#CelluloidCritic

Critic No. 220 Director : Rohith V. S. Written by: Yadhu Pushpakaran, Rohith V. S. Produced by : Juvis Productions, Tovino Thomas Productions, Adventure Company Casts: Tovino Thomas, Sumesh Moor, Lal Paul, Divya Pillai Language: Malayalam Genre: Action, Thriller Music: Dawn Vincent SYNOPSIS:  The life of Shaji (Tovino Thomas), a laid-back youngster, turns upside down when an enemy from his past pays him a visit.   REVIEW: Director Rohith starts the film with Oscar Wilde’s thought-provoking quote, “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live”. The film explores the raw emotions of humans and how the basic form of selfishness can result in catastrophic payback. Driven with style and symbolism, Kala is a meticulously staged and shot film that will be a sheer treat for action film lovers.  The film’s main basis is about the mind-game between the two leads, but the movie is almost like a dramatic study on primitive traits that lie do

Critic - No. 219 Director : Karthik Subbaraj Written by: Karthik Subbaraj Produced by : Y NOT Studios, Reliance Entertainment  Casts: Dhanush, James Cosmo, Joju George, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Kalaiyarasan Language: Tamil Genre: Action, Thriller Music: Santosh Narayanan SYNOPSIS:  When a clever, carefree gangster Suruli (Dhanush) is recruited to help an overseas crime lord take down a rival, he is caught off guard by the moral dilemmas that follow.   REVIEW: Karthik Subbaraj is one of the finest young gen directors that Indian cinema has and he has climbed to stupendous heights in a very short span of time. His fine grip of storytelling and film language is one of his biggest strengths and he has been quite consistent in his career graph (ignoring Mercury ). After a tremendous success with Petta , Karthik Subbaraj is back again with a film that is closer to his roots - a gangster flick with India’s most wanted actor Dhanush.  The film takes off by introducing us to three main characters

Critic - No. 218 Director : Craig Gillespie Written by: Dana Fox, Tony McNamara, Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel, Steve Zissis Produced by : Walt Disney Pictures, Marc Platt Productions, Gunn Films Casts : Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Emily Beecham Language: English Genre: Comedy, Crime SYNOPSIS:  Set in London during the punk rock movement of the 1970s, the film revolves around Estella Miller (Emma Stone), an aspiring fashion designer, as she explores the path that will lead her to become a notorious up-and-coming fashion designer known as Cruella de Vil.   REVIEW: In 1996’s 101 Dalmatians , Glenn Close’s gleefully unhinged performance as a puppy-skinning fashion designer was a memorable affair which of course was treated more like a cartoonish supervillain with exaggerated antics.  Emma Stone’s Cruella de Vil is much more grounded to tell the backstory with fair shares of emotions and drama.  Set in 1970s London against a backdrop of the emerging punk s

Critic - No. 217   Director :  Michael Chavas Written by: James Wan, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick Produced by : New Line Cinema, The Safran Company, Atomic Monster Productions Casts : Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ruairi O’Connor, Sarah Catherine, Julian Hilliard Language: English Genre: Horror, Thriller SYNOPSIS:  Paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) take on one of the most sensational cases of their careers after a cop stumbles upon a dazed and bloodied young man walking down the road. Accused of murder, the suspect claims demonic possession as his defense, forcing the Warrens into a supernatural inquiry, unlike anything they've ever seen before.   REVIEW: If you are a fan of this chilling paranormal horror series, you will feel slightly off to witness the scarcely scary The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and realise that you can enjoy this only if you abandon your desire to watch a terrifying haunted house movie in the vein of

Critic - No. 216 Director : Lee Isaac Chung Written by: Lee Isaac Chung Produced by : Plan B Casts : Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Youn Yuh-jung, Will Patton, Scott Haze Language: Korean, English Genre: Drama Music: Emile Mosseri SYNOPSIS:  Hoping to run his own farm, Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun) moves his wife Monica (Yeri Han) and two children, Anne (Noel Kate Cho) and David (Alan Kim), to a plot of land in Arkansas.   REVIEW:  Minari is a semi-autobiographical take on writer and director Lee Isaac Chung’s life in a family of Korean immigrants in Arkansas in the 1980s. The film kicks off with the initial conflict of Monica’s frustration about living in a trailer in the middle of nowhere rooting for the sense of home. This marital tension simmers throughout the film and is realised in the occasional conflict. The family dynamics take a shift upon the arrival of Monica's mother Soon-ja (Youn Yuh-jung). The veteran, Oscar winner, Youn is a delight to watch, especially

Critic - No. 215 Director : Indhra Subramanian Written by: Indhra Subramanian Produced by : Vikatan Televistas Casts : Tamannaah, Pasupathy, G.M.Kumar, Vivek Prasanna, Aruldass, Myna Nandhini Language: Tamil Genre: Crime, Thriller (Web-series, 7 Episodes) SYNOPSIS:  A famous crime novelist, Ganesan (G.M. Kumar) suffering from Alzheimer's disease is found at a crime scene with no recollection of what occurred.   REVIEW: ‘November Story’ travels through three narrative threads. In the first one, we see the life story of a child raised by a nun who grows into a boy attracted to surgery and later, a man forced to give up his dream. In the second one, three youngsters plot the kidnapping of a mentally challenged young woman (Namita Krishnamurthy) with the help of her maid. The third one and the main one revolves around Anuradha (Tamannaah), a computer expert, and her struggle with selling a house that belongs to her father, Ganesan (GM Kumar), a crime writer with the second stage of Al