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