Watching Instantly
By Vijay Kumar
July 5, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Went Looking For…
Believe it or not, I sometimes do have a predetermined playlist while browsing for movie titles. Generally, there is a week between my adding them to the playlist and actually watching them. The movies under “Went Looking For…” are typically the movies that I had slotted as “Ended up with…” the previous week.
I picked quite a few lemons this week, saved only by a French movie that I did not give much credit to begin with.
The Closet
The first few scenes in this French movie (with English subtitles) establish that M. Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is a loser of the highest order. There is really no hidden charm that one can come to expect of such characterizations. He is pushed out of a company photograph as a precursor to getting pushed out of the company itself. The simple reason is that he is too bland and won’t be missed. A stray cat leads to an introduction to a resourceful neighbor and things start turning around for Pignon. He fakes his sexual preference, which arouses the interest of just about everyone in his circle. He continues to be the dullard that he is throughout all this change channeled towards him. Even when he wears a condom cap in a gay pride parade he looks remarkably dull. However, this captures the attention of even his estranged teenage son.
Other people are forced to reinvent themselves based on Poignon’s deviation. Some take the easy route of continuing to be irritated with Pignon. The perennially indignant co-worker is borderline comical. Others react differently. A Marseilles-born bigot, played by the omnipresent (as far as French films go) Gerard Depardieu, changes from being a content, thickheaded bully to a confused wooer of sorts of Pignon. In another development, curiosity gets the better of Pignon’s prim and proper boss. She tries to seduce him in the off-hand chance that his gayness is a straight lie. Just when I expected a character to play out to a stereotype, they turn around doing something funny and against type, leading to a delightful movie watching experience.
Following
Director Nolan has a taste for the macabre. This makes him a perfect fit for Batman. He seems to have honed his skills in developing the quirky and weird characters of Gotham city in movies such as this. There is not a single positive character in this movie, which is rightly rendered in black and white. The main protagonist is a serial stalker. He is not the vicious kind, but a rather harmless writer of sorts who is addicted to stalking people. One of his subjects turns out to be a person with an equally spooky vocation. The "harmless" aspect is thrown out of the window when the two deviants join hands. A game of cat and mouse ensues with a body count triggered along the way. The stalker soon gets more than he bargained for. The movie traces his awakening to his partner’s crimes.
The pace slows down considerably towards the end, but the non-linear narrative maintains some intrigue. Like I said, this is a movie where Nolan hones his skills rather than displays them fully.
The January Man
This is a standard whodunit involving a serial killer and a cop in search of redemption. I was a little curious why NetFlix classified it as a comedy, though. This confusion stems from the bizarre characterization and direction of the movie. The part involving Kevin Kline and Alan Rickman is bohemian in parts and can be considered comedy in some circles. Yes, you heard me right – Alan Rickman is used as comic relief. The other part, involving Harvey Keitel and the serial murders, is thankfully not comedic – intentionally or otherwise. While this confuses the narrative a good deal, the un- or underdeveloped plot points do not help the film’s cause in any way. Susan Sarandon, of all people, is the common denominator in a love triangle with Kline and Keitel. We then have Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as the clichéd bait for the serial killer. She is the one who falls in love with Kline’s character, thrashing the possible chemistry in the aforementioned love triangle. In the end, I ended the movie just to find out the identity of the serial killer. I didn’t want the movie to have consumed so much of my time and not give me anything in return.
The Education of Charlie Banks
For an actor who is repeatedly typecast, Jesse Eisenberg, is finding quite a decent amount of work in Hollywood. This movie tests the outer boundaries of his limitations. He channels a little bit of the nerd-with-a-secret character he exhibited in The Squid and the Whale here as well. The story and even the screenplay have great potential. School bullies are indelibly tattooed in many a person’s memory of school life. Many see as life beyond school as the escape route from that nightmare. What if the nightmare follows you to college? Charlie Banks (Eisenberg) rats out a school bully, and to the police, no less. He then proceeds on to an Ivy League school with only good things to look forward to. The said bully (Jason Ritter) is out in the open and promptly bunks up with Charlie and a mutual friend, who happens to be Charlie’s roommate. Awkward… for Charlie at least. Cue for Jesse to mumble and stutter. There is room for good drama and some suspense given the friend or foe chemistry that one can expect between the two main leads. Ritter vacillates between angst and anguish but his portray is a little undercooked. A cast of young characters and a debutant director contribute to a movie with unrealized potential.
Ended up with…
Whilst checking out the above movies, I invariably end up fattening my instant watch queue with some new additions. These go into my “Ended up with…” list and the plan is to watch them during the week ahead. NetFlix keeps tempting me to move each one of them to the top of the queue but I resist. These are movies that I plan to check out in the days ahead.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (The Anime Series)
Nickelodeon’s Anime series is a swashbuckling martial art fantasy adventure all rolled into one. With words of Manoj Shyamalan failing to meet expectations (yet again) in the theatrical version of the acclaimed series, it is only but natural for me to go to the original and seek some solace.
Born Into Brothels
In every desolate place there is always scope for hope. In most cases, it is in the form of children. In the oldest profession in the world, there is very little room for love and compassion. I am hoping that this documentary will deal with the subject matter with a lot of dignity.
The Anderson Tapes
Sidney Lumet and Sean Connery combine to give us a crime caper that sounds like a Ocean’s Eleven precursor (or follow-up depending on the version). I am a sucker for cerebral thrillers. The pedigree of the talent involved promises a well laid-out con game.
The Black Dahlia
One of the most famous unsolved murders in Hollywood, Elizabeth Short’s murder gives ample scope for neo noir drama. The movie underperformed at the box office but in many cases that is not a strong indicator of good cinema.