Change Your Image
shariqmahbub
Reviews
Challengers (2024)
The Tennis Match Metaphor
Wow, this is an excellent movie that keeps you on your toes, for you do not know where it is going. It is very rich in terms of character nuances and themes.
Tennis, like chess, is a game of combat and skill between 2 opponents. Traditionally, in the literary tradition, chess is associated as a metaphor for duality, for combat, to see who will come out on top.
Both Patrick (Josh O'Connor) and Art (Mark Fast) are traditional combatants when they first meet up in junior tennis training camp, focused on reaching the professional circuit, and winning. Yet, there is a camaraderie and deep friendship that develops as well with these teenage roomies, and this is shown up front when they work as a team on doubles.
Who will come out on top? Here is where the nuances start. Patrick seems to be the better player, yet his heart is more connected to friendship, as he is willing to consider losing the Junior US Open final to Art, to help his friend out. Art, less confident, and, perhaps, less talented, has no qualms about being helped to get ahead.
Fast forward to the entrance of Tashi (a resplendent Zendaya), a winning female Junior player who has both the top of the game playing ability (like Patrick) and the desire to win and be the best (like Art). And she has the X-factor: confidence in herself and her destiny to win, that both Patrick and Art lack.
As the movie plays out and we have both Patrick and Art falling for Tashi and competing for her, we see these nuances play out amongst the 3 characters.
Art sees Tashi as someone who can help him gain confidence and win. Patrick thinks with his heart first and just wants her as his magnificent girlfriend. And Tashi is constantly assessing who will best serve her endgame to come out on top, and she needs one of them because of her career-ending knee injury that does not allow her to win on her own.
Tashi eventually chooses Art over Patrick because he allows her equal or even more senior billing in his wins, with her as his coach. She is mother, she is senior, she makes the decisions, and changes the promotion of Art to "we" to make sure she is included in Art's success at the top. He could not do it without her is the clear message.
Patrick, although coming from the heart, is too talented to make Tashi feel she is indispensable for his success- but as the years play out, perhaps she was needed, because Patrick lacks ambition and focus, even though he has the talent.
As the machinations of the triangle of love and tennis play out over the years in time jumping sequences it is clear that the 3-some has added much complexity to the simple two combatants notion of tennis and chess.
The trajectory seems to be that Tashi will always win, and whomever she chooses will win with her.
Yet the triangle, in its extra player, finds an out-of-the-box ending as the movie's titles roll - at match point in the most critical match of their lives for Patrick and Art, as the rally goes on and on and the suspense builds and the music soundtrack pulsates ands swoons, Art, in making an overhead smash, runs into the net and falls over it, into Patrick's arms.
Their camaraderie and friendship, their love, has been possibly rekindled, making obsolete the separation that Tashi imposed as a condition of success, based on her ego.
Perhaps holding dear relationships from the heart and nurturing them is more important than which side will win in tennis or in chess or in life.
Great homoeroticism from Patrick and Art in the threesome scene, yet it is quite innocent. They are obviously straight but have great affection for and connection with each other.
This level of connection that is selfless and uniting is what Tashi can learn from them.
Breaking the net that separates the two opponents puts them on the same side.
George & Tammy (2022)
Disappointing with Bland Vocals
Really disappointing. This is a huge ego project for Jessica Chastain as Executive Producer, casting herself as singing Tammy's songs, when her voice does not remotely resemble the beauty and spiritually uplifting nature of Tammy's originals.
This creative choice reduces the show to badly written and executed melodrama, without the beauty of the music that made the central characters interesting in the first place.
The show feels biased to make Jessica Chastain's Tammy always the one who is wronged. A smarter screenplay would have been much more complex in exploring the dynamics of the connection between this duo.
I am very surprised at the high railing for the show and that Jessica Chastain got a SAG nomination. It doesn't feel right.
Photograph (2019)
Rewriting the Romance
There is a consciousness of LOVE that is a knowing, a silent understanding, a resonance in kindness that throbs through the mood of this elegant, unpredictable and empathetic love story.
The director conveys a sense in this movie of the possibilities of LOVE that can find itself blooming in spite of apparently insurmountable obstacles like class and social status in a historically caste-based Indian society.
The main actor and actress beautifully reveal themselves and their growing love in hushed silences and askewed glances.
Will they re-write the standard Indian script and be mavericks and get together, just like they walked out of a movie that tells the standard Indian story of the impossible love that could never be? Or will the challenges be too much? Or will Rafi, the male lead, change his life into abundance for his love?
Fascinating movie. It reminded me a bit of "In the Mood for Love", although this movie is very much bits own unique magical creation.
I loved it!
I Care a Lot (2020)
A Sophisticated, Well-Acted Satire
I really enjoyed the movie, even though I am not normally a fan of villains as protagonists.
Rosamund Pike turns in an exceptional performance as villain-protagonist, and the script is unpredictable, like life is.
The movie is a satire, within the world-view of "users" and "losers". What happens when you put two users together? Chaos, drama, and the escalation of tit-for-tat revenge actions.
I think the movie makes many uncomfortable because American movies tend to be so formulaic, with the hero, the one you root for, getting the bad guys at the end.
And here we have two villains who are humanized to some extent, and that makes people uncomfortable when they feel sympathy for the villain - there is confusion because there is no "good guy".
The ratings of 1 and 2 seem way off the mark, and probably unconsciously reflect some fear that got triggered in the reviewers about their own mortality and fear of ending up alone in a senior home.
The movie was very entertaining and the ending was cathartic, as bad deeds simply attract more bad deeds - crime attracts more crime.
Undine (2020)
Undine - The Potentials of The Power of Love
In this powerful movie, by master filmmaker Petzold, Love is seen as a force that can begin to overturn and re-write stories about betrayal and revenge, such as the myth of the water-nymph, Undine.
This myth decrees it to be Undine's fate to be betrayed by her lover and to kill him in revenge.
The movie opens in mid-action, with this event already unfolding, as Undine (a magnificent Paula Beer) is in the process of getting dumped by her boyfriend, Johannes. The myth is very much unfolding, and she warns Johannes: she will have to kill him if he leaves her. And he does.
And then within some minutes, on the same day, Christoph (a very handsome and endearing Franz Rogowski) shows up. Christop is an underwater diver, and is fluid in the water element. There is an instant chemistry, attraction and unspoken knowingness of a soul connection between the two. The fish tank in the restaurant explodes and not only do the fish come to land (as Undine has) but the diver model in the tank comes to land in Undine's possession. Could it be that she might be truly loved without betrayal?
In the passion, exuberance and fulfillment of the beautiful love flow between Undine and Christoph, Undine seems to forget about her fate of having to avenge her betrayal by Johannes. She seems to be rescued by this love. Christoph resuscitates her when she appears to be unconscious after going diving with him and seeing her name on a ship (reminding her of the myth, the duty of revenge). His love brings her back to a new frequency of love, outside of revenge and betrayal. She asks him, can he resuscitate her again? She is enjoying this.
And so Undine expands consciousness beyond the myth as she delivers a special lecture on the central Palace in East Berlin that was destroyed during the Russian occupation. In this talk, Undine discusses the various forms the grounds of the palace have taken over time, including a palace, empty, razed ground, and now, the museum. And yet, the identity of the palace as a central point around which Berlin arose is intact. The messages of how form and timelines can shift reflect Undine's own mood and optimism. How far can these new times of fulfilled love with Christoph go, Christoph, the new form of the boyfriend who was Johannes?
And yet the myth continues to reassert itself. The toy diver gets broken at the leg by a co-worker, although Undine re-glues it on. This pre-figures a fragility in the Christoph manifestation. And Christoph stains the wall of her apartment with a red blotch of wine, that looks like blood.
And then Johannes reappears and the timelines merge and the myth and destiny of revenge begin to catch up with Undine and Christoph.
We are in unknown territory of time and place. Christoph calls Undine up to accuse her of lying and implicit betrayal even though she has not betrayed him. The myth seems to be unraveling the true love in mysterious ways. And by doing so, sets in motion an accident for Christoph, while diving, as his leg gets caught in a turbine, as pre-figured by the toy's leg breaking and he ends up brain-dead. And yet time is fungible and unpredictable as timelines are being played around with. He calls Undine several hours after the accident occurred, and he was already brain dead.
The revenge on Christoph for rejecting Undine, for playing out the myth in the form of Christoph, just as Johannes had, is a done deal, and happens even before the actual betrayal and rejection.
Now Undine is engaged in the myth and fulfilling her destiny. She goes back and kills Johannes, as fate had required her to, before her brief interlude with true love.
And in so doing, she saves Christoph: by completing the revenge on Johannes - another life is not needed.
Christoph who awakens, after being brain-dead for months, with a sense of loss, yells out Undine's name, feeling the loss of his soul-mate, for she has returned to the water.
Some reviewers have stated that the epilogue of the movie is unnecessary. Yet, within the context of the themes, the re-sighting of Undine underwater by Christoph, and there subsequent holding of hands underwater and saying goodbye is an important salute to how eternal their love is, in spite of a world of myth that decrees that they cannot be together.
The power of their love is eternal, just like the importance of the palace in East Berlin, no matter how many forms it goes through, including being destroyed, being razed to the ground.
In another world, in another set of timelines, when we can let go of revenge for the woundings we have encountered, and forgive others, perhaps we can be free to find fulfilling love that is everlasting and not fragile. Although Undine does not succeed, she has made progress in changing the form of her myth, and love might find a way to her as form continues to metamorphose and new timelines are possible.
So I feel the epilogue sounds an optimistic note on the Power of Love in a world of betrayal and revenge.
The Dinner (2017)
Great Acting and Complex Themes
This movie is very good.
Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Richard Gere, Rebecca Hall are all excellent in their roles, with superb acting.
There is great complexity of theme and character in this movie, as in a ultimate-layered novel or play. I could see more of the masterful interconnections the movie makes on my second viewing. The first time it was not always easy to see how the pieces made sense together.
One of the themes of the movie is family loyalty. How far would you go to defend and protect and lie for your family. Is murder acceptable?
We then have the additional complexity of the unreliable narrator. Paul, mentally unstable and medicated when he takes his pills, provides his perspectives on the other characters, yet we discover many might be untrue (like the fact that his brother Stan was protecting Paul from a crazy mother, and not trying to take her affection away from Paul). As the movie proceeds we learn more about each central character, as the outer layers are stripped away and family loyalty choices lay bare their fundamental characters.
Who are we really, and how much of our true self do we show to the world?
Another theme of the movie is envy of wealth and power. This is another divide: the haves and have-nots. Paul envies Stan and his success. Stan is obviously much wealthier than Paul as well. And the fancy Michelin Star type dinner is part of the politics of hierarchy where Stan can show his power, financial and political, to try and force through a decision that the others don't want.
The haves make fun of the have-nots, as Michael taunts the homeless woman: "why don't you get a job?"
And, paradoxically, the haves in the form of Stan (Richard Gere) appears benevolent in wanting expand access to mental health health insurance reimbursement for all, while our have-not (in his mind) Paul (Steve Coogan), while claiming he has always been a proponent for the poor people, contemplates the deaths of those he does not approve of, even within family, in a speech he makes to an empty classroom, where he teaches history, spouting his anger.
A very full movie with many complexities of narrative and motivation - I love ambitious and intelligent film-making.
Hikari (2017)
Radiance - Our Common Humanity as a Healing Bridge
What an interesting movie about loss and redemption by remembering the inherent radiance of all things and all experiences.
I had seen Kawase's "Sweet Bean" and really enjoyed it.
Yet, although this film, too, is about disability and those who live on the margins, the healing nature of the film lies in the character arc of the female protagonist to go through her own emotions of redemption and loss to begin to see those who are marginalized as equal, complex human beings, through the eyes of compassion, as opposed to a "rescue" mode, where she tried to initially insert uplifting didactic messages in an audio version of a film she is preparing for the visually impaired.
It's through compassion and a belief in the joint radiance of humanity, in spite of the challenges, hopes and losses of the human experience that we can find compassion and hope.
Radiance is a movie for the times of Covid. Our common humanity, our joint experiences of the ups and downs of life can be the bridge for healing the antagonisms and tribal frequencies that have been rife in this time of uncertainty and fear.
The Sun is always there, providing radiance.
White Lines (2020)
Sophisticated Characterization
The characters are much more sophisticated and interesting than many other reviews suggest.
Zoe is a messy character for a purpose. By the end of the series, she appears very similar to her murdered brother with her selfishness, her sense of entitlement and lack of concern for those who love her. She is as much a product of her toxic father's upbringing as her brother. She may be the protagonist, but she is not the heroine.
By contrast, Boxer, denigrated as the "nightclub bouncer", although a bodyguard and a murderer, consistently displays compassion, strength, a sense of humor and kindness to other. Unlike Zoe, he does not seek revenge. His sense of "being in the moment" is less greedy and needy, more about resetting into higher possibilities from what has been. But he gives too much to others and does not put himself first. He could easily have been the hero, from a plot perspective, and yet he is not.
This dance of contrasts between Zoe and Boxer is the thematic core of the series - how do you choose to relate to others amidst a world of violence and betrayal?
By the end of the series, Zoe has begun the journey to let go of her toxic past.
And Boxer has begun the journey of believing that he deserves a girlfriend who values his many qualities, and doesn't want to just use him. This is why he resigns from his job - ha cannot continue to sacrifice his cakes to please others.
I very much enjoyed the complexity of the characterization - a sign of the European production.