Witch of Them is It?

Small-time Kansas conjurer Oz (James Franco) finds himself whisked off to the land of Oz – where three beautiful women – Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz), and Glinda (Michelle Williams) – play a veritable whodunit in terms of who among them is the Wicked Witch. Suffice to say that while Oz – The Great and Powerful – does not do disservice to L Frank Baum’s original, it is markedly different – in particular, invoking the great Thomas Alva Edison and a different kind of magic in 20^th century science. Well taken, and contemporary enough overall to be relevant

13.5/20

Watch this movie. Shudder.

Some movies are so good, so watchable, so perfect, they can actually make you go weak in the knees. When Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), the former an US Marshal, step out to Shutter Island, a correctional facility for the psychologically insane, to investigate the disappearance of one Rachel Salondo, I was expecting a Zodiac or Lonely Hearts style period-piece investigative thriller. But this is a Martin Scorcese flim, and to expect the ordinary is to do gross injustice. The movie twists and turns and it is increasingly hard to make out what is real and what is imagined. Where is Rachel Salondo – did she ever exist. What is this facility about. Who is Chuck? Most of all, who is Teddy and what is in his past? While the plot does unravel and Teddy comes to terms – or close – to the ghosts of his past – till the very end the movie remains shrouded in mystery. Is Teddy cured and headed off the island, or is he still “unwell” and packed off to the mysterious and sinister lighthouse. Think of Scorcese laughing uproariously as he plays with your mind till the very end

18.5/20