Destroyer of Worlds

Maybe at some level Oppenheimer was a psychopath. And that is why he was chosen to lead the Manhattan Project. And that is why there is high drama with Strauss, and the differences with Teller. And the split personality that cannot resist the adulation and attribution of having won America the War, but on the other hand has to live with the horrors of the outcome. The sins of Oppenheimer are the failing of mankind itself - in spite of the sheer destructiveness of its creations we tread the very same paths time after time. Nolan departs from the storytelling of Interstellar and Inception, and delivers a drama with sensitivity and a poignant sense of history

15/20

The Impossible Odds of Sports (Sponsorship)

Air Jordans. Created out of a relentlessly persistent talent scout Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a mom who did right when it came to the crunch and created essentially revenue sharing in sports (Viola Davis), and a founder promoter who came through when it counted - Phil Knight (Ben Affleck). And some great design work. Matt Damon creates the greatest deal in the history of sports, through bagging the greatest athlete in the history of sports. Even in the most feelgood of genres Air is unmissable

17.5/20

Engineering Marvel

What is engineering - applied science - all about? It is about solving problems one by one, rigorously, from first principles, till a specific and possibly difficult goal is acheived. What if that goal were to be to return to Earth? Botanist and astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) shows us how engineering is done. I have as of yesterday been totally floored by The Martian, and its rigorous step-by-step engineering approach to problem solving, which quote frankly I cannot recall seeing in any other movie thus far. This is an absolute must-watch, and this is the sort of movie that twenty years later some scientists will quote as the early inspiration for their chosen path in life

16.5/20

Stellar

Complex and defining, inevitably compared to 2001 – A Space Odessey, and generally panned for its surfeit of near-pretentious mastery of quantum physics, Christopher Nolans’s latest magnum opus – Interstellar – is making waves worldwide as we speak. Set in a mildly dystopian, post-apocalyptic frugal future, Cooper (Matthew MacConnaughey), farmer turned pilot, stumbles upon the remnants of NASA, at the cusp of seeking to send a person to space and making contact with – well, something that could potentially save humans on Earth. Dazzling visuals, an intriguing storyline that requires the average viewer to pull up his/ her socks on the topic of quantum gravity and the like… Interstellar is quite the entertainer. Full marks to a brave movie that pushes the boundaries of what can be digested on “popular” cinema

16/20

Spread Out

Contagion is a well-paced and largely gripping thriller on the spread of a highly contagious and lethal virus. The movie has one distinctive feature – somehow it manages to hold your attention in spite of every element in it being a cliché. A deadly disease that has its origins in livestock and wild animals in – where else – China. Finds its way to the top of the food chain, to none other than the travelling businesswoman Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) and her son, but miraculously skips husband Mitch (Matt Damon). Kills millions before the desperate search for a vaccine is finally successful, thanks to the tireless efforts of Dr Orantes (Marion Cottilard) and Dr Cheever (Lawrence Fishburne). In the meantime, notable martyrs include Dr Mears (Kate Winslet), the early health worker, tireless and felled by the disease in the line of duty. The one non-cliched character is the profiteering and rumor-mongering freelancer Alan (Jude Law) – about the only character in the movie who is not a rank stereotype. In the meantime, chew a few fingernails as director Soderbergh (Solaris, Ocean’s Eleven) spreads disease and paranoia all around

13.5/20

Future Readjusted

Concurrent with the total collapse of his electoral campaign on the expose of some relatively trivial college event, Congressman David Norris (Matt Damon) falls for Elisa Sellas (Emily Blunt), a new York-based aspiring dancer. But, there are those who are determined that their union does not happen. As the movie progresses, the antecedents of The Adjustment Bureau come to light. But does the mere fact of the existence of a master plan mean the death of free will? And what does it mean for the potential tradeoff between career and love for David and Elisa? While the topics dealt with are deep and existential, the lack of any meaningful chemistry between the lead pair, and the rather offhand treatment of patently deep subjects means that this strange cross between sci fi and romance just scratches the surface of what it could have been

11/20

Inside the Catastrophe

Matt Damon – yes, the man who slammed Sarah Palin, and went all-out in the search for the truth behind the war on terror in Green Zone (albeit only on celluloid) continues his exposes on the issues that matter, slamming the investment banking fraternity in Inside Job. The opening scene on the economic fall of Iceland is successfully attention-grabbing. The documentary moves on to a five-part series on capitalism gone berserk. While the facts are well-known, the squirming economists with their ill-founded thought leadership on the free markets accompanied by their obvious conflicts of interest, and the lobbyists, and the long line of individuals who refused to be interviewed for the film – are a telltale reminder of what has come to pass as the adverse consequences of deregulation. Collectively, the all-star cast (largely politicians, bankers, academics, and thought leaders) reinforce the rationale behind the title of the film. For those with no time (or patience) for Too Big To Fail (book) or its likes, this is one of the more comprehensive snapshots of the Great Economic Crisis of 2008

15.5/20

After the Flood

Among the various better-documented paranormal phenomena would be near-death experiences, and the subsequent connectivity that people with such experiences supposedly have with the dead. At the heart of Hereafter there are just three characters (and I don’t mean director Clint Eastwood, producer Steven Spielberg and writer Peter Morgan). Marie Lelay (Cecile de France) almost dies as the tsunami hits Thailand – and the subsequent changes in her have profound consequences upon her work and relationships, as she embarks to write a book about her experience. George Lonegan (Matt Damon) is a San Francisco based reluctant psychic, a man running away from his gift and the psychological consequences of communicating with the dead, even as he is not quite stably employed. Marcus (Frankie McLaren and George McLaren) cannot cope with the death of brother Jason and looks for ways and means to communicate. The paths of all three cross unexpectedly in London – with the hope of positive outcomes all round. Well-executed like all Clint Eastwood fare, sensitive and touching in parts, and a good watch all round, though never crossing into exceptional territory as Eastwood has done so often

13.5/20

Play, United

The World Cup of Football just got over, and, for the moment, the world does not doubt the capability of sport to unite nations in a shared passion. However, uniting a nation – South Africa - in the midst of cataclysmic change – through sport is another matter altogether. With an insecure and newly disenfranchised white population, and a newly liberated but deeply suspicious black population, Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) turns to the captain of the national rugby team – Francois Piennar (Matt Damon) with a mission – win the world cup of rugby. A victory would unite a nation torn by decades of deep-rooted animosity, in a manner that no change in law or governance could possibly accomplish. Another brilliant and award-winning film by Clint Eastwood, and moving like only sports movies can be – the spirit of the movie (and its name) is no better captured than by William Ernest Henley’s poem Invictus – No matter how straight the gate/ or charged with adventures the scroll/ I am the master of my fate/ I am the captain of my soul

15.5/20

Body of Lies II

Chief Warrant officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) finds himself stonewalled when repeated missions to unearth weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in post-war Baghdad draw a blank, in the Green Zone. An impassionate representation to that effect to his superiors falls on deaf ears – well, almost. CIA officer Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) lets Roy know that his hunch (about WMDs or the absence of them) is right, and a related tip-off by an Iraqi national leads Roy to the formidable Al-Rawi (Yigal Naor) of the Republican Guards. Fast-paced chases ensue – the murky truth behind the very core of why America went to war against Iraq is unearthed. Loosely based on true events, Matt Damon again pulls off an anchor role with effortless panache. The movie continues a series of takes on the dubious warmongering by America in Iraq/ Middle East on the lines of The Kingdom, Lions for Lambs, and others – and could perhaps have been titled Body of Lies were there not another movie of the same name on the same subject. The stirring honesty in America’s immediacy in soul-searching on the war in Iraq is a well explored theme now – which does not take away from sterling performances and a fast paced action thriller. Eminently watchable

14/20

Corn-y

What a twisted world we live in! Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), family man and star performer of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), blows the lid off a global price fixing racket in lysine, in The Informant!. The same draws the attention of the FBI and together they literally bring the house down. And the movie takes off from there. With generous brushstrokes of noir, the lines between justice being served, and Mark Whitacre’s own relentless pursuit of the ADM corporate ladder become blurred. Things get even murkier as Whitacre is discovered to be on the take well into the investigation, a fact that may destroy the prosecution’s case in its entirety. The movie rounds off with a large sentence for Whitacre – justice served or denied? Well you need to decide for yourself, because director Steven Soderbergh (Oceans 11 to 13, Erin Brokovich, Solaris) wants you to make up your own mind in this dark comedy

14/20

Rookie Rainmaking

Matt Damon gives an understated and brilliant performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rainmaker. A human story, the rookie gets attached to the life stories of each of his 3 clients – a woman writing a will to ingrate children, a victim of domestic violence to whom he becomes romantically attached, and the pivotal case – a son that is denied an insurance claim and dies of leukemia. The appeal of the movie, as well as perhaps its drawback, lies in its simplicity – all black and white with no shades of gray. The protagonist and rainmaker eschews stardom to fulfil his obligations to those towards whom he has become attached. Like the stories of John Grisham, this one too makes you want to jump out of your hum-ho existence skin and become a lawyer who does not lose his moral compass in “lawyer jokes” America