Movie Review: Requiem for a dream (2000)

Genre: Drama
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans
This movie tells the story of several characters whose life enters a vicious circle because of their addiction problems. Everyone has some aspirations, but life is never simple. Some decisions can change your life forever. Amazing performances by all the actors makes this movie one of the best I’ve watched. Ellen Burstyn & Jennifer Connelly, in particular had very difficult roles to play, but they have managed to carry them out with aplomb. That does not in any way undermine Jared Leto’s performance, which was equally good. The use of hip hop montage & split screen makes the movie even more appealing, though I thought it was a bit too much at times. The background score is HAUNTING, to say the least, it gets you every time you hear it. Loneliness & isolation are the words that come to my mind when I listen to the soundtrack, which is apt, considering the theme of the movie. The movie left a bad taste in my mouth after I had watched it. The reason being the fact that I could relate to the characters & felt for them. None of them were larger than life in any sense. It was like something was happening to the people I know. The scenes with the refrigerator terrorizing Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) were amazingly done. Cinematography is definitely one of the hallmarks of this movie. No wonder it has won so many awards & an Oscar nomination. Overall, it did not take me much time & effort to love the movie & the way it has been made.

Movie review: Taxi Driver (1976)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster, Peter Boyle, Harvey Kietel
Another one of Scorsese’s best. For the first few minutes, I felt that the movie was a bit slow. I am not a great fan of slow paced movies, but boy, was I wrong. It tells the story of Travis Bickle (De Niro), 26, a mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran who works as a night time taxi driver. Travis is unable to sleep & he doesn’t know why. He is deeply affected by the sleazy night life in the city & the degrading society all around him.

“12 hours of work & I still cant sleep…DAMN…days go on & on . They don’t end..all my life needed was a sense of some place to go”.

He maintains a journal where he enters all his feelings & thoughts. He finds himself attracted to a political campaigner Betsy (Cybill Shepherd).

“I first saw her at Palantine campaign headquarters at 63rd in Broadway. She was wearing a white dress, she appeared like an angel…out of this filthy mess, she is alone…THEY CANNOT TOUCH HER”.

He tries to woo her, but fails to do so. Betsy doesn’t answer his calls after he takes her to a porn movie on their first date. Travis, who doesn’t understand this as he is “not fond of movies”, feels that she is like all the other women he has come across.
Travis feels that he needs to reinvent himself. He wants to do something that will give him an identity.

“You got a job & you become that job”

Travis buys four handguns & sets out to assassinate Senator Palantine, but he fails to do so & is chased away by the bodyguards.
Meanwhile, he forms a strong attachment with a child prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster), who he tries to rescue from a pimp Matthew (Harvey Kietel). His efforts to persuade Iris to go back to her parents & rejoin school turn out to be futile. Travis finally ends up killing Matthew & his gang. Iris goes back to her parents & slowly moves towards leading a life of normalcy. Meanwhile Betsy realizes that indeed has feelings for Travis, who is now famous because of his struggle with Matthew’s gang.
The soundtrack & camera work are absolutely in sync with the story & add to the fantastic performance dished out by De Niro. The movie eventually lost out at the Oscars in the Best Movie category to Sly Stallone’s “ROCKY”, but there is no questioning the fact that it’s another gem of a movie from a gem of a director. You cannot miss this if you are a De Niro fan.

Quotes from the HOUSE...

Recently, I took the risk of watching a parliamentary debate on national television. The debate was for the Nuclear deal (123 agreement) between India & the US. Some speeches & remarks made by our honoured parliamentarians left me baffled to say the least. Here are some which I could remember...

"This deal is Anti-Indian"- No figures quoted, no numbers to prove the same, just a single blank statement, which was then repeated, again & again, without any other substantial subject matter.
"We have huge resources of coal, why not concentrate on building more thermal power plants to harness this, rather than focus on Nuclear technology?"- Progressive thinking at its very best, I would say! And coal is supposed to last, like FOREVER!!!!!!! So, lets just allow our neighbours to make use of nuclear technology, and if we run out of power in the future, I am sure our helpful neighbours would give us some of their electric power for cheap, coz they love us so very much!
And finally...my favourite of the lot:
"It will make us slaves of the US for 400 years" - And how exactly did you arrive at an exact figure..I mean 400?....are u sure its not 347.5678 years or something? If I could have the algorithm for this calculation, I could earn billions, and may be, become the next Bill Gates.
Many more hilarious quotes, but these are the ones that strike my mind right now.Poems were read, stories were told & even verses from Holy books were quoted,most of which were quite irrelevant & a waste of time. Not one person from the opposition spoke something which could be of any significance to the topic being discussed (atleast for the duration I watched the debate).
I finally budged when my mom entered the scene. "Why do you waste your time listening to them?", she said & changed the channel, so that she could watch her daily quota of saas-bahu drama. All I could say was, "Thanks mom....you just saved my life..a couple more speeches & I would've died laughing"!!

The Darker Joker….

After having watched “Batman Begins”, my expectations from “The Dark Knight” were sky high, to say the least. And as it turned out, the sequel was even bigger& better than the first installment. Enough has been said & written about the movie & about the performance of Heath Ledger, so I won’t be getting too much into it. But I must say, I was feeling a cold shiver running down my spine at times, while watching the movie. Its not that I was afraid, just the sadistically sarcastic personality of the Joker had some effect on me. An enjoyable experience in fact. It’s a pity that we would be deprived of seeing Heath reprise his role in the future. Thanks a lot for this performance Heath; it certainly has immortalized you in a way!
P.S: This post was written a long time back, after watching the movie “The Dark Knight”

Weekend delight....

Huh…it’s a pity that none of my classmates are in Bhubaneswar. Weekends get pretty boring, but life goes on. Took a bit of time, but I have learnt to live like that. The new season of the English Premier League has started this weekend. So, my weekends now, are set to be less boring. Chelsea got off to a flier beating Portsmouth 4-0 in their season opener. Could well have been 7-0, but for the presence of David James, who did his best to restrict Chelsea, & some missed opportunities. But the real attraction of the game was the splendid show put up by the Chelsea midfield. Ballack, Lampard, Deco & Joe Cole, sparked right from the start of the game. Deco in particular was sweet with his passing. Set up a couple of goals & scored the 4th goal which, by all means, was a scorcher from about 25 yards out. He would certainly be my choice for the Man of the Match. Absence of a few key players due to injury was not felt at all. So, here’s hoping that this is a sign for things to come this season. Watch out ManU…The BLUES are back…with a BANG!!!

And we r back again…

Something seems to have blocked me from posting for all these days. Don’t know what it exactly was, but doesn’t matter now. So, here I am blogically alive again & promising to be kickin as well!!

Grand Slam Sunday!!!!

Holi was on a Saturday & I didn’t get tickets to go home. I was really sad because I somehow wanted a break from the routine life. But then, all I could do was resign to my fate & stay put. On Friday morning however, I somehow managed a return ticket. So, I took a train home & somehow managed to get there with a general ticket. “What a relief”, I thought to myself. Things hadn’t been going very well at Kharagpur in the past few days, & I definitely needed a break from all that, even if it was for a couple of days. Just to refresh my mind….n yes…get some FOOD in…I mean, REAL FOOD. Chicken, chicken and many other things followed by chicken. In case you don’t know…am fond of Chicken!!!
The weekend was spent moving around with my cousins & visiting my aunt & uncle. But the real treat was that I got to watch the Grand Slam Sunday in the English Premiership. Manchester United took on Liverpool & Chelsea took on Arsenal. Being a Chelsea fan, I obviously wanted them to do well. The recent 4-4 draw with the Spurs had Chelsea fans asking for a better performance. The ManU-Liverpool match came first & Liverpool were comprehensively beaten 3-0, following a controversial red card to Mascherano in the first half. Chelsea were hosting Arsenal at Stamford Bridge & after seeing the ManU-Liverpool fixtures, anybody could have guessed that there would be sparks flying all over the place. The match was equally important for both the teams. William Gallas, the ex-Chelsea defender & the current captain of Arsenal, led the Gunners out of the tunnel. He was quite motivated to perform against his former team. Even though Chelsea dominated the game right from the start, Arsenal drew first blood, Sagna’s neat header from a corner kick doing the trick. Once again, as in recent times, the Blues had conceded a goal from set pieces. Cudicini did his best in the game though & proved why he can walk into any world class team as a first team goal keeper. His presence foiled a couple more chances created by the Gunners.
The script however had a twist in the tale. Didier Drogba, Arsenal’s nemesis scored an equalizer throwing the game wide open. He did get a yellow card for the ELABORATE celebrations, but it was worth it. Then in a matter of minutes, there was his second goal & Chelsea were leading 2-1. It could well have been 3-1, had Almunia not saved another neat strike from Drogba. In the end, it was Chelsea who came out victorious, thus making the title chase even hotter. ManU still lead the tables, but don’t forget, they still have to visit Stamford Bridge, which has been a FORTRESS this season.
But I felt really bad when the Blues fans were booing William Gallas. The guy has given the Chelsea two Premier League titles in the past & deserves a lot more respect. In the post match presentation, even the Man of the Match, Drogba voiced a similar opinion about the booing. All in all, the game was played in a better spirit than the ManU-Liverpool encounter, and that’s precisely what you want to see when two world class clubs with world class players, play their heart out on the pitch.
So whatever be the result of the Premiership this season, I am satisfied if Chelsea put on a good performance & play like CHAMPIONS every game…. The BLUES rock!!!!!