The Fabelmans Movie Analysis: Likeable but Couldn't Love it

Get to see about early life of Steven Spielberg, likeable but I just couldn’t love the movie.

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Imdb link -> The Fabelmans (2022) - IMDb

“You do what your heart says you have to. Because you don't owe anyone your life. Not even me. ”

---

Spoilers ahead...

---

Plot: Loosely Based on the Childhood of Steven Spielberg

Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), at a very young age, realizes his obsession with the camera and aspires to be a filmmaker. The story follows the struggles he faces while living in a family where his parents, Burt Fabelman (Paul Dano) and Mitzi Fabelman (Michelle Williams), are going through an unhappy marriage.

The movie is a semi-autobiographical portrayal of the early days of Steven Spielberg's life. The opening scene beautifully establishes how Sammy is mesmerized watching his first movie at a theater. Later, Mitzi discovers the reason Sammy wants to recreate the train crash scene with toys: he seeks control over what frightens him.

As the story progresses, we see how innovative and smart Sammy is, especially when he realizes that a shot in his short movie looks fake due to the gunshots. He quickly finds a way to make it look real. Whenever the movie focuses on Sammy and his camera, it feels great to watch.

What Doesn’t Work in The Fabelmans

However, the other subplots don't resonate as strongly with me, whether it's the bullying at high school, the anti-semitism, or the coming-of-age elements. My main issue lies with the Mitzi-Burt storyline, where Mitzi's affection for Burt's friend Bennie Loewy (Seth Rogen) feels too stretched and never-ending. This point could have been made more effectively without the self-indulgent long scenes. Despite a wonderful performance from Michelle Williams, I couldn't fully connect with her character. I do love two of her scenes: the one where she drives her children to see a tornado and then realizes what a reckless thing she did as a mom, and the other where she tells Sammy to follow his heart and not listen to anyone, not even her.

Performances of Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch

There's a lovely cameo by Judd Hirsch, who plays Uncle Morris, Mitzi's brother. He bluntly warns Sammy about where he is eventually heading, explaining how artists and filmmakers often prioritize their work over their loved ones. However, I don't think the role was significant enough to earn an Oscar nomination for him.

I loved Gabriel LaBelle's performance, especially in the scene where Sammy discovers his mother's feelings for Bennie while editing the camping trip video. Another standout moment is when Sammy talks to his dad, expressing his uncertainty about where he is headed—a dilemma almost every teenager faces.

One scene that will always stick with me is the one involving Sammy's girlfriend Monica Sherwood (Chloe East), where she insists Sammy bring Jesus inside him before they can make love. It was tough to control laughter during this hilarious scene.

Verdict on The Fabelmans

Overall, The Fabelmans provides some insight into the early days of Steven Spielberg. There's plenty to like and enjoy, but I just couldn't love it.

Rating: 6/10

Also, Check out Movie Analysis of Empire of Light

Movie Analysis : Empire of Light

Directed by : Sam Mendes

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14402146/

No one's gonna give you the life you want. You have to go out and get it. 

Spoilers ahead...

Set in an English coastal town in the early 1980's, Empire is a seaside theatre where Hilary (Olivia Colman) works as a Duty Manager. She's regularly seeing a doctor because of some mental illness she is going through and there's a very good improvement in her health when a new hire at the theatre Stephen (Micheal Ward) arrives with whom she forms a great friendship blossoming into romance.

When the opening credits began, showing the various places of a theatre, from the food counter to stairs leading to various screens, projection room and finally the movie hall, I felt this would be a movie that will show the workings inside a theatre, about the staff and their daily routines and lastly some sort of ode to the cinema. Unfortunately, that's just one of the many themes this film tries to show off and failing at each one of them. 

There's mental illness, sexual exploitation - Hilary's boss Donald Ellis (Colin Firth) asking for favours in his cabin all the time, racist violence, vandalism of public property, power of cinema and also short little romance of Hilary-Stephen that the narrative tries to cover. As expected, it turns out to be a total mish-mash, unable to balance these plots together. 

In one scene, Hilary who has till date not dared to use her credentials to sneak in and watch a movie with the audience, decides to finally watch a movie asking the projectionist Norman (Toby Jones) to play any of his favourite movie. Norman decides to play 'Being There', and as the movie proceeds we see Hilary getting so involved that by the end she is in tears. Now, I haven't seen that movie but from this scene I can gather the motive was to show how powerful the medium of movies can be, only that I couldn't feel same way as Hilary does here because the path taken to reach this moment has been not engaging. Similarly, when Norman is describing to Stephen about 24 frames per second and escapist cinema that he feels people in majority come here for, you just get a feeling he is preaching and its not naturally coming out for us to feel. Something that Fabelmans did right. 

I love the metaphor done related to pigeons scene, where Stephen tries to help one of the pigeon who has lost wing and days later help it fly away. He tried to help Hilary out too, and at start it seems to work before totally falling apart. 

Cinematography and score of the movie is good. Also, one particular scene that I loved when a customer is told by Stephen to either eat the food he has or throw it as outside food ain't allowed inside, there's a hint of racism but this situation holds true otherwise too as many people do tend to dislike being told about such rules. .

Even though this is another of Olivia Colman's fine performances, I would rate it below 'The Father' and 'The Favourite'. I rather liked Michael Ward much more, playing a guy who wants to do college and become an architect but gets stuck at ticket counter of a theatre while also going through the humiliation of racist attacks time and again. The theatre attack scene could had been well written, I didn't get why the other staff won't ask him to hide rather than letting him help close the doors which lead to the attack. Silly writing!

Overall, Empire of Light could had been lot more had it chosen one of the sub-plots preferrably the daily life routine of people working at a theatre and let the rest story revolve around it. Rather tries for a lot and fails at it badly

My Rating : 4.5/10

Movie Analysis : Aftersun

Directed by : Charlotte Wells

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19770238/

There's this feeling, once you leave where you grew up. that you don't totally belong there again. 

Spoilers ahead... (plenty of them)

Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) goes the memory lane decades ago when her younger 11 yr old self (Frankie Corio) went on a budget vacation to Turkey with her dad Calum (Paul Mescal). 

Most of the movie we see is through the point of view of Sophie, either the video recordings from her handheld video recorder or her mind camera as she herself points out at one stage in the movie. At start the story would give a feeling of its just another father-daughter bonding with a coming of age based story that we have seen many times. And the way some scenes go on for ages specially the one where Calum smokes cig at the hotel room's balcony at night leading to little dance steps all alone, makes you wonder 'oh no, maybe this is a pretentious movie'. I had the same feeling, but even this pointed out scene has a deeper meaning and as layer by layer the movie unravels, you would be surprised to see how much Aftersun tries to talk about topics that we don't discuss much or dismiss off too easily, i.e mental illness or suicidal thoughts. 

The beauty of the movie is that it tries not to tell what's going inside the mind of Calum directly, how he is always pretending to be happy which at times Sophie catches out but she is still too young to interpret that her father is actually having killing himself thoughts. There's many visible red flags, how carelessly Calum crosses a road with a bus coming his way, him standing on the top of his hotel room railing and the direct obvious one where you actually sense he would do it this time when he goes all alone late night towards a beach. 

The first clear hint we get about the depression he's going through is when Sophie asks him what did he do at his 11th birthday, which Calum denies telling in front of camera and thereby Sophie lets him tell to her mind camera and he reveals the incident that suggests he had a very shaky/troubled childhood. What I love about this scene is how its framed, using the tv screen to show Sophie having this conversation with her dad on the bed, so we don't get clear cut look at his expressions. This attempt to make sure scenes never get melodramatic is visible throughout the movie. 

Another beautiful shot is when Calum is opening out his cast (probably that was his last attempt at suicide before coming to this trip) in the bathroom, with a wall in between acting as barrier while on the other side Sophie on a chair is reading some magazine while asking him some silly yet interesting questions. She is totally unaware how irresponsibly Calum is cutting the cast and thereby hurting himself while he calmly answers her questions. 

Sophie re-visiting this trip on her own 31st birthday suggests that Calum may have ended his life after the end of the trip even though no official answers are given but you can put clues together to assume that. Why he did it ? Maybe the depression boiling over since the childhood got to him, being a dad at 19 he must not have been ready to take the responsibilities, followed up with a broken marriage leading to divorce, a recent breakup with partner that he was going to setup a cafe with.. In short, there was no happiness in his life and nothing good in near future looked like happening either, so maybe he felt this little trip gave him so much joy, it's right time to finally finish this life. 

He was clearly suffering in all departments, whether it was love or money as he couldn't afford a luxury room, nor he could afford that 'buy anything band' one of the teenager gifts to Sophie on her last day of trip, and also we see him ask Sophie run throwing some food on stage to avoid paying for the dinner, and lastly we saw him pick a random thrown cig from road while walking fast towards the beach. In a way you could say he was careless in spending money, for instance that rug he buys from the carpet store or the drinks he orders at the resort, who knows how much role all this played in him becoming a broke. Also, at one place he tells a guy that he isn't sure how he made it to 30, and how he feels alien to the thought of reaching 40 someday.

One thing about mental illness/suicidal thoughts is that its hard to know when the person is having it, most won't disclose it to even their loved ones. Just look at the conversations Calum has with any of the people throughout the movie, no one even once asked him 'Are you okay?' suggesting that they couldn't see through him, which even Sophie (understandably for her age) couldn't too. I am not sure if his wife knew or not, the phone talk they have suggests she maybe did, and he probably would had told it won't happen again. 

The coming of age angle of Sophie is well shown without the usual cliches through the interactions she has, with the guy at arcade game with whom she even shares a kiss much later and doesn't hesitate telling her dad about it, or the pool game she plays with the teenagers. Also, all the silent scenes where we see her just observe, whether its the girls talking about foreplay in the bathroom, or the teenagers partying and having fun around. Interestingly, in one conversation, a teenager girl tells her that 'all boys are gross' and adult Sophie is actually a lesbian. Again, kudos to the director handling the curiosity side of Sophie with utmost care. 

There's this scene where Calum tells Sophie to do what she likes, whether its to bring boys home, do drugs or any way to enjoy life but she must always tell him about it. It was an odd thing to hear him say, to ask daughter be very open when he himself isn't, and who knows how long he will live. Or maybe at that particular moment he felt he will outdo the urges to die and see his daughter grow up. 

The rave blink flashes throughout the movie was irritating for me, its at the right end when these shots make full sense. The anguish and sympathy adult Sophie had for Calum - firstly why did he go away, and secondly why could she not do anything. 

The soundtrack including the background score is just as spectacular, every time it adds more meaning to the narrative. The fun moments are beautifully shown through the famous tracks 'Macarena' and 'Tubthumping'. My personal favs however were -  

• 'Tender' by Blur that plays in background and suits Calum to the tee, a song that's about fighting the demons inside hoping to survive and find the peace. 

• 'Losing my Religion' by R.E.M. I will go on to say that I prefer the anguish tone of Sophie version over the original one. Its used at the karaoke night where Sophie isn't happy to see Calum not come up to the stage to sing with her. He is ofcourse having one of his worst moments of the trip eventually leading up to that beach scene. 

• Under Pressure' by Queen and David Bowie, this is one hell of a way to end the trip on (before that airport scene). I feel this track may never ever be used in a much better haunting deep way it is here, how it connects with the rave visuals of adult Sophie and that hug young Sophie is giving to her dad not knowing this is a moment she will remember forever in so many different ways, with the lyrics 'this is our last dance'. Perfection! 

Performances of both leads, Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal is splendid. Frankie plays Sophie as a girl who for her age is curious, asking silly questions but she's intelligent enough to understand things like the scuba mask drop where she immediately feels sorry knowing it was expensive and her father would be upset at it.She's not oversmart either even though she gets philosophical occasionally like the mention of how that sun is above our heads all the time no matter if we are together or not. 

In short, she strikes a perfect balance of what you would expect an actor of her age, not too matured and not too childish. Love how we see her angry with her dad at karaoke night, and then next morning without any tantrums or something, she forgives him during the mud sequence.

Paul Mescal had a much tougher role, to his credit he pulls it off so well, the art of pretending 'everything is good' while you are actually dying inside is efficiently handled by him. He's someone who is in pain and trying to be happy so that his daughter Sophie has a good time at the trip. We rarely get too much of closeups to examine his actions or moods. Its only when Sophie confronts him with direct questions, we get to see Mescal show off more. Even at the rug scene, I couldn't read what was going inside his mind.. was he thinking only about should I buy or not, or the symbols on the rug he wanted to buy had some deep meaning that made him get little lost.. I would love to know what that rug was implying since later on we see that rug at the house of adult Sophie. 

The reaction Paul gives when Sophie makes everyone wish him birthday song was really heartbreaking, not a surprise the director immediately cuts to the first and only time in entire movie Calum has a breakdown all alone in room. 

Aftersun is easily one of those movies that stays lingering in your head for days after you have watched it. Even though its a movie on depression, the topic is handled by the debut director in a manner that it never becomes a tough watch, yet it will hit you hard when its over. If not for the slow pacing, I would have given it a perfect 10. May not be really everyone's cuppa of tea, but I am glad it worked for me so much despite my initial reservations. 

My Rating : 8.5/10

Movie Analysis : Puss in Boots - The Last Wish

Directed by : Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3915174/

I find the very idea of Nine Lives absurd. And you didn't value any of them.

Spoilers ahead..

The story is about Puss in the Boots (voice by Antonio Banderas) who realizes that he has lived 8 of his 9 lives, and is no longer the brave strong cat he used to be. Running away from the bounty hunter, The Big Bad Wolf (voice by Wagner Moura), Puss hides at a shelter home for cats and meets Perrito (voice by Harvey Guillen). He eventually learns about a Dark Forest that has a Wishing Star, using which one can wish for anything and Puss expectedly wants more lives. The only issue is that there's many other people also seeking that star. 

The Puss-Kitty (voice by Salma Hayek) scenes are fun to watch, I personally enjoyed Perrito, the small dog a lot whether it was his initial conversation with Puss or how later he names the group 'Team Friendship', or the way he narrates the most heartbreaking moment of his life like it was the best one. He's just too cute in all situations and would melt your heart with that attempt of getting his eyes wide open. The 3 bears - Papa Bear (voice by Ray Winstone), Mama Bear (voice by Olivia Colman) and Baby Bear (voice by Samson Kayo) along with their adopted orphan girl Goldilocks (voiced by Florence Pugh) are also lovable and funny. 

Both the negative characters 'The Big Bad Wolf' and 'Jack Horner' (voice by John Mulaney), work seperately, the former aimed at dealing with inner demons and the other about physical strength. Infact Jack Horner is the only one who never redeems himself unlike rest characters which is understandable. There's this fun character, Ethical Bug (voice by Kevin McCann) who is conscience of Jack and keeps warning the wrong deeds he keeps on committing. I would have loved to see more of him. 

Even though the movie lacks in terms of Wow factor, and a not so interesting first 10 minutes specially the endless same dialogue 'I am Puss in Boots'.. it gathers momentum quickly and then keeps on entertaining thoroughly. Also, delivers the message of how you don't value what you have and the greed takes you on to wrong paths. 

The adventures are enjoyable with gorgeous animation, specially once they reach The Dark Forest and use the map which changes the route every time someone else holds it. It was really funny to see how Perrito gets the easiest path. 

While almost all voiceovers are great, I personally enjoyed Salma Hayek, Olivia Colman and Samson Kayo a lot more. 

Overall, Puss in Boots -The Last Wish may not be among the elite list of animation movies, but its good and entertaining enough to be seen again and again. Its a movie that I feel would work equally for the children and the adults, despite going dark at places. 

My Rating : 7/10 

Movie Analysis : Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Directed by : Dean Fleischer Camp

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15339456/

I want to be having a good life and stay alive, and not just survive, but have a good life.

Spoilers ahead... 

An absolutely adorable 1 inch tall shell, Marcel (voice by Jenny Slate) lives with his grandmother Connie (voice by Isabella Rossellini). The place is an airbnb where a new person Dean (Dean Fleischer Camp) living there forms a special bond with Marcel while he is making a documentary on Marcel's life. Marcel becomes a star on youtube, which comes with its set of drawbacks too. But, Marcel just wants to find his lost big family that was accidentally taken away in a suitcase of the last couple that lived here.

The stop-motion animation is told in a documentary style for major part with minimal scenes that show Dean. The movie very well captures the point of living life to the fullest especially with your loved ones. Its an emotional journey with the kind, innocent Marcel slowly revealing his daily life routines that includes some fun ways to get food off the tree, a tennis ball with a hole to roll through the home, a bread based bedroom and many more innovative things Marcel does. 

There are many fun moments, like Connie mimicking tik tik tik for the Lesley Stahl's '60 Minutes' show, Marcel mocking at the sad life of a dog that always barks at something that should be celebrated, the first attempt at making popcorns, how Marcel is irritated at Dean's poor singing and the lovely reunion of Marcel with his family in the end.

Marcel conversations with Dean are interesting and endearing, often he is surprised how different Dean's behaviour is to certain life aspects. You can't help but smile (in a good way) at Marcel's perspective and how he finds joy in small things which ofcourse is because his world is small. His belief of having a life that you live rather than survive is something almost every living being dreams of. 

The voice of Jenny Slate really stands out and makes you connect instantly because it just suits Marcel character and persona of cute, charming, kind, sweet, caring and innocent to the tee. Marcel makes you smile with his thoughts and also sad when he remembers the lost family or the scenes involving the post home attack which very much says a lot about how low some humans can go for fame. Not a surprise when you see Marcel regret getting famous online as he isn't enjoying the disturbance its caused to his small world especially the attack on his grandmother. The scenes post that leading to Marcel mourning loss of Connie is very heartbreaking to watch. 

Some of the heavy talks the movie covers may not work with the children specially losing a loved one or what Marcel believes that he isn't a single piece rather a part of a whole, but other than that I feel its a movie meant for all kind of audience. And I like they ended the movie on Dean and Marcel interaction at Dean's new house keeping it lighthearted and fun. 

Overall, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is an animation movie that you can't help but falling in love with. Another triumph up the sleeve of ever-reliable A24 production.

My Rating : 8/10 

Movie Analysis : Mission Majnu (Netflix)

Directed by : Shantanu Bagchi

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13131232/

Jung hathiyaro se nahi, intelligence se jeeti jaati hai.

Spoilers ahead..

Set in 1970s, its about an undercover Indian spy agent Amandeep Singh/Tariq (Sidharth Malhotra) who is tasked to find out the secret place where Pakistan is trying to conduct nuclear weapons program. And the name of the mission is 'Mission Majnu'. 

From the trailer itself I had the vibe of how on the face patriotism this movie will have and I wasn't proven wrong. But what was really disappointing that even the spy story was so damn silly, I mean I wasn't expecting much when it comes to how caricature portrayal of Pakistan would be but atleast don't defy logic and try to engage audience with a good thrilling narrative. 

The story has major scope to build characters and tension since its taking up a real life incident and includes some famous people of that time footage too. Check the level of stupidity - There's a brigadier who is openly sharing top secret information with a tailor (Tariq). We see the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (Rajit Kapoor) in anger saying we will do anything to win against India even if it means we starve for food, and then eats a piece of chocolate cake. That's the kind of humor in this movie.

We see Tariq time and again try to get information through gossips with woman, or a boy or shopwala, because the cue  given in script is, no one will ever get suspicious about you. There's Aslam Usmania (Sharib Hashmi), another undercover raw agent, who is hot tempered taking his gun out so easily and yet has never got caught, go figure yourself! Also, there's a mention of 'very dangerous Pakistan scientist' who works on this nuclear program, but throughout the movie I couldn't understand what they really meant by dangerous because nothing felt like so. Maybe, dangerous has a new meaning as per this movie. 

There's 2 very irritating characters, one of Raw Officer Sharma (Zakir Hussain) who constantly keeps bullying Tariq for his past related to a traitor father.. but its just too repetitive to my liking. Zakir Hussain does get one good scene later on where he suggests how sitting on other end through phone one tries to be patriotic not realizing real work is being done by other guys in the field who aren't valued enough. The other one was Tariq's wife, Nasreen Khan's (Rashmika Mandanna) father who keeps on disliking Tariq because of his low earning status. 

Sidharth Malhotra really struggles, ofcourse part of it is to do with the poor script but he still gave the  feeling of miscasted. When he says those lines in 'Shershaah' that are patriotic, they made an effect because the story was moving one. Here, in that scene where he tells Raman (Kumud Mishra, playing another undercover raw agent) and Aslam, about what he feels for India, it just comes across some street guy telling how patriotic he is. Rashmika Mandanna in her debut hindi movie is limited to a very one-note character, a reason why that climax scene doesn't invoke the emotions it should had.

Even Kumud Mishra  overacts for a change, it was tough to see him in that scene where he is pretending to be a Pakistani army officer. 

I never loved, Shershaah like most people did yet I enjoyed that film along with Sidharth performance. But, with Mission Majnu there's just nothing to like, even the songs are so dull and sleep inducing. Its just a failure of what could had been a good spy thriller if not more, like Raazi or even Romeo Akbar Walter were. Maybe Mission Majnu's target audience was only Sidharth fans or the patriotic lovers who will like anything that screams patriotism.

My Rating : 3/10 

Movie Analysis : Pinocchio (Netflix)

Directed by : Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1488589/

The one thing that makes life precious, you see, is how brief it is.

Spoilers ahead...

A stop motion musical about a wooden boy Pinocchio (voice by Gregory Mann) who is magically brought to life to mend the heart of a grieving father Geppetto (David Bradley). What follows are the adventures of Pinocchio as he learns the good and bad sides of this world, with the story set in fascist Italy of 1930s. 

The movie starts with a father losing his child at a young age and ends with a child outliving his parents. Both thoughts always gets to me, like which is worse, or maybe its impossible to tell.  Simply hard to imagine the life of the person who lives in both cases. 

We see a good flashback through Cricket (Ewan McGregor) who later lives in the heart of Pinocchio, as the lovely relationship of Geppetto and his young son Carlo (voice by Alfie Tempest) is developed only to be cut short by a terrible war accident where Carlo dies. 

Consumed with grief for years, Pinocchio comes in the life of Geppetto, but as expected he doesn't openly accept him. A part of the reason being he doesn't want to be told that Carlo will never return in flesh as a boy. Among many musical pieces, the first one involving Pinocchio is my fav 'Everything is new to me', its a hilarious fun take of a young boy learning new words. 

There's main 3 adventures, one involves a carnival guy Count Volpe (voice by Christoph Waltz) who is thrilled to know he has found a talking puppet in Pinocchio, second is about getting enrolled at war where Podesta's (voice by Ron Perlman) strict set rules have to be accepted at any cost that holds true for his own son too, and lastly a giant sea whale shape creature that wants to eat anything that comes in sight of it. 

While I enjoyed the former, the Podesta one was little irritating to watch with respect to how fascist the town was. The latter adventure was the only one where I felt bored, and probably could had been left out. 

The rabbits, hell lady or Cricket (who thank goodness gets to complete his song at endcredits), all provide some good laughing moments. The visuals are great, giving total feel of the grim world the story is set in and how Pinocchio's innocent mind takes him to many misadventures. 

I like how father-son relationship stays the main focus of entire story even when Pinocchio participates for Volpe or enrolls (forcefully) for Podesta, in his mind he is only thinking of papa or making him proud. Also, love how slowly Geppetto realizes that he can't have Pinocchio to be a look alike of Carlo, rather must accept him for his own qualities. The confusion Pinocchio has, or the feeling he goes through learning he is a burden for his own papa, having just learnt what 'burden' means from 'Cricket' just recently. All of it makes for a great watch. 

Overall, Pinocchio is a lovely animation movie full of strong emotions, that should work maybe slightly more for the matured audience than the children for the dark mood it carries.

My Rating : 7/10 

Movie Analysis : Tar

Directed by : Todd Field

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14444726/

Don't be so eager to be offended. The narcissism of small differences leads to the most boring kind of conformity. 

Spoilers ahead...

Lydia Tar, a renowned conductor/composer (Cate Blanchett) is among very few artists who have won all of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. She is the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, and working towards the final Symphony i.e Gustav Mahler's Symphony no.5. Everything is good, with a loving wife Sharon Goodnow (Nina Hoss) and a daughter Petra (Mila Bogojevic). But, there's something more to Lydia, which comes out whenever there's a mention of mysterious Krista Taylor (Sylvia Flote). The situation is only going to get worse for Lydia when some truths come out. 

Its a strange movie, initially it felt like a biopic on Tar but then no such person exists, so it's most likely inspired from some artist because the detailing is high when it comes to orchestra/classical music. You are bound to feel like an alien watching the first hour if you have like me never heard or shown interest in this kind of music. Of all the famous musical composer names mentioned in the movie, the only one I know about was Beethoven. 

Your patience is going to be tested with a 3 mins long opening credits having no visuals and just a folkish song running in background. And then its followed up by a 12 mins long interview sequence with Lydia and a host at a live stage in presence of large audience. It's asking a lot to keep interest going, I somehow succeeded but some average moviegoer may struggle. Not to say these scenes serve no purpose, we do learn how strong and confident Lydia is, and almost managing it very well in a male dominated society. 

There's two notable scenes, one involving the class scene where a different opinion on Bach offends Tar, or to put it she feels the student is offended by her strong views in favour of Bach. This is the first hint that Lydia might actually be abusing her power. Then, the scene where Lydia threatens a classmate of Petra suggests how far Lydia can go even if in this instance she probably did the right thing. 

The 2nd half picks up pace a lot, as the element of sexual abuse and the mysterious night scenes create a sort of haunting feeling. Both the supporting characters of Francesca Lentini (Noemie Merlant) and Olga Metkina (Sophie Kauer), are fantastic adding more layers to narrative. While Francesca is looking for a promotion working hard day and night for Lydia as her assistant, yet someone else gets the nod. And Olga serves as a new girl in the orchestra letting you draw a parallel with Krista whose story is never shown in detail. 

Felt Nina Hoss is under-utilised and there could had been more of her involvement with Lydia before or after the Krista scandal. Infact the entire movie never tries to go into the dynamics of how Lydia was over-controlling everything, rather it's goes in the way of studying Lydia's fall without showing the rise, we don't even get to see one full orchestra performance, its just the classes or rehearsals. 

Cate Blanchett without any doubt gives a terrific performance, from being a dominating non-sympathetic force at work, to a caring mother to Petra and her growing interest for a new girl. She beautifully takes you through the journey of being famous and how by the end everything falls apart. Love the scene where she is watching an old videotape and tears start rolling down her cheek where its not the performance of the orchestra conductor but his words about music that hits her hard.  Also, enjoyed that hilarious scene when she sings 'you are all going to jail, your apartment's for sale' in sarcastic response to being told to leave the place because of her loud musical disturbances. 

Overall, Tar keeps shifting from being great to boring to interesting. Its worth a watch just for Cate Blanchett. 

My Rating : 6.5/10 

Movie Analysis : Triangle Of Sadness

Directed by : Ruben Ostlund 

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7322224/

I am so good at being manipulative. I don't know, I do it and I don't even realize that I am doing it.

Spoilers ahead...

Told in three parts, 1st is 'Carl and Yaya'(Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean), about their relationship. 2nd is The Yacht, where they both are invited on a luxury cruise for the super-rich, with The Captain (Woody Harrelson) and 3rd is 'The Island' where the survivors from the yacht assemble to find a way out.

The dark humour works in some scenes like the dining bill argument between Carl and Yaya, or a staff member fired from job because Carl complained about him been bare-chested while at job despite Carl himself been bare-chested. Abigail (Dolly De Leon) counting the food at the island and keeping most to herself because she believes she is no longer a servant rather the captain as she is more resourceful to everyone else.

Rest of the movie just was either too long to sit through or way too pretentious to my liking, the whole political angle through the intercom conversation between the drunk Dimitry (Zlatko Buric) and the Captain while the yacht was a total mess felt very boring to me. And then the seasickness leading to puke and later flooding of floor with it along with sh*t, just was too much gross to watch. Surely there were better ways of showing the ugliness of super rich than by having them enjoying their dining while some are puking all around.

I understand the movie was a take on class divide, the way rich ignore/treat the poor or underline their existence, power corruption, racism, and some political-socio talks. The route taken to show all that despite being a satire/parody never made me feel interested. The Island part where the tables turn in respect to the class level was good, but it kept dragging on un-necessarily without anything valuable happening.

Not much to talk about any actor's performance, I couldn't find a single character to like. Every year, there's always one Oscar nominated film that isn't my type or I dislike it a lot. I think this year it's Triangle of Sadness. 

My Rating : 3/10 

Movie Analysis : Halloween Ends

Directed by : David Gordon Green

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10665342/

I have run from you. I have chased you. I have tried to contain you. I have tried to forgive you. I thought maybe you were the Boogeyman. No, you are just a man who's about to stop beathing.

Spoilers ahead...

The Halloween trilogy ends with a final showdown between Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Michael Myers/The Shape (James Jude Courtney). 

Story follows 4 years after the events of the last film Halloween Kills. But before that we are shown a very interesting 2019 Halloween night scene that reminds of the original Halloween (1978 one) as a young guy Corey (Rohan Campbell) is asked to babysit a boy for a family. What was supposed to be a normal night turns bloody, but its not Michael (loved the twist).. instead the little boy's prank ends up in an accident resulting in his death with the blame going on Corey. 

How I wish this was the 2nd film of trilogy and not the final one, because the plot of Corey getting labelled as new Boogeyman or next Michael Myers was a pretty good thought. Even the irritating Allyson (Andi Matichak) for being stupid to go against Laurie advice, would had worked then.

Unfortunately like many others, I watched the film anticipating some chilling scenes involving Michael, who is missing for about 30-40 mins and even after that gets very little screen-time with a very underwhelming climax. It was almost like being cheated because the trailers totally left out the Corey part, and stated as a final battle between Laurie and Michael. Some may argue that it still was, as the evil returned in form of Corey this time and Laurie had to first fight him out and then go after Michael. 

Does the movie give a proper ending to Michael Myers and what exactly was he ? No, to be honest, Laurie believing he wasn't a boogeyman but actually a man doesn't addup to the previous movies. How can he survive fire, bullets and what not! Why would he stay silent for 4 years, if the arguement that the number of kills he does makes him stronger then didn't he kill so many people in last film events? Or the logic of he's strong only till Laurie lives in fear or trauma. Or is it about mask, (this is a very odd theory but I read at some youtube comment), that the evil was passed through the mask to Corey, and he dies only once the mask was taken out by Michael, with the final shot showing the mask, it suggests that evil will be out again soon. I personally would had liked the open end, Michael Myers going missing very much like it happened in 1978 movie.

Its sad that the director didn't learn from the mistakes of 2nd film, once again there are numerous under-written characters(the radio guy, bullies of Corey, Allyson's co-staff nurse and doctor, even Corey's own mother) that are so bad that you don't care that they die at hands of either Corey or Michael. I also missed the main theme music of Michael not used enough but then he himself was hardly much in the film. 

I personally still prefer this movie over the last one, because the Corey story was very engaging for me. Rohan Campbell was able to portray very well, how a community that turns up against an innocent can lead to the rise of evil and change that person into a total monster The 2nd kind of evil that's not born by birth, which Laurie talks about in one of the scene. If they had connected it with Michael and also made Michael more involved since start, it would had up the movie level a lot. 

Horror wise, there are few jump scares that land, others don't. Gore lovers (I hate such horror) would get some good scenes specially when Corey goes on a kill spree. 

Jamie Lee Curtis was always the consistent actor, love how her character goes through firstly that incident at teen age and then living through the trauma to seek revenge and thereby losing more of her family she kept trying to save from Michael Myers. If only the rest characters in the franchise were as well written!  She would be missed along with Michael Myers. 

Overall, Halloween trilogy finishes on a very average and wrong note, it started on such a promise with the 1st film but since then the decline was unstoppable. I am still hopeful of another reboot with new actors and a much better writing because the original Halloween deserves lot better sequels than this, and there's lot of scope. 

My Rating : 5/10 

Movie Analysis : Elvis (AmazonPrime)

Directed by : Baz Luhrmann

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3704428/

If I can't move, I can't sing. 

Spoilers ahead.. 

Biopic of one of the American music's biggest icon, also known as 'King of Rock n Roll', Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) that shows his rise to stardom from poverty to living in Vegas residency. The film showcases all the highs and lows of Elvis life including the biggest influence of his controversial manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). He died at 43.

I feel someone has to start the trend of making a series based on biography rather than a film because even showing just the best and worst moments of a personality is too much to manage in a 2hr30 mins movie. Or you can just show particular phases of that personality. Elvis suffers from that like many past biopics have, yet it also entertains and isn't one-sided negative portrayal like Blonde was. 

The biggest mistake they did was narrating the film from Colonel Tom Parker's point of view. Why would you wanna tell the story of a famous person from the eyes of someone who financially abused him aleast in real, if not more. And it doesn't help that for a change Tom Hanks really was annoying to watch whether it was his makeup as oldie or the times he breaks the fourth wall. Editing also during first 30 so mins was way too fast and trying to be too stylish to my liking. 

Before this movie, I had heard only one track of Elvis, that too accidentally came across through 'The Conjuring 2', the song was 'Can't help falling in Love'. So, more than the life of Elvis, its his songs that I really enjoyed watching and listening  for first time. Austin Butler has done a tremendous job because I couldn't really differentiate between his and Elvis voice. From the little I heard or saw Elvis, it felt Austin nailed the looks, mannerisms and added more to it. Whether its the early days when he felt lost with the success coming his way, or later on when the slow decline happens and he is desperate to be back in the eyes of his audience. Austin for me is a huge contender for the Oscars win.

 I loved the way they introduce Elvis with the 'That's all right' track, and later on his improvised take of same track during the Vegas Rehearsal was easily the best moment of the movie thats edited really well with other versions simultaneously. Among other tracks, 'Trouble' is another I enjoyed a lot watching Elvis rebel side. Also, the whole angle of how much Elvis was influenced by the Black style of music which lead to some controversies is very well explored. He even hangs out (felt more like acquaitance than friendship) with B.B King (Kelvin Harrison Jr). It would have been nice to see some opinions shown about his music from their community too that didn't like the fact how Presley was basically using their music and getting the fame.

Elvis equation with his parents, military angle or the fall out with his wife Priscilla (Olivia DeJonge)  all felt half-baked, again its more to do with how much you can sneak in for a movie length time. Even his death felt sudden, the whole drug addiction or bad eating habits angle wasn't explored too, all we see are his addiction to the prescribed pills. I did however liked the choice of ending movie on his last performance, when despite not feeling healthy his singing didn't lack any bit of energy. 

Stranger Things fame Dacre Montgomery (playing Steve Binder) was lovely surprise for me, though it was more of a cameo role. Special mention to the gorgeous cinematography and costumes throughout the movie. 

'I will Fly away', 'Hound Dog', 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'Strange Things Happening Everyday' and 'Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child' were the other performed tracks that I liked. 

Parker was a fraud, and never let Elvis perform overseas because he was not a Colonel, and there was no passport, what this did is make the narrative go in direction of 'He's the sole or biggest reason' why Elvis life got destroyed or he died early. It would rather had been nice to give some blame on Elvis himself too. There's a scene where Elvis refers to Parker as his father, and initially he doesn't see any  foul play in the decisions Parker makes. I don't really feel Parker ever really cared for Elvis, and rather he was just a big tool for him to earn money, more than he deserved.

Overall, Elvis for people like me works because I enjoyed learning about the career of the great music icon, but a better narrator and more characters developed properly would have been something else. 

My Rating : 7/10 

Movie Analysis : To Leslie

Directed by : Michael Morris

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8129806/

You are living, right ? I am sorry it ain't a fairytale. We all should have done things differently. But you are what's wrong with you. Not anyone else.

Spoilers ahead...

Journey of a West Texas single mother, Leslie (Andrea Riseborough) who wins a $190,000 lottery. Instead of having a secured and stable life for herself and her son, her lifestyle choices makes that money end way too quickly. Years later, she gets thrown out of a roadside motel, staying at her son's James (Owen Teague) place lasts few days only as she can't quit drinking. She is forced to live with hippie relatives, Dutch (Stephen Root) and Nancy (Allison Janney), which expectedly also doesn't last long as Leslie isn't someone who will obey the rules. Having no job, no where to live, Leslie by chance meets a kind man, Sweeney (Marc Maron) who is the owner of a motel along with Royal (Andre Royo). Sweeney offers Leslie a job at his place along with a room to stay at. The only question is, will Leslie change this time or her same routine cycle will continue on ?

We all make mistakes, and we all deserve second chances. Just in case of Leslie, she keeps on denying those chances, the urge to have one bottle of liquor is too much than to be able to enjoy mother-son time with James. 

Leslie is not a likeable character, yet the terrific acting of Andrea Riseborough makes it really tough to not sympathize with her. At times, you feel like telling her 'please no, not this time, give it a try atleast'. That's how it is with broken people, they would appear like mean bad people but its just a very bad phase they are going through. Andrea very well captures the vulnerability of Leslie through many silent shots we see in the entire film. 

There's this excellent scene when Leslie is at bar having a drink while a song starts running 'Are you sure, this is where you want to be?', and she chuckles as if saying 'Really, is this bar going to tell me I am living my life wrong way?', but as the song keeps playing, her thoughts wander around how true those words are. Its probably the first turning point in her life, and other one is when she meets Sweeney.

One question that came to my mind was that, did Sweeney offer help to Leslie just out of kindness, or was it because of the past related to his wife who was also an alcohol addict. Whatever be the reason, Marc Maron plays a very important supporting role, because at a time when everyone considers Leslie a hopeless case, its just him who is willing to give her a chance to change. The fact that he knows nothing about Leslie's past and sees her just as a lady who is coping with this addiction, helps too. 

Scenes between Sweeney and Leslie are great to watch, mostly because for a change Leslie shows honest interest. Love the talks they have about Royal or his running across field habits, or his choice of music they play, and the way their relation develops over time. I felt little angry when Leslie shuts him off and leaves the motel, for a moment I felt the narrative might be leading to a very dark sad ending. 

The ending is heart-warming even if it doesn't fully suggest that Leslie will forever stay clean. I love those 2 last occasions when Leslie has alcohol in front of her, and she overcomes the urge both times. 

Overall, To Leslie is a tough watch, at times irritating too but a strong and if I may say Oscar winning performance by Andrea Riseborough makes this a good watch. Its a pretty interesting character study of an addict that we have seen a lot before. 

My Rating : 6.5/10 

Movie Analysis : Turning Red (Hotstar)

Directed by : Domee Shi

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8097030/

Honoring your parents sounds great, but if you take it too far, well, you might forget to honor yourself.

Spoilers ahead.. 

Meilin (voice by Rosalie Chiang), a 13 year old Chinese-Canadian girl living in Toronto wants to be independent but with a very overprotective mother Ming (Sandra Oh), its asking for a lot. She participates in a daily duty of honoring their ancestor at her family temple. One day she wakes up as a red panda and learns it's a family thing/curse where any strong excited emotions would bring the panda out until its controlled through a ritual. 

I felt the themes of parents (in this case just the mother) having full control over their children and the age of 'almost becoming a woman' aren't explored well enough. Rather its the fluffy red panda that gets silly scenes to get laughs out which clearly meant the target audience here was not the adults. 

In past Pixar movies has brilliantly showed the dynamics of a child and parent, both struggling to come to terms with each other's interests, lifestyle and the whole coming of age. Whether its 'Inside Out', 'Coco', 'Luca' (with whom this movie's concept of turning into panda resembles too), or even 'Soul' where the only 2 scenes were so maturely handled. 

Meilin becoming a rebel and letting out her frustration towards her mom near end of movie didn't really needed a panda concept. Infact, watching all ladies of Meilin family turning into pandas by the end made it even worse to watch. Also, it didn't help how much stereotyped the friend circle of Meilin was, nor does the way Meilin handles the panda to make money out of it just to enter a concert specially when she is so smart always getting A's in subjects. 

There are few decent fun Panda moments specially when Meilin goes to school all worried if she gets excited which for her age she does a lot, she may reveal the panda side to everyone in class. I liked the scene where her friends is the reason she finds a way to control the panda for time-being.  Also, her father suggesting there's nothing wrong in keeping a little messy side with you, but why did it take him whole film's screen time to give this advice!

The best takeaway for me was the 4*Town's song 'Nobody like you', I instantly liked it.

Overall, apart from some laughs, Turning Red didn't work for me and the message it wanted to say never comes across as it should had. 

My Rating : 4.5/10 

Movie Analysis : Mrs Harris Goes To Paris (AmazonPrime)

Directed by : Anthony Fabian

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5151570/

Them days are over when you can treat people like scum and expect loyalty in return.

Spoilers ahead.. 

Ada Harris (Lesley Manville), a widowed and very kind lady works as a cleaner at some houses. One day she sees a gorgeous dress that one of her owner bought for a marriage, which she immediately falls in love with. Being a dreamer she wants to buy a similar couture Dior dress. Once she arranges the money in different unusual possible ways, she heads off to Paris that would not only be an adventure but also change the way House of Dior works. 

The idea of wanting to go to a country despite not having money just for a dress felt crazy to me, but on a second thought I felt everyone have their own dreams and probably Ada Harris was to wear one of those gorgeous outfits that she otherwise never gets to wear, specially not been young anymore. Like my dream is to have a PlayStation which may sound silly or not worthy for others.

There are many times I wrong guessed the narrative, like the dog race I thought she would get again lucky or when she reaches Paris and seeks help from stranger guys to reach the House of Dior and I was worried her money is about to be stolen when she wakes in the morning. So glad, the film never went in these directions. 

The main two themes, kindness and dreamer are fully well explored thanks to the adorable performance from Lesley Manville. She is so good that in some scenes you just wish she wouldn't be so kind whether its to that house owner who keeps finding excuses not to pay her salary, or that young spoilt brat who is selfish. Love her change of tone in the scene when she misunderstands the guy who came to give pension money after learning about her husband's death few days back. 

Apart from the obvious visuals including Eiffel Tower, the Paris scenes are great to watch for the detailing shown regarding the work at 'House of Dior'. Again, the same thought came to mind when I saw people bidding sit for some 100 dresses modelled around and then choosing the one they wanna buy. Does this happen in real ? Is that a rich society thing ? I am probably not right person to talk about fashion yet I was all the time engaged in how this works, the kind of uneasiness Claudine Colbert (an excellent Isabelle Huppert) feels when Ada Harris comes unannounced because to see a cleaning lady try to buy such expensive dress full of reputation was very new. That is shown through the happy reaction of the models who are pleased to know how much Dior is wanted.

Ada Harris interactions with all the people she meets in Paris, and immediately forming a bond is great to watch. There's Andre Fauvel (Lucas Bravo), who she helps professionally for the inputs that would help Dior succeed in longer run among the modern woman, and also personally his secret love for one of the models Natasha (Alba Baptista). She has a lovely equation with Marquis de Chassagne (Lambert Wilson) that includes a heartbreaking scene, probably you can argue that Ada got little carried away.

Both Ellen Thomas and Jason Isaacs are good in their supporting acts, always around to comfort Ada Harris whenever she feels low. It was easy to guess the ending would be on a dance between Archie and Ada. 

The hiccups for me were how quickly the conflicts are sorted out in span of a small scene, whether its Claudine Colbert's change of heart, or how the main head of 'House of Dior' immediately agrees to the ideas of Andre Fauvel. And, the romantic train scene to stop Natasha from leaving was very filmy (it would had been airport if it was Indian film). 

Overall, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris is one of those sweet movies that I enjoy watching even though its not the kind of genre I usually prefer.

My Rating : 7/10