Change Your Image
ellenshifrin
Reviews
Heaven on Earth (2008)
Excruciating and Beautiful
Heaven on Earth is both excruciating and incredibly beautiful. It's this juxtaposition, along with the magical realism, that pulls us in, chains us to our seats, keeps our eyes and ears open, and exposes our hearts to the intensity of the situation. It opens us to Chand's vulnerability and strength, and commands us to be vulnerable and strong in turn.
The story is told elsewhere, so I won't talk about it here. Preity's performance is amazing, and she deserves any award she gets for this. And everyone else in the cast is also terrific. Like all Mehta's film's, it's literate, beautifully shot and edited, and takes on an issue no one really wants to talk about, let alone see up on a big screen.
While it might not be for everyone, Heaven on Earth is for those with the heart and strength to bare the onslaught of Chand's suffering and her escapes into imagination. The film has stayed with me since I saw it about a month ago. I hope it always does.
Morning Raga (2004)
Azmi makes it all worthwhile
I sat down to watch Morning Raga expecting to get up in half an hour and go for a walk. But I didn't. Shabana Azmi is mesmerizing, and I stayed to the end. I agree with other reviewers that the plot is simplistic, and the other actors are bland by comparison, but the music and Azmi make it all worth while.
I know basically nothing about Karnatic music, so I cannot speak from any knowledge, but the passion and virtuosity of the traditional songs were incredibly moving. The plot, outlined by others, could have been better had the three stories been interwoven with more finesse. But the story is only a vehicle for the music, so let's forgive its naivety.
Religulous (2008)
Good but superficial and misleading
I enjoy Bill Maher. I agree with much of what he says and stands for. His film Religulous exhorts us to question, to not take things at face value, to start from a place of not-knowing, to at least try to be humble. This is the stance he aspires to. But here are my thoughts on why he doesn't achieve this. While there is much that is terrific in the film, Maher's own lack of humility gets in the way.
He fell into the same trap that Richard Dawkins did in making The God Delusion. I admit I didn't read the book, but in the film he undermines his own case by interviewing the furthest out, most "crazy" people involved in religion that he could find. For example, how many young Jewish people are there who have become Muslims and who vehemently denounce their former affiliation? Maher does exactly the same. How many Christians ultimately declare themselves to be a kind of reincarnation of Jesus? Why has Maher chosen to spend so much time with this fellow?
His choice of people to interview seems rather capricious, especially outside the Vatican. True, he's limited by those who speak English, so the American priest he found to interview just happens to come off as a good guy. The other Catholic he interviews also comes off as pretty sane, especially compared to the others. So why doesn't he bring up the question of the horrific child sexual abuse in the Church with these nice guys?
Interview styles are important if one actually wants to hear what the interviewee has to say. Maher makes Michael Moore look like a paragon of low-key in this area. He interrupts constantly. The one person who insisted on being heard, an ultra-orthodox, anti-Zionist Jew, got abandoned by Maher in what seemed to be a few minutes (editing makes it difficult to tell exactly how long). So if Maher couldn't interrupt, crack jokes, and give his own opinion, he isn't interested in the interview. His is not the give-people-a-rope-and-let-them-hang-themselves type of interview style.
Last, I'd like to point Maher towards what the current religion in North America actually is: money, materialism, and hedonism. What makes our secular life-style so much better or saner than that of the peaceful religious (which we didn't hear much of in a real way). What makes our gas-guzzling, superficial, concrete-slabbed, GMO-poisoned world better? What's sane about allowing ourselves to be ruled by corporations, which are owned by the 1% extremely rich who pretend to care about their 99% fellow humans less fortunate than themselves? Who relentlessly lie to us with greenwashing tales of care for the environment? This is better?
This is movie with a good idea. Period.
Taare Zameen Par (2007)
Important film for Educators Everywhere
This is a very important film dealing with dyslexia, a problem well-known but not often put front and centre. This film should be seen by educators everywhere, and by parents with children who have reading difficulties. It should be seen in theatres everywhere, not just in those specializing in Hindi movies.
The story is about a young boy suffering desperately because he can neither read nor write, and is tormented in school by both students and teachers. We watch as the poor boy (who comes from a well-off family) deteriorates into practically a non-communicative state, and re-experience our own childhood sufferings. So a lot of the movie is excruciating for us too. There is progress and hope when a special teacher (Amir Khan) comes into the picture, but there is no magic fix, thank goodness.
Amir Khan's passion is clear, and I say Bravo! to him for taking this neglected subject on.