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Reviews
Frozen River (2008)
Well done..
Iam not much into indie films. But I liked this one.
Both the lead actresses have performed quite well in their roles.
Melissa Leo is convincing in her portrayal of a struggling working class mother.
It does have a few light moments. For example, some of the cop scenes are quite funny.
An example of subtle humor, I guess.
Scenes like these provide small but good interludes to an otherwise dark movie.
It also has a bit of spirituality thrown in. The characters do good inspite of being in terrible adversity.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Overrated
I think this movie has been overrated. Maybe it is appealing to the Western audience but for someone who is used to seeing the grandiosity of Indian movies, it is not clear why the movie has got such rave reviews.
A.R. Rahman's soundtrack is good, though not clearly his best. I think the lyricist could have done better though (Personally, I think "Jai Ho" did not fit well with the song's tune, which I thought was pretty good overall).
Anil Kapoor overacts his way to glory, and the movie could have done without him. Amitabh might have been better suited to the role - he was the original KBC host, after all.
Having said that, the movie is watchable. But Oscar worthy? Well, I leave that for the committee to decide.
A Wednesday (2008)
A great movie
A movie can be great in many ways - Some movies have great screenplay, others have stellar performances, some others have great cinematography or technical brilliance.
But there are also these movies that shine through on the might of their basic premise.
"A Wednesday" is one such movie. It starts out not so spectacularly, but the director builds up the storyline admirably, and brings it to a great climax, one that is bound to leave you stunned or surprised.
One cannot pull off something like this without a good cast. And this movie boasts of Naseerudin Shah, one of India's better actors, who plays a fantastic role in the movie. The rest of the cast have also done a good job.
A must watch.
The Wrestler (2008)
A surprisingly good movie
I went into the movie quite the skeptic, since I heard that the movie was about an aging professional wrestler (we all know it is not real!).
But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. And I should say it is definitely one of the better movies I have seen.
Good (no, great) performances from Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei.
I thought Marisa's performance was quite powerful - though Rourke seems to be the one getting great reviews for his acting.
I agree with the observation that this movie is actually not about wrestling, and in fact is about a man who thinks of his profession as more than just a means to live. It is his life itself, and to him it means everything, as there is little else happiness left for him.
It takes two professions (wrestling and prostitution) which are much maligned, and manages to create a very strong and compelling script.
That is one of it's accomplishments, other than the good performances and the haunting background score.