He Wolf

For me, The Wolf of Wall Street operated at several different levels. At one level is the unavoidable allusions – the Mayflower (twice!), the crazy partying,choices related to marquee employers/small employers/entrepreneurship, the kid that’s oh so close in spite of all that is going on in life, the back pain pills – what can one say save what an outcome in spite of it all?! At another level is the debauchery, the over-the-top movie, the living-on-the-edge recklessness combined with high performance, the coke high to get over the lemmon high, perception versus reality across it all. Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Martin Scorcese come together to produce a one-of-a-kind movie that is profane, intense, irretrievably materialistic and out-and-out a one of a kind movie. Absolutely unmissable, whether you belong to the 99% or the 1%

16/20

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