Minia's Mundane Musings

This movie totally dismantles the thought that sci-fi has to be loud and full of over-the -top drama and SFX to tell a good story. This story tells of an astronaut who helps souls to transition from one life to the other. He is by race a demon, who has been stationed there as part of the peace treaty between the humans and the asuras. It is a slow progressing movie which makes a powerful commentary on the various ills that plague the world as we know it today. It is crisp and clean and makes lucid statements that set us thinking but do not actually take a side themselves. Morality is woven in too, without the exponent coming off as a preachy goody two-bits. The dialogue is very good and although the movie has varying paces pf story-telling, it certainly doesn’t lose you anywhere. Consider Prahasth, played by Vikrant Massey castigating his subordinate, Yuvishka for keeping some objects from a transiting body. It is done with total elan, and does not feel preachy at all. Also do not miss...

  I had somewhat, though not wholeheartedly liked Alankrita Shrivastava’s previous movie – Lipstick Under my Burkha. But I was sorely disappointed in this venture of hers. In this one it seems as if she had a checklist at the ready, and was hellbent on ticking off one by one, all the elements that she had decided had to populate the screen with in Dolly-Kitty. So, Feminism – done Sexual Freedom – done Equality for Women – done Being cheated on – done  So, on and so forth, till I was cringing within myself and had a feeling of been there and done that! If you aren’t of the mind to stomach the pseudo-liberalism, let this one go. The poor writing got the better of even Konkona Sen Sharma, so that is saying a lot. Bhumi Pednekar seems to have been saddled for posterity with that faux accent, she has put in almost every movie I have seen her in.  Total waste of talent. #MiniasReviews #AllLivesMatter

Such a strange thing, that predominantly Brit actors play out this movie based a much lauded American novel. The rest of the ensemble is dotted with Europeans and Aussies. If you were to go by the reviews, that the critics have bestowed upon this movie, you will probably never watch this one. But trust me, it is a must watch and you will spend a good evening, if you line this up today.  It is story of a father and son and how they struggle with their lot and have only one mission that is to protect the lives of their lives ones. It is liberally peppered with doses of spirituality, but it is not the kind of spirituality which is in your face or overwhelms you. Instead it is each character's own interpretation of his/her relationship with God that kind of, makes you understand why the character is doing - whatever it is they are doing. In fact the only person having no direct line to his Maker is the creepy Preacher, very strikingly played out by Robert Pattinson. He is so cree...

 Gran Torino, LA Confidential, Pushing Tin, Law Abiding Citizen and Aarya. This is grouped review, coz its been a crazy few days and I just don't have the bandwidth to do individual reviews. So here goes: 1- Gran Torino This one helped me come out of the doldrums that The Line of Fire sent me into. The movie is directed by Clint Eastwood and stars him too. The sub-text of the entire movie is oppression and slowly but surely it starts to overwhelm you, until one isn't quite sure whether or not you are liking the movie. It was at the very end that I realized I did like it. In this one Walt's kids feel oppressed by him, Walt feels oppressed by the world and a baby faced priest who keeps popping up all the time.The truly oppressed au contraire do not feel oppressed at all! These are the Hmong community who have fled to the United States of America to escape oppression. (Are you keeping count of how many times I have used that word? 🙂  Are you feeling oppressed as yet? There! I...

  The first round of this anthology series spanned four countries and had stories set in England, Germany, France and Spain. Each country gets its own series with 3- 4 episodes each. It is a very unusual format and utilises a closed room technique in a linear format. The viewer gets to see only the room with the accused in it and the room where the investigating team is stationed. A glimpse of the corridor connecting these two rooms is also there, other than that it all happens here. The accused is interrogated sometimes by a single detective and at other times they tag-team each other. It is all done to elicit a confession. The story progresses only with conversations and body language and it is superb! I enjoyed the first round very very much and was all set for the second one. The standout for me in Season One was David Tennant – the accused. It was perfect for him, as it was far away from his portrayal of Detective Alec Hardy in the seminal series Broadchurch, it was a fine...

  Ah! the sheer chutzpah of this film! It was such a pleasure to watch this one. ‌Al Pacino went from a Scent of a Woman to this one, and landed right in the midst of another juicy courtroom scene. And he is characteristically loud and brash and irreverent, and quintessentially Al Pacino, but you gotta give it to him.   He carries brash like no one else ever could. He plays this gangster who has spent five years in jail and is a little unsure of his footing now. He gets his conviction overturned and the unsolicited speech that he makes within minutes of the opening credits is self-aggrandizing and so tongue-in-cheek, that it makes you like his character instantly. The way Al Pacino plays out the subdued glee at being recognised and appreciated is not to be missed. His performance in this one, did not to my mind, get the recognition it truly deserved. My beef with Pacino in all his performances has been that he conveys his lack of conviction as the movie progresses. Conside...

c u soon This is a malyalam movie, which roughly falls into the genre of " Found Footage", though not quite, as the events are happening linearly in real time. I am just going to quickly tell you the bare bones of the movie, because then I want to gush a whole lot! The storyline is of a young man - Roshan Mathew (Jimmy), meeting a young girl - Darshana(Anu) and Jimmy's cousin, a techie - Kevin, played by Fahadh Faasil. Girl meets boy on tinder, then moves in with him and then disappears and then cousin tries to locate the lady. That's it! That is all the story is but what a concept and even as experimental cinema goes, this one is truly special. The entire Indian film industry and millions of other Indians were just vegetating and these guys go and make a full fledged movie during a pandemic! I mean WTF! And what a movie! You are so sucked into the whole movie that it does not even register after a while that one is watching computer screens and mobile screens. Using ...