Cat out of the Bag

Mendacity. Politely, lies and then damned lies. Brick Pollitt, favored heir of the Pollitt empire, lies to himself about why he is an alcoholic, and why he resists the affections of his beautiful wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor). Big Daddy Pollitt (Burl Ives) lies to himself about loving the family, as opposed to, well, owning them. And other son and daughter-in law Gooper and Mae (Jack Carson and Madeline Sherwood) are the very picture of pretentiousness as they make their rather obvious moves for the Pollitt empire. Cat on A Hot Tin Roof is set on Big Daddy’s 65th birthday, and, unknown to him but to the knowledge of his family – his impending demise. One by one, through intense bursts of dialogue, all the truth comes tumbling out of the closet. Brick’s self-loathing and guilt on account of blaming himself for the death of a friend, is revealed only through the dialogue with Big Daddy. In the meantime, the relationship between Brick and Maggie move towards the mend, even as the brother and his wife’s true intentions are glaringly revealed. The emoting is generations from what modern audiences would expect, but the story in no way appears theatrical - it is a fairly believable account of what can befall a family if each member is clouded by his or her own self-seeking goals. And Maggie pulls off an understated and brilliant performance as one who has her heart, her past and her little white prevarications all in the right place

14/20

And the Verdict is...

Movies like Erin Brockovich and Michael Clayton explore class action lawsuits well. A movie like The Verdict lends character to the same. Paul Newman is reservedly spirited in his passion - unsure but moving forward with the vestiges of a once-unshakeable discipline and conviction. Victory in the end is equally sombre, at long last after a long grey spell in one's life not the least because of betrayal in love. The lone man, the underdog, pitted against the power and might of a top of the line law firm and its armies of minions - the audience would be, in the classical sense, rooting wholeheartledly for the underdog, except for one fact - this is no protagonist cast in perfection, but a man whose decline and the attendant evils of the same cast a long shadow over his unmistakable talent and passion. This is a movie that is worth several viewings if only to catch the nuances in Pal Newman's glittering performance

Five Degrees

Crime and Punishment and perdition lends itself easily to the moviemaking medium. Before I begin to sound like the celebrity hosts at the Oscars with their hackneyed one-liners let me quickly say that I just happened to catch up with several movies of the same genre in rapid succession, and cannot currently resist the temptation to rank them in a continuum ranging from the purely amoral to the redemption tales.

Joint #5: The Flock and Lonely Hearts: Do you like your porn served freshly killed and/or amputated? Gorno (gore + porno) is apparently the new rage - with movies like Saw and Hostel running into several delightful sequels. Thankfully movies like The Flock (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473356/) serve as some degree of anodyne. Did anyone notice the resurrection of a leaner meaner Richard Gere? Adventurous war photographer in The Hunting Party, and keeping tabs on crimes of passion offenders in The Flock - this movie shows the lengths of depravity that affection can lead to. Same with Lonely Hearts (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441774/) - John Travolta, Jared Leto and Salma Hayek light up the screen and make you retch at the sheer inhumanity of man

#3: Zodiac (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443706/): David Fincher in another brilliant movie about an obsessive chase of a serial killer. Watch for Robert Downey Jr as the obsessed detective here. What does one make of the futility of the search, many years on? Little, it appears. A movie with lots of drama and few conclusions. Fincher is consistently brilliant

#2: Cleaner (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0896798/): Samuel L Jackson is singularly missing from this blog so far. This movie is about those that clean up post a death in the family. Things get messy as crucial evidence is "cleaned" from a murder scene. The movie goes on into explore the moral ambiguities in the protagonist's past, and the effects on his daughter. It ends with a lot for the small family to clean up, with a little help from a friend. Playing around with shades of gray and degrees of right and wrong, an otherwise hackneyed theme is well executed by Samuel L Jackson, Eva Mendes, and Ed Harris - the last being in a pivotal role

#1 Road to Perdition (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257044/): What is it about Tom Hanks? (Well - there was Paul Newman and Jude Law here too, but, really?!) In Forrest Gump you cry as this man, oblivious to walking hand in hand with history, lives by the simplest of tenets. In Saving Private Ryan, we have no trouble believing that this man is a schoolteacher as well as a consummate leader of men on the battlefield. In Apollo 13, we live the space dream gone horribly wrong and rejoice at survival against all odds. Really, what is it about this man?! The perdition of Mike Sullivan Sr (Tom Hanks) lies in protecting his surviving son from the damnation of hell that is likely to eventually befall all gangsters on account of their chosen path. If I were to attempt to summarize this movie in a single sentence, I would say thus - Tom Hanks is a gangster, is unfairly set upon, avenges his family, and is survived by a son untainted by evil. And having summarized thus, I can categorically say that such a summary completely fails to capture the evocation, the emotional highs and lows, and the superb performances in the movie. This is among the best movies that I have ever seen, period. This is about legacy, about what you are remembered by, about what you live by. In a Depression and in a world of gangsters, and with your hands tainted by innumerable killings in the course of your profession, if you are remembered by your son for your goodness and resolve, you are truly noble. If the Corleones draw you by the sheer thrill of their acts and way of life, the perdition of Tom Hanks actually makes you believe that a gangster can be truly noble at heart
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PS: American high society is pretentious (who isn't?) and flaunts many trappings of Brit high society while never failing to castigate it at the same time. Saw Woody Harrelson in an unexpectedly brilliant role in The Walker (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0783608/) where he cleans up his complicity in a high society murder with reserve and panache! And on Mr Hanks - a relatively simpler role of leveraging disgruntled CIA officers (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and high society ladies bored and with nothing to do, really (Julia Roberts) to spark off - hold your breath - a counter-offensive against Russia in Afghanistan(!) in Charlie Wilson's War (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472062/)

Looking at these posts, I cant help feeling that we live in a Golden Age of movies with so many brilliant performers and scripts, both new and resurrected, aided by the greatest heights cinematography and sould editing has ever attained thanks to technology. And that in itself makes maintaining a movie blog (currently with zero readership) worthwhile.