Moon Knight (2022) | Series Review

 27/June/2022. Watched. 

 My rating: 7.8/10. 

 A few years ago I began reading the Moon Knight comics because the premise promised a character study of a troubled individual with multiple personality disorder and superpowers. With costume which reminds you of Bat-Man, the character couldn't have been further from the Dark Knight. But, as it turned out, I couldn't get past the first issue. It was too pulpy and convoluted for my liking and the artwork was not very good to look at to say the least. But after watching this adaptation, I feel like picking up the Warren Ellis' Moon Knight even though I've outgrown the Marvel comics. 

 Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke make this show work. Oscar with his double (triple, technically) role as the British nerd Steven, a timid man who fears his own shadow and Marc, an American mercenary slash badass. And to make things even more awkward, both the personalities are in love with the same girl, Layla, played by May Calamway, the awkward part being that Marc is married to Layla. 

 Ethan Hawke has always been one of my favorites, whether it be Linklater's Tape (2001), the Before Trilogy, Boyhood (2014) or The Dead Poets' Society (1989), I'm yet to see him deliver anything less than perfection. And I think he is pretty good as the cult-leader villain here, even though the writing doesn't really hit the mark most of the time. 

 The writing in general doesn't feel like the show's strength. The ancient Egyptian civilization and their mythology have always been my favorite to read about, probably because of the massive, insanely intricate structures that they built. And also because of the Library of Alexandria which unfortunately went up in flames. But unfortunately the show doesn't really take full advantage of the mythology, the way Assassin's Creed: Origins did. 

 The real star of this whole production has to be the soundtrack. The score feels fresh and is actually a bit memorable and is clearly the best original score Marvel has come up with in years. And the Egyptian pop songs with their Arabic rap gives the atmosphere an incredibly distinct personality. The clear standout for me was El Malouk by Ahmed Saad. I also found out that the show also utilized underground music of Egypt which is banned in their country because freedom of expression isn't free everywhere. And Disney must be praised for putting the repressed at the front and centre and refusing to portray the culture in a stereotypical manner.

 The costumes of the show also look terrific, whether it be the Deadpool-esque Mr Knight costume or Layla's outfit in the climax. May Calamway really made me interested in her character by the end of it; would definitely like to see her return. Both of the leads should return in a feature film. 

 What I didn't enjoy about this show was how it kept skipping over the action scenes and how there was very little Moon Knight present in a show which has him as it's title. I was expecting Jake Lockley to appear and deliver his fight scenes in the most gruesome way but it never happened. Instead he appeared at the end and that was it. It felt like the whole story was a build up to a let down. 

 Moon Knight is an enjoyable show to watch because of it's eccentric editing and loony lead performance. Lets see when this character will return.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) | Review

26/June/2022. Watched. 

 My rating: 6/10. 

 Every MCU project since Endgame, except for No Way Home, has left me at best feeling underwhelmed and at worst frustrated. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is not an exception.

 Look, we've all heard how terrible the Marvel template is. How creativity goes to drown herself in Kevin Feigi's well of restraint. And when I first heard that Sam Raimi was returning to direct a superhero film, I was disappointed. Not only because I find myself experiencing extreme superhero fatigue, but also because I knew that Raimi would barely be visible in the film, coming to the surface at regular but brief intervals. And that's exactly what it is.

 Consider the action scenes in the original Spider-Man films. The times square battle, the tram full of kids and Mary Jane falling towards their death, the train full of civilians men, women and children rolling towards the sea, even the bystanders are endangered during a car chase. There were stakes. They made us care and flinch and thrilled when the hero saved the day. It felt real, in it's own fantastical way. 

 But now when you look at the fight scenes in DSITMOM (terrible title for a movie by the way), which are choreographed way before a director is even hired, they feel hollow. In spite of their millions of dollars worth of VFX, they end up feeling lifeless. Why is that? Its because we know nothing bad of actual consequence is going to happen to this world that we're seeing. Because we have been seeing this same world for the last fourteen years. Things only seem to be getting better for this world, if not for the bigger monsters. For narrative to have some weight, the characters and the world needs to worsen as it progresses, not flourish. 

 Take a look at Spider-Man 2 (2004), for instance. Directed by none other than Raimi himself, and written by Alvin Sergeant, its a masterclass at how chasing your protagonist up a tree and throwing rocks at them makes the audience root for them even more. The worse the situations they find themselves in, the more interesting the story as a whole gets. But the fact that the MCU films are rather lucrative intellectual properties first and foremost, they come with a ceiling to which the tension can escalate. They can't risk to gut their cash cow. And all the more power to them for it. But don't expect me to stay around for that. 

 The cast is alright. I don't understand what am I supposed to admire in these big budget movies nowadays when it comes to acting. We've seen a lot of Benedict Cumberbatch in this past decade; Sherlock, The Imitation Game, The Power of the Dog and the hundred different MCU titles; hence we know, you know, exactly what you'll be getting when going into this, so I needn't talk about any of it. 

 Elizabeth Olsen steers her performance into a more unhinged territory and finally becomes a complete villain (which she had already became in WandaVision but the writers refused to treat her as one at the end). And I liked her character the best in this, as she finally gets to complete her arc and finish her story. I hope that they don't bring her back - which they will sooner or later - because it was a pretty good ending for her character. 

 This paragraph will contain spoilers, so skip if you haven't seen it yet. I smiled once in this entire affair and that was when Hayley Atwell and Jim, James, Jimothy from The Office (John Krasinski) showed up as Captain Carter and Reed Richards respectively. I love both the actors, their scenes were short but nice. Their scenes weren't written very well though, the totality of my enjoyment came from their mere presence on the screen. Also, Sir Patrick Stewart also reprised his role as Charles Xavier. He rolls in the frame with a rendition of X-Men animated series' theme playing in the background, but was it worth it? Logan was a perfect send off for the character, we didn't need to see him again. But alright. And the Bruce Campbell cameo could've been so much better; his post credit scene was fun though. Man... he has gotten old.

 There were many callbacks to the Holy Trilogy, with the way the shots were composed, the dialogues were written and the music was composed. Danny Elfman's new score for this film sounds eerily similar to how his score sounded for the Spider-Man movies. Which makes it forgettable for me, by reminding me of the other movies. Its good though. The cheesy piano bangs were fun. Plus, the ending for Wanda is exactly the same as Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2. There you go.

 Another thing which bugs me is that these films feel agenda-driven. Almost qualifying as woke-propaganda. For example, during a scene in a church, in a single frame you can see people of all races and religions sitting and smiling as the wedding proceeds. Now, I'm not saying that it can't or doesn't happen. What I'm saying is that it feels forced, pandering and it makes me cringe. And guess what, when you travel to an alternate New York City, its an envirmentalist utopia. I'm all for environmentalism, but when you put social messages in such a blunt manner where it doesn't belong, it feels odd. 

 I wonder if Raimi decides to make his Spider-Man 4, would it really be "his" Spider-Man 4? Or would the studios dictate it's fate? I doubt if it would have that same cinematic feeling. Sam Raimi will always have a special place in our hearts for my generation, but perhaps his best work is behind him. I hope he proves me wrong.

Persona (1966) | Review

 19/June/2022. Watched. 

 My rating: 10 /10. 

 The Bada Imambara  is a good example of Mughal acrchitecture in Lucknow, the city 80kms to my home. Famous for its labyrinth with countless doors and turns, it amazes people to this day. The doorways are intentionally designed small enough so that one has to bow and enter. It feels the same to me before I watch a film made by a deity of the cinematic pantheon.

 I feel nervous. Not because of the possibility that I won't understand it. No. Not understanding is fine. But because I may not like it. Which is a far more scarier prospect because it then makes me question my own comprehension of the cinematic canon. Hence I find myself often in a bowed state prior to entering a respected film by a respected storyteller.

 Filmmakers like Tarantino, Linklater or Cameron, as great as they are, always feel touchable. They work at a level which is at least understandable to me, if not imitable. But filmmakers like Fellini, Bergman or Coppola work on a level which is so radical that it baffles me when I see their films. Like a labyrinth, their work unfolds. In ways which you don't expect. 

 And such is the case with this Swedish film, Persona (1966). Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, it is my second film of his; The Seventh Seal (1957) being the first. TSS found it's place as the number sixth on my top 20 list of 2020. It has taken me more than a year to gather the courage and continue with his filmography. The benchmark was so set so high with TSS, yet Bergman matched it with Persona.

 The film features mainly 2 characters played by Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullman; the latter of whom's character is silent for the most part of the film. Liv's character is an actress who decides to go mute and is accompanied by Bibi's character who becomes her nurse/companion. They move to a house near the sea and emotional turmoils take place as the two experience symbiotic relationship and incomparable sense of liberty.

 The film begins with a projector turning on, presenting the audience with a seemingly random set of clips, as if we're witnessing the birth of cinema itself. Followed by a boy caressing the large images of women's faces. 

 In Virginia Woolf's essay, A Room of One's Own (1929), she talks about how a woman needs money and independence to thrive as an artist. Allow me to quote her, "Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read, could scarcely spell and was the property of her husband." And Bergman is aware of men's idealization of women in a similar, as portrayed by the boy seeing huge, blurry, images of women and trying to touch them, to make them real, to make himself real. We put our mothers on a pedestal and try to reach them.

 Its a film about loneliness, duality and depression. To read it as a lesbian romance is a fair but surface level reading of the film. Its obvious that the two characters are the one and the same; and that character is Woman. One part of her has gone silent, has withdrawn herself from the world. The other part goes on and on with her monologues, about her worries and passions and sins. 

 Both parts are participating in an act, in which they pretend to be what the society expects them to be. Hence losing their own identity and happiness. Ullman's character hates her son, for she never wanted him in the first place. The only reason she had him was that the people around her convinced her that it was a required action to qualify as a woman. And the only qualification of the people who said that was that they were not a woman. Of course.

 Bibi's character struggles with her constant desire to not be tied down to a marriage. She tries to convince herself that she wants it, because that's what is expected of her, but when it comes to it, she acts contradictorily.

 Bergman wrote about depression very similarly to how I wrote about it last year. Describing it as being aware of one's mortality at all times. Being estranged with your surroundings and disassociation making you want to quit living. It is among the best portrayals of depression that I've seen since Hamlet.  

 From the score to the editing to the writing to the performances, I find this film to be utterly flawless. 

 I can't wait to start reading Tarkovsky's Time Within Time, and now I think I'll try to get my hands on some of Bergman's books as well.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl (2003) | Review

 9/June/2022. Watched. 

 My rating:  8/10. 

 The infamous, or famous (I can't quite make up my mind about it), trial of Johnny Depp & Amber Heard marks a shift in our zeitgeist as we're forced to reexamine our perception of women and finally treat them as an equal; equal in their capacity to be evil as well, which was somewhat absent from the past decade. And the trial marked a shift in me personally too, as I realized I had never watched any of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I'll let you decide which shift is greater.

 I went in with high hopes because I had only ever heard great things about this franchise and being familiar with the character of Cpt. Jack Sparrow because of it's popularity in pop-culture made me that much more eager to watch it. And I must say that my hopes were met with some amount of satisfaction.

 The plot and premise of the story promises a swashbuckling adventure of plundering pirates in the paradisaical seas of the Caribbean. Unlike my clumsy attempt at alliteration in the previous line, the structure of this film is very simple. And its that simplicity that works wonders for it. It allows for the 18th century world and the characters that inhabit it to take the centre stage. 

 It has everything you'd expect from a movie about pirates during the golden age of piracy. Ships with sails full of glory flying the Jolly Roger, cutlass wielding colourful characters who carry a parrot on their shoulder or wear a fake eye, an antagonist which literally goes "Arrgh!"... 

 But where it subverts expectations is when it decides to focus on the character of Sparrow who comes off as a bumbling drunk with a bellyful of cheap rum and cheaper manners. He is not any Tom, Dick and Sindbad that only does heroic things and is a goody two shoes. Instead, he wears a facade of incompetency and comes off as a low life to throw his enemies off guard. Its this characteristic that lends the character to humorous antics and amiability. 

 The animated performance of Depp would've completely stuck out if the rest of the cast had taken themselves too seriously. Geoffrey Bush, Jonathan Pryce and Jack Davenport were clearly having a lot of fun with their roles. At least it would seem that way. And Keira Knightley had among the best performances in the whole movie, which made her character so much more likable than it would've been on the page. 

 The VFX in this are also incredible, from the sparks of meeting swords to entire ships and fleet of skeletons, it all looks top notch. There's a really fun shot in which two characters are sword fighting and walking in and out of shafts of moonlight, turning into skeletons and back to human forms as they do. My only qualm with the way the film looks would be with the set designs, which makes me realize at all times that its a movie set on which it is being shot. It does give it a humble charm to an extent though, but it did pull me out of the world a bit. Another thing which I absolutely loved in this were the costumes, especially that of Jack Sparrow and Keira Knightley (even though it slanders corsets). Keira Knightley's costume at the climax looks so good. 

 I'm eager to watch the sequels and I think they would fix the set design issues in it. I'm also looking forward to Bill Nighy's Davy Jones even though I have heard that the sequels aren't as good as the original.

 The reason why I liked this film so much is perhaps that I love Assassin's Creed: Black Flag which is essentially the game adaptation of this 2003 movie. I just remembered that in one scene it hinted at slavery (in the scene where the dock-keeper walks around with a little black boy), which is quite admirable considering its a big budget Disney movie.

 This is the third film I have watched by Gore Verbinski, the other two being 2011's Rango - which I adored when I watched it a long, long time ago - and the second one being 2002's The Ring which had bored me out of my mind. This experience rests firmly in the middle.

 I think I will enjoy the game, Sea of Thieves (2018).

The Girlfriend Experience | Season 1 (2016) | Review

 5/June/2022. 

 Season 1. Watched. 

 My rating: 8/10.

 The Girlfriend Experience follows a young law student who has just got a position as an intern for a prestigious law firm but somehow finds it unsatisfactory enough for her to become a high-end escort in the luxurious lap of the New York City. Troubles ensue.

 Admittedly, I went in this show not expecting much from it, considering it's erotic themes. But thankfully it turned out to be a well put together series of episodes which uses the intensity of it's sensual scenes to propel the narrative towards a tense climax. 

 Episode 9 was especially impressive with it's non-linear structure, handheld shots and anxiety inducing sound design. The "clean" look that the cinematography achieves with it's digital cameras also gives the story a very youthful, pristine aesthetic. As if the show itself is one of those women that the show is about.

 It stars Riley Keough and it really is her vehicle. She is a damn good performer in this and really carries the whole show. She brings a level of honesty to the character that I'm not entirely sure it had on page. I later found out that I had seen her in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and she is also the granddaughter of Elvis Presley. Interesting. I would love to see her in an arthouse drama.

 It was a good first season and I heard that this is where Riley's character's story ends and the second season brings a fresh cast. I have a feeling that it'll drop in quality in the following seasons but I'll give it a watch nonetheless.