Wolf Of Wall Street – “MONEYtards” gets high, party hard and pass out!

Here is the 71-year-old beast, back again with yet another masterpiece, delivering the modern day goodfellas kind of gangster (Stock Brokers) story. This movie will make you laugh in every single opportunity and at last will make you feel guilty for what you did and its undoubtedly Scorsese’s best work after The Departed.

Debauchery has never been captured so sharply on screen, and The Wolf is few minutes short of three hour long drunk story, it’s a mix of cautionary that’s spectacular and equally repulsive.

Jordan Belfort character is highly unlikely and hilarious at some instances. When the story unfolds, you find it hard to believe them and feel it over the top. But it is real and the amount of excess and overindulgence that Wall Street honchos engage in is ridiculous. Show those guys this film and they’ll clap and cheer at Belfort’s wrongdoings.

Leo has delivered one of his career best performances, I have a strong belief that he is a great dramatic actor, but his insane comic timing was a treat to watch. He has played the role just like any hotshot top level Wall Street Banker.

Take the special performances from Boiler Room(2000), multiply by thousand and that’s still less awesome, when compared to Leonardo Diacaprio’s portrayal as Jordan Belfort. There is this ten minute long sequence, where Jonah and leo intake lemon ludes( A special kind in Ludes). When it hits, Leo can't get his stability to walk, then decides to crawl back to the car, drive all the way back home out of all his wits and then suddenly watches Popeye eating spinach. He suddenly will feel the adrenaline rush and snorts some cocaine to get back to his senses. This scene will hold a special place in the filmmaking schools in the following decades on “how to deliver an insane badass performance”.  As always the Leo-Scorsese team is a treat to watch, we should be privileged to be alive during this era. 

Jonah Hill, is showing  high maturity with every single film. He has delivered another stunning performance along with a short yet powerful cameo’s from a dozen of actors like McConaughey, Jean Djuradin and many other stalwarts delivering their badass charm to the movie. 

The outrage over explicit sex content and glorified drug use is bullshit. It is not a misogynist movie, portrayal of misogynist stuff is never a defense of misogyny and drugs, but if you enjoy the stuff happening on screen then the joke is on you. If you continue to say so, it is a sin that you have never really got the concept of Scorsese movies. Scorsese made sure, Belfort is not going to be victimized for the drug trap and he also made sure that the movie disregards his behavior. He was portrayed as a narcist individual wiling to do all the badass things. 

Belfort was greedy with money, drugs and sex and Scorsese offered the movie everything that Belfort aspired for and gets into more bizarre scenarios for a breathtaking roller coaster ride. Most of the scenes where long, with high energy levels in an ecstatic mode throwing us shock in every turn, that you could never move your eyeballs.  It is a must watch movie, to know how the Belfort kind of retards gets out with a minor punishment, while the normal criminal with much less charges ends up in prison and rot till death.

Rating: 4/5

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Gravity - Go watch it in 3D!

Gravity starts just like any other space movie and then comes this extraordinary fifteen minute single shot, where the camera pans between two astronauts. It starts from outside with the astronaut outer view and goes into the helmet of the astronaut and gives us a glimpse of the UI and seamlessly pops out and this transition conveniently proves the stand point of the movie, “In space nobody can hear you scream”. 

Alfonso Cuaron is back behind the camera from Children of men, after seven long excruciating years, this time with a vengeance to entertain the crap out of you. Not sure why this movie is termed as sci-fi, as there is no fiction involved here. It’s a masterpiece science-horror movie, with no alien stuff involved but a more real intelligent disaster. Imagine 127 Hours in space, with more visceral, moving, immersive and yeah add 3D(For once 3D is worthy here and the movie deserves it). Technically its an astonishing achievement, this will be the only film that I would go back to watch in 3D in IMAX again. Also for once, the movie’s filming techniques would be as interesting as the film.

So what’s different in Gravity given that there have been other films about astronauts stranded in space? For one, Cuaron is a deadly filmmaker, a shaman. He absolutely nails the staging and pacing of the film, making it a 90 minute tense, dizzying, breathless experience. The detailing, the digital effects work and the long, uncut takes will divorce your jaw from the rest of your face. It’s not just one of the great CGI films of the decade but one of the five greatest uses of CGI in the history of cinema. When James Cameron was fawning over the film, he wasn’t kidding - Cuaron, Lubezski and their special effects team really have crafted something extraordinary here.

Apart from using groundbreaking technology like an LED box that’d change filmmaking as we know it, Gravity has a ‘believable’ disaster plot and a heroine who is quite different from the stock scream queens that you expect from Hollywood. She is smart, she has a reason to make us root for her, and more importantly, she’s heroic rather than corny, ping ponging between her primal urge to survive the disaster and her existential wish to stop trying. Sandra Bullock is terrific here, always convincing, despite the green screen around her, holding the film on her own in the vast emptiness of space.

There are some scientific fallacies in Gravity but laws of science can’t be questioned anymore seeing as Sandra Bullock broke them - she probably went around the space time continuum and aged backwards, because she looks 30 despite being 50. Except for Clooney’s wisecracks the lines (written by Cuaron’s son Jonas) are mostly pedestrian and simplistic, but not grating. One thing that I actually found problematic was a scene where the heroine’s weakest moment has a man saving her – it’s a tiny nitpick but it’s a little jarring to see a strong female protagonist being rescued by the hero in a film built around a strong independent female.

Regardless, all flaws of Gravity become infinitely smaller the bigger the screen you watch it on. In IMAX the film is perfect, utterly faultless. Cuaron clearly takes inspiration from video games with POV shots of Bullock’s character shuttling from one space station to another. One first person sequence where she changes her space suits and heads out to repair the damaged station is straight out of Dead Space. If this movie makes money, it’d have the potential for Hollywood to invest a bit more into smart original movies than shameless 3D cash grabs. If you’re interested in that kind of a future, you should buy your tickets right about now.

Rating : 4/5

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Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaya -First on Net Review - A Santhanam & Powerstar show all the way!!!

Just got back from the premiere show of Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaya, here in Melbourne. After a long time back here to review a Tamil movie. Happy for that, will try to be regular from now on. KLTA directed by Manikandan & Santhanam debuts as a producer with his own production company Handmade Films with this movie. Santhanam, Powerstar Dr Srinivasan, Sethu plays the lead role, Vishaka plays the female lead and the movie has an ensemble comedian star cast with VTV Ganesh, Kovai Sarala, Manohar and guest appearances from Gowtham Menon & Simbu. The movie being distributed by Udhayanidhi Stalin and the whole unit have built up an ample expectation level, which might in turn hurt the movie. Music by Thaman was average, but the only thing which people need from this film is entertainment from Santhanam and Powerstar if they can deliver that then the movie will be a hit. Let's see what's in store for us.

What's it about?
As rumored the film is a remake of the yesteryear classical "Indru Poi Nalai Va" directed by Bhagyaraj, three youths(Powerstar!) trying to woo a girl next door. They do all sorts of gimmicks to get into the house of the heroine. Santhanam will learn music from VTV Ganesh, Powerstar will learn dance from Vishaka's dad and Sethu will be a personal assistant(Malligai saman vangara paiyan) for Kovai Sarala. Then the united friends will get into quarrel on who will love the girl and finally who will impress her is the story. Santhanam has made sure that he will have a package of comedians who can bring down the house. He has done that perfectly in this film.

What's good?
Powerstar Srinivasan as a comedian is a big plus, Santhanam as usual had his pet VTV Ganesh and his iconic witty one liners are available all over the film. Both Powerstar and Santhanam had done a wonderful job. Almost Powerstar has done his real life character in this movie, so it's easy for him I hope (all those over buildups).  Sethu debutante has done a decent role. Vishaka looks bubbly, okayish role and she has done her part.  VTV Ganesh, Kovai Sarala and Vishaka's dad all did their part in their way.

What's not?
Since the film is a remake there is nothing new in this movie, same old story and same old characters. Little changes in the last. The film could have been trimmed a bit more, the songs make the movie lengthier. Nobody could manage to engage the audience during the songs and songs were not a hit among people which will make it a tiring watch.

Final word
Overall a decent family watchable movie for the festive season, with lots of fun. This will be a big break for Powerstar. As usual Santhanam rocked with his dialogues which will keep you engaged throughout the movie. If you are expecting a story, then this not your movie. If you want to be happy for three hours, then this will be your perfect choice. For Santhanam and Powerstar fans, this film is a delight for you!

Rating : 3/5

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