Katniss Marketing

In the buildup to the last installment, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is literally paraded by the rebel factions hidden in District 13. Led by President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), Katniss becomes a thoroughly marketed symbol of hope for all the Districts breaking out in rebellion, with the highlight being a particularly rousing speech in District 8 post the bombing of a hospital. In the backdrop plays out the impending confrontation of Katniss with President Snow (Donald Sutherland), and the release of her boyfriend Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) with some complicated side-effects. Clearly a bridge-ing movie, The Hunger Games – Mockingjay – Part 1 preserves continuity, but has little new to offer

13.5/20

Don

Neither men nor women quite understand intimacy. While we have suave student Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) preferring the excesses of porn to the drudge of the real thing, for the so-called ideal woman Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), intimacy is about possessiveness and behavioral controls. Finally, it takes an offbeat relationship to bring some semblance of normalcy to Don Jon. Captivating, though difficult to understand the director’s intent on this one

12/20

Stop

The featureless Non-Stop reminds one of a dozen similar movies, keeps you waiting for the /breakway feature that never materializes. The one-great and now-shunned Air Marshal (Liam Neeson) needs to find a serial killer on board a plane. He does so eventually, after some knocking around of all of the passengers and crew. Truly non-descript

10.5/20

Society without Vision

If you have not read the novel by Jose Saramago (and I have not) it is difficult to be prepared for a movie like Blindness. In a regular orderly urban society, a man gets afflicted by a sudden attack of white blindness. So does his wife, and all those who get in touch with him - notably an eye doctor. The doctor's wife is the only one who miraclously escapes getting affected - and gives an increasingly large group leadership through the repression of state confinement and a complete degeneration of law and order within that confinement. The group moves from the hopelessness brought about by individual tyranny, to freedom and the order that voluntary and symbiotic coexistence brings, even in an outside world where all familiar institutions, including things as disparate as electricity and family - have ceased to exist. Perhaps it is because each individual in the milieu is dealing with his or her own personal tragedy, that there is no place for collective uprising or protest outside of a world where the ward defined the physical boundaries of groups of people. Blindness is about forms that society takes when faced with crisis - the disorder that stems from individual hubris and inevitably leads to ruin, and the empathy and coexistence that raises us above mere animals. A remarkable movie, though difficult to watch at times.