Mini Review : Raat Akeli Hai (Netflix)

Directed by : Honey Trehan

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12567088/

Bahar duniya bahut kharab hai, humse akele nahi ho payega.

An old rich guy, Raghuveer Singh (Khalid Tyabji) is found dead on the night of his wedding with a young girl Radha (Radhika Apte). The local cop Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) arrives at the house learning about each member of this dysfunctional family where everyone is a suspect as he tries to solve the puzzle which involves politicians, corruption and also another incident that happened 5 years ago in which Raghuveer's 1st wife had died. 

It clearly will give you 'Knives Out' vibe initially but unlike that movie, the tone here isn't comical rather very dark drama that takes on violence against women and male dominance as the main themes. The little bit of light hearted humor comes only with Jatil and his mother (an excellent Ila Arun) scenes where she is always eager to find a perfect match for him. 

The whole whodunnit angle is well played out, even if the story isn't something not seen before, it would take a real smart mind to know who killed Raghuveer, there's only 2 particular scenes that gives a hint to the killer. But as I said before, more than the murder mystery, its a social take on the way women are treated and the corrupted system. I was infact getting ready for a 'Jaane bhi do yaaro' kind climax when Jatil says to the politician that you don't have much time left. I felt the politician's power will undo all the work and Jatil will get suspended. 

The screenplay was balanced for me, felt it went at right pace, keeping me engaged, the length of the movie did felt too long and the unwanted songs included was a very poor decision. What really works is Nawazuddin's act, who off-late has been giving monotonous feel but here him been in almost every frame of movie, you can feel him totally into the character, with some fun dark comedy but not overdone. Radhika Apte also chips in a very good performance, and has a good chemistry in all scenes with Nawaz. Good cameos from the supporting cast, Aditya Srivastav, Shweta Tripathi, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Padmavati Rao especially. 

The train sequences between Jatil and Radha were my favourites, also loved the chilling opening sequence. 

Raat Akeli Hai is a good watch, works on many levels, be it performances or a mystery thriller or as just a social drama.

My Rating : 7/10

Mini Review : Indoo Ki Jawani (Netflix)

Directed by : Abir Sengupta 

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11112526/

Hum Indians na sabko judge karte hai, hamare jitna Judgemental koi nahi hota hai

Spoilers ahead.. 

About Indira Gupta (Kiara Advani) who through help of her close friend Sonal (Mallika Dua) decides to join a dating app and gets a right swipe match in form of Samar (Aditya Seal). She invites him over at her place with her parents and brother gone away for some days. Things turn wild when moments after he arrives, she finds he is from Pakistan having heard the news earlier in the morning that there are a few terrorists from Pakistan missing in nearby area.

There's a lot that I liked and plenty that I didn't but it certainly isn't a bad film as the ratings or reviews suggest, or maybe one of those cases when I liked a movie majority didn't, oh I just love it when that happens!

Its fun watching the entire adventure part of Indira trying to learn about how to go one step further than having a boyfriend, that involves the first kiss which holds a special place for her. There's Sonal's numerous gyan that includes them watching a adult movie together or her suggesting that all men want one thing or how Indira should try one night stand as in films they never end at one night and turn into love (she has many filmi references throughout). 

Totally enjoyed the banter between Indira and Samar on India-Pakistan, at times silly but it was entertaining and truthful for most part. Love the scene where Indira is hiding many knives, chilli powder in various places of the house just in case Samar turns out to be a bad guy. The awkward conversations between them leading to 'Kashmir ki Kali' is also fun to watch (they just had to choose that film because of Pakistan angle). 

Its the terrorist part that derails the movie, firstly I felt there was no need to plant the seed of doubt whether Samar is the terrorist or not, and then the real terrorist should have not been too comical like it was in here. Or to be honest, I would had liked Samar and Indira not even having an encounter while just learning through Sonal/neighbour/tv that the terrorist just got caught. Also, it was hard to gulp up Sonal and her bf's scenes together. The old neighbours or friend of Indira's brother lusting for Indira was also slightly over-done in a creepy manner. And the songs, except for the remix of Mika's 'Saawan mein' (was okay only) were quite bad. 

In the end, it was the trio of Kiara (she was quite good, specially her comic timing), Aditya (good despite less screen time) and Mallika (at start felt irritating but turned out a fun character) that kept me entertained throughout. 

My Rating : 6.5/10

Mini Review : Over the Moon (Netflix)

Directed by : Glen Keane and John Kahrs

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7488208/

If you give love, you will never lose love.. It only grows.

An animated musical about a mythical moon goddess Chang'e (voiced by Phillipa Soo) who needs a particular gift that would re-unite her with dead lover Houyi (voiced by Conrad Ricamora). Fei Fei (voiced by Cathy Ang) who lost her mother sees her father move on in past years to an extent that he wants to marry again, a thought that doesn't go well with her making her develop a rocket that would help her reach out Chang'e, and find proof of Chang'e been a reality so that her father would realize how Fei Fei's tales of Chang'e eternal love were true and maybe he would abandon the idea of moving on. 

The setting of going to an imaginary afterlife place reminded of 'Coco' but the comparison stops there. Also, 'Rocket to the Moon' track reminded me of 'Frozen' track, again the comparison ends there. 

More than the story it were 3 animation characters, Fei Fei, cute Bungee (Fei Fei's rabbit, voiced by Edie Ichioka) and Fei Fei's new friend on moon, Gobi (voiced by Ken Jeong) that made me liked the movie. Their interactions made for some very fun and sweet moments, if only the story and the entire setting of Chang'e place or those Mooncake shaped Lunette's were interesting enough too. The songs were a disappointment too being a musical.

Chin (voiced by Robert G Chiu), at start felt irritating, but his going through the walls thing was funny and so was the latter scenes where he tries to help out his soon to be sister Fei Fei as he believes. Love the scene where Fei Fei lets Bungee stay over the moon, and also when Gobi narrates his past story. And totally adored all the reactions Bungee gives to everything Fei Fei does.

Its a good enough watch, felt entertaining in many parts, despite the mentioned flaws I didn't really felt bored at all. If you aren't looking for too much, then this movie shall work for you too. 

My Rating : 6.5/10 

Mini Review : Shaun The Sheep - Farmageddon

Directed by : Will Becher and Richard Phelan

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6193408/

Zom Zom

In the town of Mossingham, a UFO crash lands over the farm with a  mysterious alien Lu La (voiced by Amalia Vitale) landing out of it. Shaun (voiced by Justin Fletcher) becomes friendly with Lu La and tries to help along with rest sheep and Bitzer, sheepdog (voiced by John Sparkes). Also, there's an organisation that aims at capturing UFO's and has a leader Agent Red (Kate Harbour) who seems to have some personal agenda against the aliens.

The first part was a decent timepass movie, for me that worked in parts, and this one follows same route. My main problem is with the looks of Lu La and also the adventures Lu La has on earth was very mix of 'Thats Cute' to 'Thats so irritating'. Love the Shaun's pizza sequence or others that involve him and rest sheeps. Also, fun watching all scenes involving Bitzer and the sheeps, or when he is mistaken for an alien. Also, it would be nice if there's a character that had dialogues, its like Minions have their own language but doesn't mean all other characters don't speak too.

Maybe every animation film can't be meant for both kids and grown-ups, this one just falls in that category. I still didn't feel bored, still a very average movie.

My Rating : 5/10 

Mini Review : Minari

Directed by : Lee Isaac Chung

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10633456/

They need to see me succeed at something for once.

Spoilers ahead.. 

Jacob (Steven Yeun) relocates his Korean-American family from California to 1980's rural Arkansas with his wife Monica (Yeri Han) and children - David (Alan S Kim) and Anne (Noel Cho). He intends to build a 50 acre farm while doing part-time work with wife at a chicken sexer place. The rest story is about how everyone tries to adjust with the financial disaster looming if the farm doesn't go as per the plan. 

I always find simple family based stories (not dysfunctional) beautiful to watch and Minari is one of them. You see Jacob full of enthusiasm and desires wanting to prove he is capable of much more while his wife is skeptical and not liking the new house or the environment having no neighbour nearby. There's the regular fights on it but they keep supporting each other, Jacob does it by making Monica's mom, Soonja (an excellent Youn Yuh-jung) come live with them or by taking them to church to mingle with other people. 

Love how Jacob relates to his son David regarding the burning of male chicken as they being useless and we men rather have to be useful in this world. Also, the enjoyable scene when you think Jacob is gonna beat David with a stick but it turns into comedy when David twice intentionally brings broken sticks.

The main highlight of the movie however are the interactions of Soonja and David, they are super cute and very fun to watch, be it him saying 'she can't be grandma, she does nothing what Grandmas does' or her telling him to ignore those fake heaven stories Monica narrates so he would start habit of praying out of fear. Soonja also gives out what 'Minari' title means for viewers like me, about it being a plant that can be grown at any place like weeds and rich or poor anyone can enjoy it which basically could be a reference to Immigrants and they trying to find a new place to live at. 

The ending felt little confusing to me, like the writers weren't sure how to finish it on a nicer note. Its still a very enjoyable movie with strong emotions and fun moments involving excellent Alan S Kim and Youn Yuh-Jung.

My Rating : 7/10

Mini Review : Pieces of a Woman (Netflix)

Directed by : Kornel Mundruczo

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11161474/

How can I give this pain to someone else? Someone who has already suffered? And I know she would not want that. At all. That is not why my daughter came into this world for the time that she did.

Spoilers ahead.. 

Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) decide to give birth to their child at home when on a certain day they call their midwife who couldn't be available and sends Eva (Molly Parker) as a replacement qualified enough. Everything is looking fine until just moments after birth of the child, Eva realizes the baby's body is turning blue and eventually leads to death. What follows after that, is a long emptiness and alien kind behavior Martha goes through while dealing with all the relationships and also the Eva court case who is by Martha's mother Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn) held responsible for the untimely death of Martha's newly born baby. 

In the starting scene when a worker at bridge asks Sean who is Martha, he replies 'She is fine, she is always fine', the tone suggests maybe this ain't a happy couple and the child might be a way of them getting closer. Even the conversations or ways Sean tries to calm Martha down when she is feeling the contractions and getting moody needing distractions gives similar vibes. 

The excellent first act involves long 30 mins sequence at Sean-Martha place, where things seem normal when Eva comes and initially checks how the baby is doing, but the tension increases later when Eva feels the heartbeat of the baby isn't normal. We feel the same kind of relief Eva feels when the birth happens successfully only to see that the baby ends up living in this world for barely few mins.

The 2nd and final act are disappointing, half of the blame goes to how high the film starts with, and other has to do with the writing, just gets little melodramatic and cliched than I would had preferred. Vanessa Kirby however with her performance keeps you interested till the end. She beautifully portrays the emotions of a broken mother, mostly through silence, all her reactions to how her family tries to keep in touch or her changing equation with her husband and her decision to let her dead baby's body been used for medical institution. She has 2 outbursts, one in court and other with her family at her Mom's place, enjoyed both specially the latter one. You can feel her pain every time she is walking and a family with a kid is around or in train. The only time she feels at peace is when she is trying to use apple seeds to try and grow apples, which is also the last scene where her daughter is climbing to get the apple suggesting maybe finally Martha has moved on and got over that painful loss. 

Shia LaBeauof on the other hand didn't quite work for me, maybe it was the cliched route his character takes in the 2nd act involving drugs, liquor and sleeping with Martha's cousin. He does have some moments where he is mourning at the loss, but he is more on Martha's mom side wanting the midwife o suffer. Ellen Burstyn plays a controlling mother and has one very good long monologue where she tries to make Martha know how she herself fighted her way out of a tough situation in her childhood. The cousin angle I felt was totally off-putting, infact the whole case against mid-wife wasn't required either, when it was clear that it was just one of rare mishaps and not something done intentionally. I would had rather preferred more of Martha coping with the emptiness and the void she was feeling post the loss. 

Construction of bridge is used as a good reference to show the time passed by, the initial scene has Sean jokingly saying that he wants the construction end by the time his daughter enters the world, and after some months when bridge is indeed complete, Sean and Martha have completely fallen apart.

Pieces of a Woman is more of a film that's dominated by its super tense filled starting 30 mins and Vanessa Kirby's brilliant performance. 

My Rating : 6/10 

Mini Review : Promising Young Woman

Directed by : Emerald Fennell

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9620292/

Look how easy that was. I guess you just had to think about it in the right way. I guess it feels different when it's someone you love.

Spoilers ahead..

Cassandra Thomas (an excellent Carey Mulligan), a young woman and a medical school dropout works at a Coffee-Shop. Her life revolves around local bars and nightclubs she goes at night pretending to be drunk and vulnerable, but she is hunting men out who would want to take advantage of her. Soon we realize that she has had a bad past involving a school time best friend Nina, and she is out to get revenge for what happened to her. 

For some minutes, you do feel if Cassandra is some psycho or anti-men kind lady who is trying to dispose off the trash, or does she? Because we ain't shown what she does with them once guys realize she is very sober. There's this hilarious scene where she asks the  guy 'You still wanna fuck me?' and he replies back scared to death 'No, Thank you, madam.' 

The revenge angle begins when Ryan (Bo Burnham) who was in same medical school, meets Cassandra at coffee-shop as she learns the main culprit Al Monroe (Chris Lowell) is getting married, though it makes me wonder why would she wait to hear about him and others letting almost more than a decade pass by, rather going hunting them to take the revenge much sooner. Or did she never thought about it until learning how happy they are, which isn't right..

I like how the movie tries to draw a thin line about how to differentiate between good and bad men, because bad ones you know are direct, but then the good ones are hiding behind a mask and wanna be bad too. So, in a way the good men are further divided into two categories, one who are actually good and one who ain't. The very first scene shows exactly that, and later on we see same with Ryan, a very cool rom-com kind subplot only to later know how he was too involved in Nina's case. 

Enjoyed all the ways she choses to take revenge, whether its Madison (Alison Brie) or Dean Walker (Connie Britton), both of whom Cassandra gives a chance through conversation if they felt regret over these goneby years which they both didn't. 

Debutant director Emerald Fennell narrates the story in a dark comedy tone keeping a balance throughout. We see Cassandra getting a 'suitcase' by her parents for a wierd birthday gift, which she calls metaphor for being told to leave home. Or that funny and awkward dinner scene of Ryan at Cassandra's place with her parents. 

The use of songs is very well done too, whether its the 'Boys' (Droeloe remix) or the cool direct stare Cassandra gives to the dirty mouthed construction working men while walking on the road casually eating burger  and 'Its Raining Men' (DeathbyRomy) playing in background. Also, love the use of 'Toxic' and 'Angel of the Morning' right at the end. 

Carey Mulligan really excels in her performance, making this even better watch, love her body language, the two sides we see of her, one that hates trashy men, the kind responsible for Nina not to be around her, and other that loves men like Ryan because they appear sweet and just the kind she wants to be around with. Love when she kicks the trash can thinking Ryan is also another of the assholes. And then that final nurse/doctor act was wonderful to watch!

My only one complain was we never get to see any scenes of Nina with Cassandra, some flashbacks would have been nice, whether before that incident or after it, just to give more insight into what Nina meant for Cassandra, for which she had abandoned her life. 

The ending was very good, for a moment I felt maybe they were making a mistake of spoiling the whole film by letting Cassandra lose eventually and not get the justice for Nina, but the surprise at wedding, how Cassandra had PlanB if all went wrong was well executed, and I would say more real than it would had been if she succeeded directly. 

Promising Young Woman worked for me as a drama told in a darkish comedy tone with a revenge angle and a reminder about not to fall for fake good appearances. 

My Rating : 7.5/10