Choke: Review

Choke is one of the dirtiest films I've seen in a long time, but it also has a great big heart. It would be unfair to dismiss the movie as an exploitive sex show, because it doesn't merely feature sex in the background. Sex is actually a supporting character in the piece.

In Choke, the gifted Sam Rockwell plays Victor, a sex addict who also gets his rocks off by going to various restaurants and intentionally choking on food. Why would he commit such a seemingly nonsensical act? In hope that he might bond with any of the patrons who come to his rescue.

Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club), Choke has many layers. It's much more than a tawdry sex show. This is a complex exploration into one man's sick affliction and while a good portion of the picture is played for laughs, the film doesn't shy away from going into some pretty heavy directions.

Rockwell is terrific here. Like Nicolas Cage, he has the uncanny ability to bring quirky characters to life. Equally effective is Kelly Macdonald –last seen as Llewelyn's main squeeze in No Country For Old Men – as the twinkle in Victor's eye. The two prove to have picture perfect chemistry, and it's fun seeing Victor's behavior in her presence. Why Rockwell isn't an A-list star is beyond me. He's the real deal.

Actor Clark Gregg--who you may recognize from TVs The New Adventures of Old Christine-- makes an auspicious directorial debut with material many thought un-filmable.

Choke is both raunchy and narcissistic, but it's also well acted, intelligent, and surprisingly dramatic. Certainly this isn't a movie for everyone, but for me, it hit all the right notes.

City of Ember:Review

Fox Walden's film of Jeanne Duprau's children's book "City of Ember" stalls at the intersection of fantasy and science fiction. While the story line harkens back to "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz," where young people must navigate a weird and perplexing other world, the film is actually set in a dystopian underground that is strictly the realm of sci-fi. And that genre requires that any weird other-world must have a coherent logic and social structure. While director Gil Kenan and writer Caroline Thompson's work leans heavily toward children's fantasy, their film leaves gaping science-fiction holes.

Since the film should please its intended audience, "City of Ember" might enjoy a modest success with young people during its theatrical run followed by greater success in home entertainment.

The story begins at the end -- of the world, we are told. But the crucial question of what caused the end of the world is never mentioned. The remaining rulers of society -- all middle-aged, English-speaking Westerners -- send what is left of humanity to an underground city built to last two centuries, after which it will apparently be safe to come up for air. A single box, set to open in 200 years, will explain everything to survivors including how to escape from this City of Ember.
Where to begin with this cockamamie tale? Are we supposed to believe that the old world above ground was permanently erased from everyone's memory? No great-grandmothers' tales of life in the fresh air? Or that survivors have subsisted on mostly can food for 200 years? Or that everyone blindly obeys a succession of mayors, the latest one played by Bill Murray as if he doesn't believe it either?

It falls to two recent high school grads, Doon (Harry Treadaway) and Lina (Saoirse Ronan), to question and challenge the underworld order. Doon realizes the generator powering everything is falling to bits. A Mr. Fix-It like his dad (Tim Robbins), he longs to get his hands on the machinery, but society demands that he perform instead a job assigned to him by lottery.

Lina's ancestor, a previous mayor, died before he could pass on the crucial tell-all box. Now she discovers it and starts to plumb its secrets, including badly crumbling instructions on how to escape Ember.

The city set, constructed in a ship-building hangar in Northern Ireland, resembles a corner of Dickensian London in permanent twilight. Communication devices no longer exist, so messengers like Lina tear around the streets. People's clothes look like they belong to a community theater production of "Rent." Oh, and bugs and rodents have grown very large to ensure of couple of PG-rated scares.

In truth, despite the nervous enthusiasm of Andrew Lockington's insatiable score, there is little here to quicken the pulse. The villains seem almost harmless -- despite the efforts of Toby Jones as the Mayor's henchman and Mackenzie Crook as a petty thief -- while the blackouts, bursting pipes and the escape from Ember a foregone conclusion.

Treadaway and Oscar nominee Ronan ("Atonement") bring plenty of verve and intelligence to their underwritten parts, while their elders overact terribly. And what is Martin Landau doing in the role of a narcoleptic pipeworks boss? He literally sleeps through the movie. Adult moviegoers may envy him.

Production companies: Playtone, Walden Media.
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway, Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Matin Landau, Toby Jones, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Mary Kay Place.
Director: Gil Kenan.
Screenwriter: Caroline Thompson.
Based on the novel by: Jeanne Duprau.
Producers: Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, Steven Shareshian.
Director of photography: Xavier Perez Grobet.
Production designer: Martin Laing.
Music: Andrew Lockington.
Costume designer: Ruth Myers.
Editor: Adam P. Scott.
Rated PG, 95 minutes.

Eagle eye - Review

If Michael Bay had directed War Games, it might have ended up a little like Eagle Eye, a supercharged, preposterously drawn thriller that requires a little suspension of disbelief. No, scratch that. It requires A LOT OF SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF!

In Eagle Eye, Shia LaBeouf plays Jerry Shaw, an underachiever who can't seem to get out from under his more accomplished twin brother's shadow. One day, while making his way home after an emotionally grueling morning, he receives a strange phone call from a woman who ultimately plunges his life into complete and utter chaos. Faster than you can say "North By Northwest," Jerry finds himself on the run from government officials who are convinced he's involved in terrorist activities.

War Games isn't the only film that Eagle Eye borrows from. As this over wrought but fast-paced thriller blazes from one ridiculous moment to the next, one might be reminded of Enemy of the State, The Game, and The Fugitive – watch as co-star Billy Bob Thornton attempts, unsuccessfully I might add, his best Tommy Lee Jones impression. The first half of the picture provides a terrific set up and from the get go, an effective Shia LaBeouf plays a character worth caring about. Equally effective is the fashion in which director D.J, Caruso–who collaborated with LaBeouf for last year's Disturbia-- introduces Michelle Monaghan's vulnerable single mom, Rachel Holloman. It's obvious that Jerry and Rachel will at some point cross paths and that they will bond in some shape or fashion, but both performers are convincing enough to keep at least the character work in the picture somewhat sensible. That's what separates Caruso from the likes of Michael Bay. At the very least, there's an earnest attempt at genuine character development here.

Reviews and rating- Mere Baap Pehle Aap

Cast: Paresh Rawal, Akshaye Khanna, Shobana, Genelia d'Souza, Om Puri
Director: Priyadarshan
Rating: 2/5

At last a Priyadarshan comedy that warms the cockles of the heart even as it makes you cackle in glee.

"Mere Baap Pehle Aap" is a deftly-scripted piece of quirky and cryptic concoction on role reversal. And if you take away all the humbug and fringe characters, at the core of this cool comedy is a father-son relationship where the father is often caught behaving like a truant child.

Paresh Rawal's guilt-stricken expressions and Akshaye Khanna's finger-wagging exasperation are simply superb. Hats off to Manisha Korde's wildly witty words that colonize the characters' comic world.

Breathe easy. There are no risqué or double-meaning jokes and no vulgar shots of women. Priyadarshan's film is clean and clever in parts and makes you forgive all the excesses of his recent films like "Bhool Bhulaiya" and "Malaamal Weekly" where the characters were constantly in a state of distress.

In "Mere Baap..." we see some restraint and subtlety in the narration and the locales are exquisite and refreshing. Sabu Cyril's art work suggests an endearing link between our cultural heritage and the rituals of laughter. The Kerala sequences are adorably quaint.

Throughout the story of a father and son finding marital bliss at about the same time, we are caught in spaces that are filled but not overbrimming. Like his earlier films, Priyadarshan's people this time go from laughter to a social message with a virile fluency.

Does a middle-aged man have the right to seek a companion when he has a child of marriageable age?

Paresh is at the receiving end of social taboos. After wasting himself in not-so-good comedies in recent times, Paresh comes into his own here as the surly, child-like dad who keeps getting into embarrassing positions for no fault of his.

If Paresh sparkles, it's because he has a screen son who shines with immense confidence. Akshaye's comic timing and his little nuances and gestures bring forceful humour to a film that may otherwise have ended up looking a little limp and unmoored.

The rest of the cast, barring the brazenly over-pitched Genelia, give winsome comic performances. It's a surprise to see the beautiful Shobana show up as the spinster that widower Paresh wants to marry.

The wedding song and dance are almost exquisite. This touch of the quasi-classical, also seen in the closing interlude of "Bhool Bhulaiya", gives the comedy a touch of refreshing grace.

Interestingly, Mohan Joshi, who's a regular in Priyadarshan films, gives a completely non-comic performance here. And Archana Puransingh, as a brassy lady cop, once again displays a penchant for parody.

Om Puri as a leery, ageing bachelor is appropriately grotesque. But one can't tell whether it's the character or the performance that makes one squirm.

The film works mainly because Paresh and Akshaye look so delightfully compatible as a father and son who have lived so closely together that they don't know which is which.

Another asset is Ranjit Barot's background music, which is surprisingly tender and strong in fits and starts.

Summer 2007 rating and reviews

Director: Suhail Tatari
Cast: Sikander, Gul Panag, Uvika Chowdhary, Arjan Bajwa, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 3/5

Summer 2007 is as unpredictable as the Mumbai rains and once it starts off, it shows no signs of ceasing. That’s perhaps why this film may fall short of expectations, but kudos to a first time director and producer to invest in such a film.

The film talks of the Indian youth, sitting snug in the urban environment, oblivious to the plight of rural India which feeds one of the biggest economies in the world. The film starts off as a campus caper, indulges into college politics, shifts focus to issues in rural India, talks about ruthless landlords and calls for a change as it concludes.

Here’s a group of five medical college students (with nicknames showcasing the yuppie American lifestyle that we are fast adapting) who have a carefree approach to life and consider themselves cool. Rahul aka Butter (Sikandar) is the group-leader who had a failed relationship with Priyanka aka Pepsi (Uvika Chowdhary). Qateel aka Kats (Arjan Bajwa) is the Casanova while Bagani aka Bugs (Alekh Sangal) is the despo dude. The munificent Mother T aka Vishaka (Gul Panag) completes the company.

Post a futile romance track dealt in a flashback between Sikandar and Uvika, a university election episode triggers off the main issue that the film maker wants to focus on. To escape the unnecessary complications of elections, the group shifts to the interiors of rural Maharashtra in a village stuck by farmer suicide.
And typical of today’s college youth that the director is wanting to showcase, the five plan a vacation to Goa, while officially they are supposed to work as interns in the village hospital. Until they awake to the piteous plight of the poverty-struck people there through the village doctor Mukya (Ashutosh Rana).

And while the story concentrates on the upliftment of the underprivileged, it also brings to light the role of the cruel zamindar (Vikram Gokhale) and his archetypal debauched son (Prosshant Narayanan) who torment the villagers with excessive-interest rate credits. But instead of just highlighting the problem, the film maker has attempted to find a solution for the poverty stricken farmers. Reformed criminal (Sachin Khedekar) offers monetary solution to the oppressed in the form of micro-credit loans, which in reality won Dr. Mohammad Younus from Bangladesh the Nobel Peace Prize.

The issue it chooses is noble and novel and also, to an extent, the approach is decent. The director has convincingly worked on the transition of the protagonists from carefree collegians to concerned citizens.

Debutante Suhail Tatari’s direction is intermittently impressive and he does derive decent performances from the cast. Ashutosh Rana is the scene-stealer in his resourcefully restrained act. Despite his clichéd characterization, Prosshant Narayanan strikes with a natural performance. Gul, Arjan and Uvika are fair. Alekh’s quest to lose his virginity does irritate occasionally. Sikandar once again surprises us with his screen presence and casual air of indolence that speaks volumes of his mastery of his craft in such a short time.

Comparisons to Rang De Basanti are inevitable. But unlike the pedestal of a score by AR Rahman, a production house like UTV, a director like Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and the magic of Aamir Khan, Summer 2007 is made on a modest platform, but the affect is the same.

Three stars for the film maker and its actors, but many more stars for bringing to light the state of affairs of the Indian farmer, who struggles to find his place in a news scenario which is dominated by eyeballs for glitz and glamour.