October Movie Wrap-up

1) Carandiru (directed by Hector ) : Rating 10/10

This movie is based on a true story. But as it turns out certain characters were changed from real life to fit the movie mould. Nonetheless, this is a very interesting movie. The story revolves around an incident in a Brazilian prison where riot squad massacred un-armed prisoners for purely political reasons. The movie is divided into two segments – the first segment (almost ¾ of the movie) focuses on the prisoners and their stories, lives etc as seen from the eyes of the Prison Doctor. The second segment outlines the prison massacre.

This method works quite well – since we have come to identify the prisoners from the first segment, the massacre puts things into perspective.

2) Close Your Eyes (also known as Doctor Sleep): Rating 9/10

Quite a thriller from the UK! The story revolves around a doctor who uses hypnosis to cure his patients of their smoking habits. During one case, he tells his woman patient not to think of nasty images like a girl floating in the water next time on. The woman is surprised – how on earth did the doctor read her mind? Well as it turns out she is a cop working on a serial killer case. She enlists his help in trying to solve a bizarre sequence of killings.

3) The Ladykillers (directed by the Coen Brothers): Rating 5/10

Once upon a time a movie by the Coen brothers was a sure thing -- Blood Simple, Fargo, O Brother Where Are Thou, The Big Leobowski, Barton Fink, The Man Who Wasn’t there! But that has changed. For the second year in a row, they have produced a dud. This could have something to do with the fact that like the dull and boring Intolerable Cruelty, the Ladykillers is not a script written by the two brothers. There is only so much a person can do when working with someone else’s script or even a remake. Even though Ladykillers has the typical Noir elements from other Coen movies but it is not enough to liven a movie.

Massively disappointing!!

4) Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring (Korean movie by Ki-duk Kim): Rating 8/10

The director of the Isle returns with a visually pleasing movie. The story is simple enough – a Buddhist monk lives with a little boy on a floating monastery in the middle of a lake. The movie starts off in Spring and shows the lives of the two monks. The little boy is mischievous and goes out of his way to harm animals around him. So the elder monk teaches the boy a lesson. We next move to Summer when the little boy has grown up into a teenager -- an age where his hormones are acting up. When a young woman comes to stay at the monastery, well his sexual drive kicks in. From there on, the next seasons outline different stages in the young monk’s life. The movie eventually comes full circle to the start, just like things eventually do.

The Winter story is visually STUNNING. Beautiful!

5) Bus 174 (Brazilian Documentary):

This documentary has gotten nothing but rave reviews everywhere. It centers around a real-life bus hostage situation in Brazil where the media beam the entire incident live on tv. The documentary has interesting parts and tries to piece the entire story together – the identity of the armed person, the motives behind the act, the role of the police, and how things turned out. The film gives a realistic look at the characters used widely in movies such as City of God, Carandiru and Man of the Year. But for some bizarre, I didn’t find this movie that engaging. I lost interest after a while and well was bored.