PimpinAinttEasy — 9 years ago(October 05, 2016 07:48 PM)

i recently watched:
HAPPY WEDDING (2016) -
crude malayali comedy. its like a cruder version of PREMAM. this film also has scenes from the love life and college life of a youngster. it is a series of comedic set pieces - starting with a horrible scene in a shopping mall, an amusing one in a beer and wine parlor, a flash back about love between a hindu boy and a muslim girl and then a long bus journey. sarafuddin who plays the heroes sidekick is one of the worst comedians in the history of malayalam cinema.
(3/10)
OPPAM (2016) -
Mohanlal phones it in for an utterly ill etched role as the serial do-gooding caretaker Jayaraman. The role is one dimensional. A hint of darkness in the character would have made the film a lot more interesting. But his innocence and relentless search for the truth came across as phony and lackluster. Jayaraman's shift into an ass kicking action hero in the film's second half is the sort of nonsense that you would watch in a Telegu film.
The story itself was quite interesting. But the loud characters, uninteresting sub-plots and awful background music make this thriller very tough to sit through. I even fell asleep during parts of the first half.
If it weren't for the antics of Chemban Vinod Jose and Mamukoya, the film would have ended up as another loud and contrived thriller like 7th Day. I was impressed by Samudraikarani's screen presence but he did have to act in some awful scenes. The screeching and weepy Vimala Raman and her affection for Jayaraman were utterly puke-worthy. Some of the sets during the action scenes were impressive.
The songs especially the one at the wedding is the sort of digression from the main plot that Malayalam cinema ought to have abandoned with the dark 90s and early 2000s.
I cannot believe Oppam is the biggest hit among the Onam releases. It makes me wonder about the quality of Oozham and Welcome to Central Jail. And the standard of Malayali audiences.
(1/10)
GAL YOUNG UN (1979)
An interesting feature of this film is that there are no close ups of people with epic expressions on their faces. There is also no phony epic piano music that is supposed to make us feel a certain way. The way of life in 1920s America and the atmosphere are not foregrounded to create a certain effect. The actors do not look like typical Hollywood actors. Everything is subtle and minimized.
If you enjoyed films like Cockfighter (by Monte Hellman) you might enjoy this film. But fans of over directed films like Ain't Them Bodies Saints are advised to stay away.
Gal Young Un is a tale of loneliness and life on a farm during the prohibition era in America. A lonely old woman falls for a crooked young bootlegger and takes him into her farm. The young man takes her for a ride, using her land to manufacture alcohol and also bringing other women into the old woman's house after he becomes a rich bootlegger. The film perfectly evokes the idyllic life on a farm and the vagaries of human nature.
A large portion of the character's interactions in the film take place during breakfast or lunch or dinner. It is over food that the battles and reconciliations are played out.
I am surprised Dana Preu (who plays the old woman) did not act in more films. Mattie Siles is kind, homely, loyal and lonely and these characteristics are evoked by Dana Preu without seeming to put in much effort. The pretty J. Smith-Cameron is the other woman with whom Mattie has to get along with. David Peck as the crooked bootlegger was a bit unremarkable.
(7/10)
10 RILLINGTON PLACE (1971)
I couldn't help but feel that the film is about the British psyche in post-war and post-colonial Britain. The film was representative of a time when British control and power over the rest of the world was on the wane. With their best already behind them, the British were trying to find a new purpose. I wrote the above for my review of Look Back in Anger. Like the characters in Look Back in Anger, Christie, Beryl Evans and Timothy Evans seem to have no future. Their meager residences with barely hidden squalor had decline and desolation written all over them.
The film is subtly terrifying and gruesome. It is under-directed with a zoom in (or dolly in?) often used to punctuate many scenes. There is a play like quality to the sets with a single light used in the sordid and seedy indoor scenes.
Words cannot describe how good John Hurt is in this film. He is the very embodiment of the illiterate, confused and helpless working class man. The scene where he is surrounded and sneered at by patrons at a bar was very very sad. Richard Attenborough as Christie was menacing and insidious. But were we supposed to feel some sympathy for the cunning and murderous Christie? Why else was the film mostly told from his point of view?
(8/10)
PINK (2016) - such an overrated piece of crap. the performances by tapasee and amitab bitchan were particularly awful.
(1/10)