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Set sometime in the not so distant future, Code 46 tells the cautionary tale of a highly regulated world where every action is closely monitored by the State, especially with respect to who one can or cannot marry. A married American man, who has come to a futuristic Shanghai to investigate a possible counterfeit racket in an organization, ends up getting romantically involved with a mysterious female employee working for it, oblivious of the fact that by doing so he might be violating “Code 46”, a law considered sacrilegious by the powers that be. The film has been expertly shot – the set-pieces, lightings and shades used managed to the its moodiness, and also accentuate the themes of loss, memory and urban alienation. Tim Robbins too, as always, has done a noteworthy job as an actor. Unfortunately, the director didn’t pay as much attention in developing the characters and building the narrative as he did on the atmosphere. Consequently, though the sleekness and the visuals were good to look at, the film felt dehumanized and hollow, and thus failed to involve me, leave alone captivate me. In fact, I would go so far as saying that I found the movie a bit boring even. The two lead actors, too, were highly lacking insofar as a plausible chemistry between the characters goes.
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Genre: Sci-Fi/Psychological Drama/Romance
Language: English
Country: UK
George Lucas’ debut feature was in the genre he’s come to be associated with, viz. the sci-fi genre. But, contrary to what one might expect, it was a polar opposite to the kind of flamboyant extravaganza that he’s popular for thanks to his Star Wars series. THX 1138, expanded from his award-winning student short, is a brooding, disquieting, even surreal, exploration of an Orwellian future. Set in an unknown time in a dystopian, computer-controlled future where everyone is under perpetual surveillance, and a pristine, dehumanising environ reminiscent of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film has Robert Duvall as the eponymous bald-headed nameless protagonist. Always dressed in white androgynous attires, he ends up committing two crimes considered inexcusable by the state – those of reducing his sedatives and making love with his female roommate (Maggie McOmie); and these end up in providing him with the resolve to break free. Less about plot, the film is filled with claustrophobic visuals and an oppressive, menacing tone. However, that said, I found the film a tad uneven, and deliberately artsy and sluggish at times – but I’m sure these facets can be forgiven given the challenging nature of this 1984-esque mood piece.
Director: George Lucas
Genre: Sci-Fi/ Thriller
Language: English
Country: US
Given that Zack Snyder was the person who made 300, it is not surprising that Sucker Punch too is a high-octane visual fest. The film tells the fantasy-within-a-fantasy tale of Babydoll, a cherubic, diminutive young girl who, in order to escape the reality of the dreary mental asylum she’s been forcefully admitted to, creates extravagant fantasies where she’s the heroine, and, along with Sweet Pea, Rocket and other fellow luscious and ass-kicking bimbettes, must procure a set of objects that would help them procure their freedom. The film boasts of thumping action sequences, lightening pace, and arresting and innovative visual treatments. But, like 300, it is also spectacularly devoid of any semblance of intelligence. Made principally for attention-deficient juveniles, this escapist, over-edited and CGI-infested film doesn’t just require your brain to take a nap while you’re watching it, it literally forces you to flush it down the nearest drain. However, having said that, I did like the director’s attempt to create a subversive piece of action-fantasy; and I must add, I was reasonably glued to my seat, popcorn basket and cola glass during the film’s length. So yeah, Snyder did deliver a feisty sucker punch alright.
Director: Zack Snyder
Genre: Action/Fantasy/Adventure
Language: English
Country: US
To simply qualify Brazil as inspired from George Orwell’s 1984 would be telling only one half of the story. The Byzantine plot is based in an Orwellian and dystopian future where the world has been converted into a cold, disconsolate, concrete jungle, populated by dysfunctional human beings, controlled by a Fascist regime and tyrannical bureaucracy, and operated by endless automisation. And, to escape the bleakness of the decaying world around him, Sam Lowry, a civil servant, takes refuge in his elaborate dreams where he is a winged superhero single-handedly fighting grotesque villains in order to rescue his lady love. Terry Gilliam, who directed this enormously ambitious science fiction film, filled every nook and corner of the story with pungent observations and jet-black satire of a technology-obsessed world filled with narcissistic, cartoonish characters, and quick to label revolutionaries and renegades (people who possess the courage to choose freedom over oppression) as pariahs and dangerous terrorists. The film, filled with special effects, production designs and breathtaking imagination that would be groundbreaking even today, has as its motif the melodious 1930’s song from which the title and the theme have been borrowed. Jonathan Pryce gave a superb performance as the meek, docile and escapist loner, and has been immensely aided by a host of terrific performances, including a quirky cameo by Robert De Niro.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Political Satire/Social Satire
Language: English
Country: UK
Christopher Nolan is that rare director who manages to grip the high-brow (intelligentsia) as well as the low-brow (popcorn churners) with elan. And Inception couldn’t really have been made by anyone but him. One of the smartest thrillers to have hit the screen in recent times, the film has managed to combine mindbender of a plot (a Nolan specialty really), breathtaking narrative speed, and stunning visual effects, into a scintillating and ingenious package. Leonardo Di Caprio, fresh out of his terrific and psychologically complex turn in Shutter Island, is once again attention-worthy as he goes about stealing ideas from people’s dreams, though he himself is trapped in an unrelenting memory warp. So when he is offered the audacious task of implanting an idea into a billionaire’s mind, it gives him the chance for retribution like nothing else. As he, along with his team, moves from one dream layer to another, we are served a plethora of spectacular moment, leaving us dazed and agape with wonderment. Though it might not be as devilishly brilliant as his earlier Memento, it sure is an extremely compelling piece of work that engages both viscerally and intellectually.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Thriller/Sci-Fi
Language: English
Country: US
Master Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky’s most famous work happens to be, unequivocally, Andrei Rublev; however, whenever one is speaking about his best film, Solaris comes into the picture along with Stalker. Often compared with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the similarities between the two movies extends very little beyond the fact they were both sci-fi films with a major portion of their stories taking place in deep space. When the crew of a space station hovering above an ocean-covered planet called Solaris reports mysterious occurrences, a psychologist is sent there to investigate the situation there and report as to whether the programme is worth keeping alive any longer. However, unbeknownst of him, the ocean there has the unique ability to sense repressed memories and desires of humans, which for him takes the seemingly “human” form of his ravishingly beautiful wife who killed herself seven years back. This deeply philosophical movie is a brooding meditation and a haunting treatise on such profound themes as memory, love, death, man’s unstoppable pursuit for knowledge and what entails to be human, raising a few disturbing questions on our very existence in the process. The generous length, languorous pacing with long moments of silence and philosophical deliberations however ensure that this isn’t an easy watch by any stretch of imagination.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Genre: Drama/Sci-Fi/Existential Drama/Psychological Drama/Adventure
Language: Russian
Country: Russia (USSR)
We see a human for the first time nearly 20 minutes into the movie, and hear human voice another 5 minutes later; further, the last 25-odd minutes are again devoid of any dialogues – now that’s the kind of audacity few filmmakers apart from Stanley Kubrick could have displayed. A visual feast like few others, and comprising of some of the most groundbreaking, if understated, special effects for its times, the pristine white, claustrophobic and disorienting interiors of the spaceship must have been the inspiration behind Ridley Scott’s Alien a decade later. Yet, all its technical brilliance apart, the movie is ultimately an intellectually challenging, visceral, ominous, unsettling and poetic meditation on the very framework used to create the film – technology, culminating in a climax that is as mind-bending as it is surreal. By brilliantly juxtaposing the eerie silence of outer space with beautiful Classical-based soundtrack, the movie has at its core a mysterious black monolithic slab with the ability to emit powerful radiations and supposedly placed by an intelligent life form, that propels and becomes a contemporary to man’s evolution from a primeval ape to ones capable of advanced space exploration. Ironically, the film caused “cultural shock” and “social disorientation” when released at the height of the space-race between the US and the erstwhile USSR, the very thing that the scientists try to protect civilians from in the film.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Genre: Sci-Fi/Horror/Fantasy/Avante-Garde
Language: English
Country: US
Jon Favreau’s sequel to his Iron Man is an equally romping, big-budget summer blockbuster, but without the breath of fresh air that made the first part such fun to watch. I’m not saying that Iron Man 2 isn’t a fun watch per se. Hell, it sure keeps one tied to his seat for the duration of its running length, but never provides the kind of wacky enjoyment that the earlier film showered in abundance. The problem with the movie lies in an over-abundance of half-cooked subplots – Tony Stark getting to know his father, the political fallout of his armour suit, Stark failing to maintain his sanity amid all the hullaballoo, dirty rivalry with a fellow tycoon, and of course, reluctant collision with his Russian nemesis in a revisit to the cold war era. Further, the movie has also criminally under utilized such actors as Mickey Rourke and Samuel L. Jackson. Apart from Robert Downey Jr.’s crackling performance as the egotistic, narcissistic billionaire genius, the few other noteworthy aspects of the movie are the reasonable humour quotient, Sam Rockwell’s ludicrous little jig before presenting his innovations, director Jon Favreau’s comic turn reminiscent of his similarly hilarious role in the Friends series and the ACDC soundtrack.
Director: Jon Favreau
Genre: Action/Super Hero Film/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Language: English
Country: US
