Work of Art

The much-awarded The Artist uses an age-old medium to convey a rather pertinent protest – the silent movie becomes the canvas for the protest of silent-era movie star George Valentin’s (Jean Dujardin) protest against the talkies. Even as his career falls apart, and protégé Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) rises from strength to strength, it is not Valentin’s irasciable temper and fickle willpower that will be any aid to a comeback. It is, rather, the acts of kindness unforgotten, and a butler – Clifton (James Cromwell) and a dog – that keeps The Artist going. And the great George Valentin finds his way to a new calling, while the audience is quite delighted at the unexpected successful usage of an age-old medium

14.5/20

The Longest of leaps

The ever so predictable Adam Sandler deviates ever so slightly from the familiar canned humor to produce a surprisingly balanced movie in The Longest Yard. On the face of it, the script does not sound particularly exciting – Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler) the ex-football star, disgraced for shaving points in a big game, finds himself serving a three year prison sentence for theft and drunk driving. Riled by the domineering practices of the prison guards, Paul decides to make a football team out of the inmates that will be more than pushovers for the prison guards’ tune up game. With a small core team, and on the way, picks up a coach in Nate Scarborough (Burt Reynolds), and some valuable players on account of some personal bravado vis-à-vis the theatrically aggressive prison guards. And as the movie progresses towards the predictable climax in the nature of all sports movies, you realize that this is one movie that does balance humor, and old-fashioned inspiration, rather well

13/20

What Were You Thinking?

W captures the disastrous second stint of George W Bush and the decisions, especially Iraq, that near term history finds difficult to understand. With the highest office in the world, statements of being misled or gullible or plain misinformed are a sorry excuse for taking a country into an utterly pointless war and ignoring a worsening domestic reality. Bush Jr comes across as the quintessential regular guy - authoritarian father who held him in little esteem, a depraved youth of dates and alcohol, the natural abilities shining through through a Harvard MBA, the seemingly effortless journey to the highest office in the land and then all the flaws of character leading to the inevitable. This movie is Oliver Stone's search for why a President was the way he was. Engaging but narrow in its scope

11.5/20