Movie Analysis : Eli (Netflix)

Directed by : Ciaran Foy
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5294518/

Take a deep breath in. Blow out all your candles. Make a wish. 

Spoilers ahead..

Eli (Charlie Shotwell), a young boy is taken to a facility-home handled by Dr Horn (Lili Taylor) where she assures that his auto immune disorder will be cured, but with time he realizes he is only getting worse at this new place.

If you had seen the trailer, then it was visible that Dr. Horn isn't what she appears to be, and thats how the 1st and 2nd act goes too. Only difference is we discover an altogether different answer to our questions in the 3rd act. Basically whether you love the 3rd act or not decides your opinion about the movie. I couldn't digest it, mainly for how badly it was executed, watching doctors suddenly turn into church nurses doing exorcism that felt funny.

In the 3rd act, Eli is told to be son of devil, and he never had any disorder, but then question arises what were those red rashes he gets or is afraid of getting always. He surely must have tried going out once to confirm it. We are given a hint that Eli's Mom, Rose (Kelly Reilly) wasn't faithful to his Dad, Paul (Max Martini) in one of their private conversation. Also, I didn't get why Eli was getting haunted if all the time it was about him getting to know the truth about himself.

I do wanna like the twist, but thinking about the story shown before the 3rd act, it just becomes hard to not feel kind of cheated. Performances wise, Charlie was great while I expected lot more from Lili, she just felt too much one tone. Kelly Reily was decent, while Max Martini was way below average. Also, a cameo from Sadie Sink was likeable though again the real identity when revealed made less sense.

Eli is a decent one time-watch for most of its runtime, definately better than the ones that released lately on Netflix. It falters in the final act for me. Scare wise there are few moments, not too many.

My Rating : 5/10

Series Analysis : Unbelievable (Netflix)

Directed by : Lisa Cholodenko, Michael Dinner and Susannah Grant
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7909970/

Even with good people, even with people that you can kinda of trust, if the truth is inconvenient and if, if the truth doesn't, like, fit.. they don't believe it. Even if they really care about you, they just.. they just don't. 

Spoilers ahead..


True story about a teenager Marie, who is charged with lying about having been raped and how two female detectives find out the truth.

First episode is hard to watch because as a viewer you know Marie Adler (Kaitlyn Dever) isn't lying and yet the abuse and trauma she had dealt with all life has taken a toll on her and you see how she keeps changing her statements. Ofcourse the blame has to go to male detectives who didn't do their job well. Specially the scene where instead of giving hope to Marie to let her do the polygraph test, they just scare her off citing potential jail time if she was lying. And that results in her life getting affected badly after she is forced to accept that she was never raped.

2nd Episode shifts story from Washington 2008, to Colarado, 2011 and we get introduced to Detective Karen (Merritt Wever) who meets a rape victim and on the spot we can draw parallels on how she investigates and talks to the girl, and how Marie was asked questions in 1st episode. No, I am not referring to the instant thought that would come to mind 'woman did it better than the guy', what this says is how one person did a better job than the other,  and in this case the better one was woman.

Detective Karen happens to meet Detective Grace (Toni Collette) after being told by her husband how her case resembles the one Grace was dealing with where the victims happen to go through similar procedure by the rapist. Grace is total opposite of Karen in the way she walks, talks, total fierceful character which clearly was done by writing team so that they would look a great pair. Though found through google, the real Grace (different name) was more of a calmer person. So bit of fiction but it made for a great watch, I don't mind it.

The performances of Meritt, Toni and Kaitlyn all standout, but I personally loved Meritt most, the kinda of laidback and yet I want to find this motherf***** attitude, and the emotional attachment she shows towards the people she meets. Also, love the slow gradual bonding she develops with Grace. And also enjoyed watching Kaitlyn who had a tougher role, the vulnerability and trauma she showcases and also the urge to get a 'sorry' from the male detectives. The other actors who play intern and the desk old lady give in a good supporting acts.

Love the scene of the counselor with Marie where a zombie film 'Zombieland' is used in conversation to discuss the thoughts Marie has about the world and people. Also, love how they show Marie story, dedicating 1st and last episodes fully on her, and keeping the rest 6 with fewer scenes. Starting with how tough life Marie is about to live, losing out on friends with the false rape charge, both her foster moms not trusting her and losing her job too. And then ending with the phone call to Detective Karen, for once I wanted Karen to talk more than she does in this phone conversation but then maybe thats how she always is as per the series.

I read some reviews suggesting how this series tries to show 'girls power, and every man is bad', and it made me wonder did those people not see the behaviour of both foster moms of Marie, or did they miss watching husbands of Detective Grace and Detective Karen who always kept supporting them, one even went out of way to get the file on a person Grace wanted, or did they miss the help Special Agent Taggert gave? Or did they expect sympathy shown to Detective Parker and Detective Pruitt who clearly were at faults and they were main reasons why more rapes took place. I mean seriously how blind some people can be, yes there's some fiction but this is a real story shown in as solid manner as it can be, so just avoid watching the series if you believe guys have to be portrayed as good not matter what they do!

Unbelievable for me is near perfect series, my only complaint would be lack of surprise but then it went more for getting the guy caught angle and not that element of 'oh no, he is that person' surprise. And other marginal problem was editing that was at places not tight to my liking. But I could easily ignore these small hiccups, as I just felt it was a very good gripping series from start to finish, shown in a very realistic manner, top-notch acting from main leads and a certain emotional tone to the way it finishes. Would love a 2nd season with same cast, and probably a different real life based story!

My Rating : 8/10

Series Analysis : Haunted Season 2 (Netflix)

Directed by : Jan Pavlacky
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9077192/

Be quiet, don't wake him... If you wake him, you are gonna be sorry. 

Spoilers ahead..


Based on 'true stories' as is told before every episode though its not easy to believe that in some of the cases. I had seen 1st season and hardly liked 1 or 2 episodes, with one of main problem been the narration. The person who is/had been haunted, sits in a living room setup along with the people who mean a lot to him/her (family/friends/relatives/lover) and then begins to narrate the story with them giving the reactions of 'oh no, oh my god', so you know why this gets irritating. Coming back to 2nd season now, yes the same narration is repeated sadly, but were the episodes, or the reaaal episodes good or not.. lets see.

The Mimic :
A young woman starts hearing her friends voices in the house she just started living. And those voices come when they ain't there.

It was likeable minus the part where they show the spirit physically in that disgusting gross look. If you love jump scares which I don't, then you may love this episode even more as there were I think 4 major jump scares (provided I counted right) that to be honest were forced upon us. My only question is, why didn't she leave the house when her boyfriend confirmed there was something wrong in the basement of the house. Too adventurous or money issue?

Ward of Evil
A nurse works with dementia patients at an assisted living facility comes to terms with a new patient who she discovers is possessed.

This one was in middle kind in terms of believing its true. Sometimes I felt it might be, and sometimes I didn't. Decoding on basis of fiction, what didn't work for me was why would nurse or the owner of the place let that possessed patient (Jackie) stay even after they discover she can't be cured by them. I mean they are having routine trips to her room knowing she is dangerous even after what was done to arm of a new assistant who immediately quit the place. Another theory is that Jackie was just hallucinating and the nurse tells story from her point of view so just exaggerating.. Either way, there was nothing much to like about this episode, even the exorcism scene isn't shown in detail. The end is good but only if you believe Jackie or that room did actually had something evil.

Cult of Torture
A man shares his experience from pre-teen to teenage times when he was made to go through a religious conversion therapy.

I liked this one but then I hated it too, and that was for what the guy goes through. Let me clear, this episode has no spirits involved, its the horror of having the kind of parents you shouldn't have. In a scene when the priest arrives home and spanks the guy's brother while their mother stands silently, it gives a hint how horrible she must be, and what hell the guy will go through who is considered to have feminine traits. There's the disgusting 'Gay demon, go away' ritual done, originally I found it silly and funny but then the physical trauma they do after that was hard to watch. It was like those torture movies of slaves you may have watched. Believable story, yea this one was very much so!

Spirits from Below
Traumatized siblings tell the story about the terrible things that happened in their family home when they lived there.

This was the least believable story, specially the way it ends where their Mom tells about the ghosts. But as a fiction (thats what it is for me), there are some good scenes, like the red boy one or the one where the little girl one by one starts throwing things down. As always the narration breakup by the ridiculous conference kind re-tell of story breaks whatever interest had developed.

Demon of War
A U.S Marine who has gone to serve in Afghanistan, is confronted by a demon with glowing eyes.

For like 10 mins there was no demon, and I was thinking maybe the haunting here would be about 'war' as how it affects people sometimes while knowing enemy could kill you anytime. But my bad luck, they show a stupid demon more like a creature look that does nothing but warns 'you are not welcome in here'. It was the funniest of all the episodes so far, unless ofcourse you are a jump scare lover, have fun then.

Born Cursed
A young boy is convinced that he was born cursed and there's a 'hangman' always following him.

As if the jump scares aren't enough, there's plenty of jump cuts (editing term if you aware) used in here. Same was done in 2nd episode too. Talking about this episode, its bit of middle way, the demon encounters are fun to watch, but they just didn't show much or give it a proper end as I was expecting. In terms of believability, its 50-50 for me.


So, yet another poor season of 'Haunted' it turned out.. Didn't love a single episode, liked two and rest were either mediocre or plain bad.

My Rating : 3/10 

Movie Analysis : Wounds (Netflix)

Directed by : Babak Anvari
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5913798/

People look so normal on the outside, but on the inside, its all just .. worms.

Spoilers ahead..


Will (Armie Hammer) who is a bartender at Rosie's starts to experience creepy mysterious disturbing things happening ever since a group of teenagers left a phone at his place.

Yet another movie that may work more while reading the book it is inspired or adapted from. Infact for the 1st 30 mins it had me engaged, making me think its just one of those case where I differ from the majority of people who rated it as pretty low at imdb.

There's a great atmosphere created right from the 1st scene at the Rosies's where the fight takes place involving a important character, Eric (Brad William Henke) who I assume is a regular customer of Will, or maybe an acquaintance. Then there's Will and his live-in girlfriend Carrie (Dakota Johnson) who aren't in a happy space together. And another plot involves Alicia (Zazie Beetz) who comes at Rosies with her new boyfriend Jeffrey (Karl Glusman), and she appears to be friend or more than a friend to Will.

All these sub-plots play well initially, with the horror limited to mainly some cockroaches who are at Rosie's and also at Will's apartment. The moment Will tries to get physically involved with Alicia, to cheat on his girlfriend, thats when for me the movie started going downhill. There's nothing told about the whereabouts of the phone, why was Will chosen as the perfect vessel as per the ritual of the portal those teenagers had opened, I am assuming they did it curiously which would involve 'The Translation of Wounds' book they must have got in touch with. A simple theory is ofcourse Will was easy to feed on since he was something else than he initially shows himself to be, and the version of his true self he does become by the end. Talking about the end, again they leave it too open, with the entity that Eric had present in him (he probably got during the fight) getting transferred to Will, who has by now broken up with his girlfriend. Alicia not wanting to be in touch either making him willing to go on a path that may not be right but then thats how he is probably is.

One thing for sure, Wounds isn't a straightforward movie, it makes you think about the plot, very much reminds of 'It Follows', where the origin details are never given. Wounds is like a sequel to a movie that would had been about a group of teenagers and their adventures leading to the first scene at Rosie's. I love creepy atmosphere with a good background score but the insects/worms kind horror doesn't interest me.

Most would find it a bad and irritating movie, which I felt too at times, but at same time I was always interested in knowing where the character of Will is going to end up at. What could had made the film better? Some explanation to what is happening, not everything though, I prefer the ending but I wanted scenes like Carrie sitting staring at the tunnel pic on internet to lead somewhere.

Lot to complain about 'Wounds', still not a terrible movie in my opinion and I may well give the book a read in future when I get time. The movie is strictly a one time watch.

My Rating : 4/10  

Movie Analysis : War

Directed by : Siddharth Anand
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7430722/

Jai jai shivshankar, aaj mood hai bhayankar.. 

Spoilers ahead..


The basic premise is about a patriotic soldier  Khalid (Tiger Shroff) who is given a mission to kill Kabir (Hrithik Roshan), his former mentor who has suddenly gone rogue.

Till the 1st half, I was quite happy with the movie, managed to somehow ignore the many irritating elements that are still part of this 1st half, namely the over-use of slow motions (I will get tired of referring to this stupid love affair our filmmakers have). I get it that you need the entry scenes of superstars get whistled so slow motion gives more time, which again is pretty stupid but whats bizarre is when you keep doing it again and again, even in the action scenes. Also the action sequences weren't impressive and at times gave repetitive feeling. 

But I was still fine with all those problems, it was Naina's (Vaani Kapoor) character and the plastic surgery plot they bring in 2nd half that just makes me lose all my interest. Only scene of Naina that was likeable was when she says 'mera dil tootne wala hai na' but that too doesn't totally work as I was never invested in her character, it comes out as something added just for some glamor. Why would you build half of movie based on Khalid's loyalty for his country, showing his past where his dad was a traitor and got killled by Kabir. And now we are shown Khalid is dead and another traitor, from Kabir's team has plastic surgery to have same face as Khalid. Whats funny is, he has same mannerisms, same kind of fighting style, almost a ditto copy of Khalid, because its a film based on suspension of belief I assume. 

Now to the best part of movie, which is undeniably Hrithik Roshan, and I don't mean just his performance, but he just makes you adore him every time he is in the frame even if he is given a average/bad dialogue or he is asked to dance in a song that was never needed to be inserted in narrative (Guilty pleasure, I did love Jai Jai Shiv Shankar, it still was a song only meant for end-credits). In short, with all the flaws around the story, narrative and other actors, Hrithik holds his own and never gives me a reason to criticise him.

Tiger Shroff is wonderful as always in his dance and action sequences, his acting is still here and there. His character getting killed off, does give him scope to perform the grey side for a change in that plastic surgery act and he does it pull it off quite nicely.

War would appeal certainly to Hrithik-Tiger fans (thats a given), but for neutrals like me, its just a decent one time watch, full of loving as well as cringeworthy moments. 

My Rating : 5/10

Series Analysis : The Family Man (Amazon Prime)

Directed by : Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9544034/

Inhe bas ek baar jeetna hota hai, aur humhe har ek baar.. aur woh bhi sahi tareeke se. 

Spoilers ahead..



Story of a middle class man Srikant (Manoj Bajpayee) who has a field job working for NIA along with his partner JK Talpade (Sharib Hashmi). They find out about a mission called 'Mission Zulfiqar' and start tracking clues that lead to it. But Srikant also has to manage his family, a wife and two kids, whom he has been giving very less time.

Series begins really well with the starting four episodes engaging you throughout, there's a question lingering over mind what exactly this 'Mission Zulfiqar' is, and there's Moosa (Neeraj Madhav) who appears to be always more than he is trying to show. But I started losing some interest when the narrative shifts to Kashmir. A special mention to the excellent visuals and the use of kashmir folk song 'hukus bukus' (You may recall it was used in 'Hafiz hafiz' of Laila Majnu movie).

Usually the answers to the questions in mind from earlier episodes should make you happy  but in here it felt like a let down. Also, Sajid (Shahab Ali) been a main character, never worked for me which was a miscast issue, rather the short role Kareem (Abrar Qazi) plays worked brilliantly. I did like the open ending, with lives of some officers unknown whether they will survive or would Delhi as a whole survive the attack, which hopefully a better season2 will tell us.

Liked how they used the 'national anthem' and 'anti-national' sub-plot without going overboard. And same with the 'beef incident' or the sarcasm at the tourists in kashmir referred with the police all over.

What fully worked was Manoj Bajyapee's performance, his scenes with his kids, Dhriti (Mehek Thakur) and Atharv (Vedant Sinha), both of whom acted wonderfully and gave some lovely comical moments. Priyamani (Suchi, wife of Srikant), Sharib Hashmi and Kishore Kumar G were solid too with their given screentime. Suchi's character has lot more scope in next season, keen to see where they take it. Would had liked more scenes of Darshan Kumar who was effective in the role of Major Sameer.

'The Family Man' is certainly better than the total disappointment 'SacredGames2' was, but the way this series starts and builds up to a great finale, it can be said that the series just misses out to be a lot more.. I did like it, but the high ratings at Imdb gave me a feel of something really good which it wasn't. Still a enjoyable series, with solid performances from Manoj (he is just too good) and rest.

My Rating : 6/10

Movie Analysis : In The Tall Grass (Netflix)

Directed by : Vincenzo Natali
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4687108/

The field doesn't move dead things. It makes them easier to find.

Spoilers ahead..


Becky (Laysla De Oliveira) hears cry of help coming from a field of tall grass, of someone who appears to be a young boy. She immediately asks her brother Cal (Avery Whitted) to check who's in there, only to get trapped and find the mystery that lies in that place.

I liked the premise, but the loop that keeps playing in the narrative gets irritating after a while. When you are constantly checking the remaining time of the movie, its a bad sign how the movie is failing to engage you. Some stupid things that happen here are, why would a brother let her pregnant (6 months) sister come with him in what was easily visible a tall looking grass field. And then why don't they call the cops first even if they go in for adventure thinking they can help the boy.

Leaving those problems aside, the narrative still keeps you interested as there's the urge to know what exactly is happening in there, and the revelation is pretty good too that covers plot of your life sins, a rock that acts as a judge, whether you get redemption or not for those committed sins. And if you do get the redemption then there's a church where you get transferred to, if you don't then you remain stuck in form of grass after death.

They could had added different scenarios in every loop and also have extra cycle shown with parallel scenes running at same time, could had been confusing but more engaging that way. Also, I didn't get why the boy was acting so creepy in the initial scenes and then normal (the last loop I am comparing with) later.

In terms of 'Is it scary enough?' Not Much! There is some good use of mantra chant kind music at places that show grass spirits (if I can call it that) moving. Also, a gross scene involving eating flesh that I just hated. Patrick Wilson gives a nice performance as dad of the young guy, a somewhat grey character.

To be honest, I have a strong feeling I will enjoy reading this novel of Stephen King much more, because its the detailing that this film lacks and ofcourse the repetitive of events that visually don't work but as a read might well do. Still a movie that may work for those who like different concept horror, for me it was just a one time watch.

My Rating : 5/10