Discovering good movies, one bad movie at a time

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Consider this a high compliment: It would have taken me quite some time, had I not been aware of the fact in advance, to recognize All That Breathes as a documentary. The film’s first shot consists of a lengthy, slow track across a nighttime landscape in an as-yet-unidentified locale—one that appears to be urban or […]

For those who don’t follow Indian cinema, Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva is kind of a big deal. It’s a film that has been in production for over five years (in the process becoming the most expensive Hindi language film ever produced), part of a promised fantasy-action trilogy that is intended to expand even further into […]

Categories: indian cinema

Some table-setting is necessary before diving deep into RRR. First, while the term “Bollywood” has been freely applied to the film, it is important to note that this film is technically “Tollywood,” a term for cinema in the Telugu language spoken in the Indian states Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. However, Tollywood can also refer to Bengali […]

Categories: indian cinema

Bollywood remakes a lot of films from across the globe, applying the inimitable stamp of Indian filmmaking to such classics as Oldboy (Zinda, 2006), Reservoir Dogs (Kaante, 2002), Mrs. Doubtfire (Chachi 420, 1997), and even I Know What You Did Last Summer (Dhund: The Fog, 2003). Even if it takes a couple of years for […]

Ramin Bahrani has long since passed into the subset of directors whose best work, I concede, is almost certainly behind them, while my regard for that best work remains so high that I will continue to regard every one of their new films as an event of at least minor importance. And “minor importance” is […]

I’d be lying my head off if I said that there was no room for improving any of it, but I do think the correct disposition towards Bombay Rose, whatever we want to say about its final quality, is to be suitably impressed that the thing exists at all. There’s a crew that put this […]

A review requested by K. Rice, with thanks for contributing to the Second Quinquennial Antagony & Ecstasy ACS Fundraiser. In requesting a review of Paheli as part the Second Quinquennial Antagony & Ecstasy ACS Fundraiser, K. Rice noted that I’ve never once in almost ten years reviewed a Bollywood film, and wondered if that was […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/16 & 10/18 World premiere: 10 May, 2013, India You tell me if this sounds appealing or hopelessly stupid: modern stoner comedy classic Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle meets infamously terrible video game adaptation House of the Dead. I can’t actually say what it sounds like to me at this […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/11 & 10/13 & 10/15World premiere: 18 May, 2013, Cannes International Film Festival The “what if?” film – watching as a situation plays out in vastly different ways, based on very small choices made by characters early on – is inherently gimmicky, but that doesn’t mean the gimmick has to be bad. […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/8 & 10/9 & 10/11WORLD PREMIERE I’m in no position to make pronouncements about Indian cinema, so I’ll defer to the experts: and they inform me that right now, that country is on the cusp of a New Wave, in which the traditional Bollywood entertainments that maybe you and certainly I think […]