The Messenger
Oren Moverman | USA | 2009
112 min

The Messenger treads a noteworthy path. It is a slice-of-life film, focusing on essentially three characters in everyday America, yet is about a lot more than it shows. It brings a global conflict to our doorstep and down to a personal level. Although it is about grief, the movie is not heavy-laden with the emotion itself. This becomes the movie’s biggest accomplishment. continue reading »»

The Limits of Control
Jim Jarmusch | USA | 2009
116 min

Jim Jarmusch is an original. As critics and audiences celebrate Inglourious Basterds, Limits of Control is the year 2009’s genuine swansong to film culture; most subversively, it is a fuck-you to blockbuster cinema and quirky American indies from a maverick independent filmmaker in complete command of his craft and technique. Limits of Control seeks to study the nature of existence through the eyes of a hero (that rarely speaks), but the film is not taxed with ponderous philosophizing. Although Jarmusch has always been interested in big ideas — ideas about love, sex, death, reality; it is his idiosyncratic approach to these themes that protects and improves him as a innovator of cool and the new in cinema. continue reading »»

Where The Wild Things Are
Spike Jonze | USA | 2009
101 min

Where The Wild Things Are is a disappointment. This let down does not come from the fact that it’s based on a beloved children’s book that I’ve never read, but because it’s from the visionary director of quirky indie classics such as Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, two wonderful films filled with wit, energy and a distinguished zaniness. continue reading »»

The Informant
Steven Soderbergh | USA | 2009
108 min

With a misleading narrative, The Informant! serves up a seriocomic, tragic look at one man’s endeavour to bring down the organization he suspected of price fixing. Mark Whitacre, skilfully played with tongue in cheek absurdity by Matt Damon, was a self delusional, self contradicting, wealth obsessed, executive at Archer Daniels Midland, a large agricultural products enterprise that was involved in the international price-fixing of lysine, an important component of the agriculture business. The film is less an exposé on criminal practices at the workplace and more a satire of both the paranoia genre of the 70’s and countless legal thrillers. continue reading »»

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Rajkumar Santoshi | India | 2009
150 min

There is a distinct difference in how Romantic-Comedies are interpreted by filmmakers and audiences in Hollywood and Bollywood. While American movies tend to be Romantic movies with a measure of comedy thrown in, contemporary Bollywood makes them primarily as musical comedies with a love-story theme. While Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is firmly set in present-day Bollywood mannerism, Rajkumar Santoshi’s inspiration is classical Bollywood. This lends the film a distinct adorable flavor that many modern comedies lack. continue reading »»

Wake Up Sid
Ayan Mukerji | India | 2009
138 min

Wake Up Sid, the latest movie from Karan Johar‘s camp by yet another debutant director, has been strongly marketed as a movie for the present day youth, the slacker generation that refuses to grow up. Unfortunately, the director comes from the same culture as his target audience, and lacks the maturity and wisdom that this movie requires in its telling. This failure turns a fantastic opportunity into a dismal melodrama heavily layered in saccharine, making it a movie that is more a generation’s dream than a wakeup call. continue reading »»

Wanted
Prabhu Deva | India | 2009
155 min

Well before the release of Wanted, the movie’s strong and evenly loud promotions made it abundantly clear what to expect from it — action bent towards exaggeration and characters that are wild caricatures. In this, the movie does not disappoint. For those averse to its lead star, Salman Khan, or “Bollywood Masala” movies, Wanted can be punishing. Fans can rejoice though, as Salman Khan possibly delivers the most heroic performance of his career yet, molded firmly within escapist cinema. continue reading »»

Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino | USA | 2009
153 min

This film should not be taken seriously. How could it be taken seriously when its director is Quentin Tarantino whose reputation as a post-modern filmmaker or ‘film DJ’ is now fully entrenched in the public consciousness? Inglourious Basterds is the sixth film from this American auteur and it is polarizing: some think it is his best film after Pulp Fiction, while others declare it to be his worst — the bestowing of such labels is normal routine when discussing Tarantino who, undoubtedly, relishes fervent debate in his name. And to define this filmmaker’s movies as self-reflexive and indulgent would also be missing the point because it is Tarantino’s intention to be self-reflexive and indulgent. He loves cinema but clearly loves the attention he gets even more. (See? After six sentences we have yet to talk about the movie itself — QT, you’re a fox, yo!) continue reading »»