hold the suspense throughout the film in his early works. Dennis Villeneuve here pretty much did a similarly splendid job.   Two families see their worlds go upside down, when their two very young daughters go missing, presumably abducted. When the adept detective has to let the primary suspect go, due to lac k of evidences, the father of one child takes it to himself to find the daughters. Sounds familiar? Yes, the premise is quite similar to that of a Mystic River or a Zodiac. But, the defining feature of this film would be that, every now and then it justifies its title and asks you question about who the real prisoner is. For it is us who put oursel...

Often come films that are terrible yet has its cast performing extra-ordinarily. The rare ones are where the film is superbly directed with a fine story, but let down by the cast. Madras Café is an example of the latter ones. This espionage thriller is set in Sri Lanka during the 80s and 90s, while the country was torn in Civil War. The ethnic clash claimed number of innocent lives. The-Assassination-of-Rajiv-Gandhi-inspired incident served as the central point, around which the story is spun. When the conflict reached its zenith though rebel group of Tamil ethnicity, LTF (based on LTTE), India decided to intervene and send a peace force. This is where, our protagonist, Vikram Singh was sent to the war zone to ensure the operation of Peace Force does not fall through. Based on this promising premise, the story moves in considerably apt pace, weaving more threads, that culminated the cloth of the grand conspiracy.  The screenplay deviated from the traditional three-a...

Beyond the Hills (2012) Alina and Voichita had grown up together in an orphanage. They had found solace and comfort in each other’s presence before both of them took different paths in their life. The film opens with Alina returning to home with the hope of reuniting with her childhood friend and starting a new life only to find Voichita leading a completely new life in a monastery with nothing but God at heart. What follows is one riveting on-screen journey that dwells on faith, love, theism, atheism and over all, human emotions that goes unfathomably deep. Director Cristian Mungiu’s remarkable work to depict the tumults of emotions of both the lead characters would be etched on the mind of audiences. The story largely revolves around how Voichita trying to get Alina a new life like hers in the monastery and Alina repeatedly and determinedly trying to undermine the value of god to get Voichita to love her with horrific consequences for her and the people residing at th...

The Breakfast Club I was dilly-dallying for quite a long time in watching this iconic John Hughes film of the eighties. I should not have done that. It's not like we haven't seen this kind of coming of age films, but still this movie is one of the best in that category mainly due to the character development that we hardly see in coming of age teen dramas. The movie starts with a fine saturday, when five high school students were forced to be in the school as detention. The first impression when I watched the first 10-15 minutes, I thought this could be the '12 Angry Men' of High School movies, at least thematically. It didn't disappoint me and that's saying a lot. Really, a lot.  These five kids are quite different from each other, and they were proud of it. But as they began to talk amongst themselves(of course conflict arose at first) slowly, predictably but pleasantly they began to open up; and then we could very well relate to the characters. Eac...

Like most of the movies, directed by Roman Polanski, 'Carnage' is also a reflection of the master's deft touch in creating the appropriate atmosphere in a movie. Be that 'On the edge of the seat', holding-your-breath moments in 'Chinatown' or the brutality of the Nazis in 'The Pianist', Polanski always gets his audience involved in the proceedings or experiences that the characters of the movie goes through. 'Carnage' does not disappoint in that case either.  The entire movie revolves around two married couples and their discussion that goes haywire, following an altercation between their respective sons, in a posh apartment. The Longstreets, played by Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly host the Cowans (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz). What at first seems to be a humble dilation, gradually turns out to be, as the name suggests, a warfare of words and views.  Apart from the scenes where credits roll, the entire movie is set on, from wh...

  A Separation This is certainly one of those rare movies of recent times where both elements of the genre Drama and Mystery shine brightly. The movie starts off with the couple Nader and Simin asking for a divorce over a comparatively light-hearted issue. Slowly but extremely engagingly the movie revolves around serious and religious issues.  The truly great facet about the movie's story is that it has sub-plots which are interleaved in a very deft manner such that those eventually accelerates the main plot, which is the separation or divorce of the two protagonists. The other aspect of the movie which really captivated me is the way the director showed the mystery part along with the social drama of relatively upper and lower class Iranian families.  Surprising truths are unraveled in the way they should be in a good mystery movie. Kudos to Asghar Farhadi for blending that with the emotional elements like the problems and dilemma of Nader and Simin's d...

Paris never looked more beautiful and colourful to me (As if I have been there). Still, one has to appreciate the way Woody Allen captured the city and by doing so enraptured the viewers. The opening montage was so beautiful that one cannot help but agree with Gil Pender's (Owen Wilson) decision of moving there.  At the start of the movie, we see our protagonist in a dilemma. The dilemma, then, seemed to be between choosing two cities, hence two lifestyles. But it was eventually between doing what one want to do, to create something which they strive for, and to accept other's opinions and have a relatively simpler life. Woody Allen created this perspective of Gil Pender, along with the romantic angle of course. This, I believe, is what Allen is master at. The blending of romance and fantasy is fantastic.  The story is simple. Pender, after a disappointed evening with his wife and her pseudo-intellectual friends, wanders in the street of Paris and at midnight ge...