Raising Eyebrows




Raising Arizona seals it for me - I now count myself among the bonafide fans of the Coen Brothers. Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter are on opposite sides of the law - come together in an unlikely marriage and an equally unlikely heist to snatch a kid from a set of quintuplets. Over sevaral escapades with escaped convicts, bounty hunters, psychotic storekeepers and bosses with questionable morals, the couple are struck by a fit of remonstrance and get round to "doing the right thing". The movie has an undercurrent of morality running through it quite unlike the unmitigated eccentricity of O Brother Where Art Thou. This would be the best starting point into the Coen Brothers for its balance of quirkiness and convention, the latter in exploring conventional themes of family life

Curiouser and Curiouser

O Brother Where Art Thou is an exceedingly peculiar movie even by the Coen Borthers' standards. Three escaped convicts make their way to "treasure that is not the one they seek" through a medley of characters that typify the Depression-era South just preceding the advent of technology and the end of an isolated way of life. Interspersed with much music, including the Johnny Cash "You Are My Sunshine", this is a strange romp through an era in America. You never know quite what to expect next and the ending is just as abrupt.

Mixed bag

Many years of *not watching much by way of movies* can lead to many years of glorious catching up! Chinatown (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/) is the kind of movie that one would dread reviewing, possible but not probable that one would be able to add much by way of fresh thought on what has been called in multiple fora as the "Finest Film of the 70's" and is in any case anthologized to weariness. Jack Nicholson is superlative, Roman Polanski signs off with a (wholly unnecessary?) macabre end. Made me think of cliches of brittleness and futility of life than suspense and the politics of water, really. Film noir calls for careful exploration

With a lot less trepidation, I write on Monty Python and the Holy Grail (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853/), pretty much popcorn to Chinatown's complex concoction. Comedic capers and Brit wit, and what really stands out for me is being relevant and genuinely funny thirty years down. Not a mean acheivement. And a hilarious one, too

Back to times more contemporary. Edward Norton remains a favourite, and neither American History X (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120586/) nor Primal Fear (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117381/) in the least diminish. What would you say of this man in the former (juxtaposed as he is against a young and impressionable Edward Furlong (T2 etc))? I would say that Mr Norton is as accomplished an actor as any, carries off venal hatred and cold malice well, but unlike many that deviate and die, is prone to morality tales - American History X, and Kingdom of Heaven and Fight Club to boot, have him "come round" and question his chosen path. Not so Primal Fear. It is exciting as Anthony Hopkins is exciting as Hannibal, and it is unapologetic and unredeemed. One wishes the actor really gave us some notice of where his heart really lies. Richard Gere - well, I didn't quite get what the fuss with his performance was all about - much like George Clooney in Michael Clayton, I'd say - reserved, strong and ordinary

Cast of The Great Debaters on Oprah

In other noteworthy movies I have seen of late, Barton Fink indulgently questions creativity - both the Hollywood Movie Mogul kind and the Broadway inspired scriptwriter kind. Yet again Forest Whittaker and Denzel Washington dazzle us in The Great Debaters, another pre-affirmative action movie, this time with a debate team of a *negro* college taking on Harvard and winning - some of the debates make for good listening, Indian viewers may well like the repeated references to Gandhi, a contemporary in the 1930s setting of the movie. Untraceable is the periodic catharsis of out Internet-and-all-that-it-purports conscience and one cannot help wondering whether parts of the movie were not meant to titillate. No such *moral ambuiguities* in P2, your regular urban horror flick - I only chose this movie because Rachel Nichols looks remarkably attractive in it!

Scenes from P2

Whew.

Its 2.50AM. Would like to catch up tomorrow on The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - I am not a reader of the series but it does seem to be more substantial than ridiculously ageing wizards