INCEPTION (2010)

Country: USA | UK

Language: English | Japanese

Director: Christopher Nolan

First thing that I would like to mention about this film is that it is not for everyone. Christopher Nolan is an intellectual and a scientific mind and he expects his viewers to be the same. The film begins with a very complicated storyline and one has to make an effort to understand in which territory one is.

Here we speak of dreams and hence, similarity to The Matrix is inevitable. The difference is that The Matrix speaks of the world being false, an illusion and one can relate it to the eastern concept of Maya. On the other hand Inception speaks of the world of dreams and questions the reality as we perceive it. It is somehow related to the concept propounded by the Spanish poet Pedro Calderón de la Barca in his masterpiece La Vida es Sueño which is borrowed from A Thousand and One Nights, the legendary Arabic masterpiece.

Almost the first 45 minutes the viewers tries to understand what it is all about and after that there  is a break with the reality and you are lost in Nolan’s dreamland; which is fascinating at times and at other times sort of frightening.

Nolan takes the viewpoint that one cannot exactly say what is real: the real cognitive world or a dream. The viewpoint, be it true or not, is incontrovertible because when you are awake, the world around you seems real and when you are asleep, the dream seems to be real… You never remember in a dream that it is false.

The concept of different layers of dreams is also something that is new to cinema and it can also be traced to have relations with the Buddhist theory of different levels or dimensions of reality.

The film is entertaining, but only for a scientific and contemplating mind.

Leonardo Dicaprio has really been growing up as an actor with each of his movies. He is better in every movie as compared to his last one. In Inception he is able to create the haunting aura of a person being hounded by his own subconscious; in which sense his work bears some similarity to his last role in Shutter Island.

Joseph Gordon-Lewitt is quiet good looking and perfect in the role of Arthur, the pointman. Ken Watanabe impresses once again after his role of Katsumoto in The Last Samurai. All the other actors are just fitting.

See Inception only if you like to reflect upon the films you watch. It’s not for you if you are looking for pure entertainment.

SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009)

Country: USA | Germany

Language: English | French | Latvian

Director: Guy Ritchie

Sherlock Holmes is 2009 movie that you can enjoy only if you are free from the "popular knowledge" of Holmes' personage and have read the original canon of Doyle.

There are many who tend to reject a thing just because their opinion about the matter is formed on the basis of what they have seen from a conventional point of view about a subject or just what they have overheard and don't know anything about the real subject.

Ritchie's Holmes fits in every way into the original character created by Doyle although it seems different as what most people use to form their opinion about Holmes or similar characters is their portrayal by other actors; they never use the original information.

Robert Downie Jr. plays Holmes and there is nothing in this version of Holmes that is not found in the original Holmes of Doyle, although his physical abilities are more highlighted keeping in mind the new generation of viewers who lack the necessary depth to follow completely Holmes' subtle deduction. 

Jude Law, in my opinion, is the best Watson ever and I liked the difference from the original canonical Watson as Law's Watson participates much more in the action.

The film's weakest part is its portrayal of Holmes' romance with Irene Adler which is almost undigestible.

The mystery concerning Lord Blackwood is not a bad one and Professor Moriarty's unsolved presence makes it clear that there is going to be sequel.

The direction is tight and the film is quiet entertaining in the general sense.

SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)

Country: USA
Language: English | Hebrew | German | Polish
Director: Steven Spielberg

Schindler’s List is a film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman established in Poland. It is directed by Steven Spielberg and, in my opinion, is his best work ever.

The film revolves around the Holocaust as Schindler struggles to wit it out in the beginning and later on tries hard to save each life he can. This is probably the most graphic film on the subject and at times you feel grateful that it is shot in black and white.

It kind of works as a documentary that takes you inside the Nazi occupied Jewish ghetto, Auschwitz and other such places, you see the live telecast of atrocities with very profound background music.

Spielberg has surpassed himself and directed one of the best pictures on the subject. He really makes you feel the pain of so many innocent people and you wonder how and why did it happen at all…

I, personally, never judged Nazis and even praised them subtly as they were the real reason that weakened the English and forced them to abandon their colonies, and hence, India became independent. But Schindler’s List made me realize what I had done and made me feel guilty for even having pronounced the word “human” in a sentence that carries the word “Nazi”. So, if a film can change one heart, I think it is successful.

Liam Neeson is a very talented actor but he is too underrated. He really deserved an Oscar for this performance. Precisely, Liam Neeson is Oskar Schindler.

Ralph Fiennes is so good an actor that you don’t even want to praise him for his role of Amon Göth. Fiennes is also much underrated.

The use of color in the filming is so precise that you sometimes wonder if it is a film or a painting trying to communicate something to you.

QUENTIN TARANTINO

If I say that Quentin Tarantino is God’s greatest gift to movie-making, I will not be exaggerating.

He is an angel sent to save so many things and to give a new form to many older faces. Tarantino is not just a director, he is a writer as well and an excellent one at that. His films have a strong visual appeal and at the same time his dialogs are nothing less than literature.

Tarantino has made us remember the B-Class that has always entertained us and has always gone unacknowledged. He has given us not only immortal characters but different immortal worlds that one desperately wants to visit.

There is no other man in film-making business that is so open to new ideas and presents them so well.

He is coherent in his own way but when you oblige him to be coherent, he says “Coherence, What’s that shit?” But in the end once again what you get is a masterpiece.

The cinematography of his films is such that you get hypnotized just as you get hypnotized by McDonald’s logo when you are really hungry. It gives his films a tasty feeling as if you were not watching a movie but eating the “Big Kahuna Burger”.

Just like his films are homage to older genres, he is homage to Hollywood itself.

OLIVER STONE

The films that we see are the works of directors just like the novels we read are the works of writers. So, it is not possible to speak of cinema without speaking about the directors who created it. Hence, I started these write-ups on directors of feature films starting with the ones I like most.

And to begin with, Oliver Stone is a well deserving candidate. I consider Stone one of the best directors of Hollywood because he is capable of keeping a storyline coherent mixing reality and drama just in the right measurements and then he has his own subtle style coming through.

With films so different from each other like U-Turn and Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July and Natural Born Killers, all well directed and great in their own way, Stone has proved again and again that he is able to direct different actors as well as scripts.

What makes a director really good is the viewers’ faith in him that if his name associated with a project there is no idiocy expected. I think Oliver Stone qualifies that test and you don’t expect a mediocre film if he is the director.

AVATAR (2009)

Country: USA | UK
Language: English
Director: James Cameron

It cannot be denied that James Cameron is master of Science Fiction. And that he is way ahead of his time. He proved it in 1984 with The Terminator and he has proved it again with Avatar.

The film is one of the most brilliant in years and has elements from classics like Dances with Wolves, Instinct and The Matrix. The cinematography and the animation are such that beautiful is a very poor word to define it.

The concept is very entertaining and at the same time it gives a lot of messages to the human race.

It emphasizes the destructive nature of the human beings and their lack of farsightedness. The evil inherent in their very being which, indeed, is a grim reality. It also shows through symbolism that a few good that are there are partially paralyzed.

Avatar also makes an effort to make us see how disconnected we have become with nature and how the only thing that we are after is our comfort, more comfort and some more comfort. We prefer to drive a car instead of taking a walk and later desperately try to burn out the calories we have saved in the gym. The film points out the very ridiculous thought structure of humans.

The film also shows how most of us just prefer to do what others are doing, without being able to meditate on our own actions and their consequences. The people who cannot even think right have the right to decide what is right and what is not right.

The actors are fitting but they are not special in any way. Their performances are okay. It is ironic that Sam Worthington defended the human race against machines in Terminator: Salvation and here he defends others from human race.

The satellite Pandora is a kind of “amplified” earth with every thing akin but with an ethereal touch. The design is impeccable.

Great work Cameron! You live up to yourself.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (2002)

Country: UK | USA | Ireland

Language: English

Director: Kevin Reynolds

Directed by Kevin Reynolds, this film has been accused of deviating from the book extensively. However, it was the film I saw before seeing any other based on the book or even before reading the book; and, surprisingly, all other films(though I can’t say the same for the book) have failed to impress me after having watched this version.

The film begins with Edmond Dantes, played by James Caviezel, meeting the exiled Napoleon and captivates your attention right from the beginning, right to the end. An intense drama follows with one of the most impressive stories of revenge, prison-break and love.

The direction is very tight and doesn’t let the script waver for even a second.

James Caviezel appears in a role that no one could have played better than him. I think Mel Gibson saw The Count of Monte Cristo and hence, chose him to become Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ.

Another great actor Richard Harris plays the Priest who teaches Dantes and gives him the keys to Monte Cristo. Harris’ performance is nothing less than perfect.

The bad guy Guy Pearce also makes you hate him thoroughly which ensures his success as a villain.

The dialogs are very good and so is the plaque of “God will give me justice” shown throughout the film.

This is an excellent film if not an excellent adaptation.