It has been another busy month on Netflix and there are a slew of movies awaiting your perusal. Perhaps you are happily making your way through the glut of whimsical holiday movies. But if you need a break from the mistletoe, here are some quickfire reviews of a rock musical, a Western, and a Bollywood romcom to diversify your December viewing.
The movie takes place in the week leading up to Jonathan’s thirtieth birthday and the angst is palpable. He is so close to success but in such danger of burning too many bridges before he achieves it. He has a loving girlfriend (played by Alexandra Shipp, the woman with the greatest smile on the planet), who is starting to get tired of her daily grind in this unforgiving city. He also has a best friend, Michael (Robin de Jesus), who "sold out" by giving up on acting and moving to advertising, a fact that will become increasingly problematic as the story goes on. And we will see these relationships evolve, blossom, and sour over the course of two hours. Every song in this musical is either witty or devastating and Garfield turns in an immaculate performance, capturing all the energy, passion, and devastation that Jonathan must face on his quest to greatness.
.jpg)
The Harder They Fall: Directed by Jeymes Samuel, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Boaz Yakin, this movie is a Black Western that boasts one of the most incredible casts going around. You’ve got Idris Elba, Regina King, Jonathan Majors, Lakeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz…the list goes on. And they’re all riding around the Wild West seeking vengeance, robbing banks, and shooting each other up. What’s not to love?
This could be a very affirming and joyous movie, but given Larson’s early death before he ever knew how much fame he would achieve via Rent and this musical, this is a movie tinged with so much sadness. It’s a celebration of a man who would have given us so many great things, but instead we must make do with the few things we did get. Which, thankfully, are excellent. So watch Tick, Tick… Boom! and let your inner Broadway geek nerd out for a while while you experience the thrilling highs and lows of the bohemian quest to create great art. You may also notice some very familiar Broadway cameos along the way.
Well, apparently if you’re me, that is not enough to keep you compelled for two hours. This movie is aesthetically pleasing, with great production design (there’s a “white town” that made me laugh with the literal interpretation of its aesthetic) and excellent costumes, but plot-wise, it was a bit of a meandering mess. The trouble with having so many fantastic actors is that you want to ensure they all get time to shine. But I found my attention constantly wavering with the multitude of plots and sub-plots that ultimately didn't tie in together. In the tradition of most Westerns, it’s violent, there are a LOT of gun battles, and frankly, there’s only so much shooting a girl can take. Also, this is Samuel's feature film directorial debut and he really telegraphs a lot of moments; there are several pregnant pauses in scenes where I could immediately foretell what was going to happen next. Which can be fun, but ultimately starts to wear on you.
Watch this movie if you need some escapism and need to watch a great cast of actors whale on each other. But this is more style than substance. If you’re looking for a tight script and compelling storytelling, I would look elsewhere.
Meenakshi Sundareshwar: It has been ages since I’ve watched a new Bollywood movie. So watching this one served as a reminder of everything that can be alternately cute and cringey about them. Directed by Vivek Soni (a Karan Johar acolyte) and starring the delightful Sanya Malhotra and Abhimanyu Dassani, this is a tale about what happens when two people named Meenakshi and Sundareshwar get hitched (via an arranged marriage, natch) and then have to deal with the ensuing complications of being married to someone you don’t know that well.
The highlight of this movie for me is that the characters are South Indian. So while this is a Hindi movie, there are lots of random Tamil interjections throughout the film. Now of course, most of these actors are NOT South Indian, so without subtitles, I wouldn’t have understood what on earth they were saying as their pronunciation was fairly awful, but it was still a nice change from the usual North Indian fare. Apart from that detail, however, there is nothing particularly fresh or new about this plot. Sundar has to move to Bangalore right after he and Meenakshi get married, and the two of them spend a year apart, without even having consummated the marriage because of…random reasons that only make sense in Bollywood. It’s a spectacularly silly plot but the charm of the actors involved is almost enough to sell you on it.
Of course, there is a lot of regressive bullshit to wade through, and this movie does feel like it could be from a previous era, except we all know that some people in India still very much live like this. While it was painful to see a woman get married to a relative stranger and then have to move in with his family, who have very traditional ideas about a woman’s place in the household, Meenakshi does prove to be a mildly feminist upstart who could serve as a decent starting role model to any Indian girls watching this film. She is fiery and ambitious, and at one point, when told she needs to respect her elders, she declares that they need to treat her with respect too and dashes off, a sentiment that should be echoed a hell of a lot more in Indian society where old people are often treated with a deference they absolutely have not earned. So watch this movie if you want to spend a very silly but very charming two hours in the company of some multilingual lovers and their family shenanigans. Your mind won’t be blown, but it will certainly be tickled.
No comments:
Post a Comment