Monday, April 20, 2015

American Beauty 1999

This is a sad, philosophical, poetic, brilliant comedy capturing life in suburban US. It sympathetically satires with wistful relish the concerns and dreams of our daily life; jobs, money, property, automobiles,the desire to escape the treadmill, the starvation of interhumaness. The hero does break out of it, entering, so to say, one more groove till finally the curtains pull apart, revealing the make believe, and he flies up to a vaster view of reality. Even his death mask is a sardonic grin. It can be enjoyed more than once, so light is the touch, so sparkling and witty the lines,  the episodes deft and so skillfully woven.
To quote the concluding lines:
I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die, First of all......that one second isn't a second at all. It stretches on forever, like an ocean of time For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp watching falling stars. And yellow leaves from th maple trees that lined our street……I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. And then I remember to rela and stop trying to hold on to it. And then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitudefor every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure But don't worry.You will someday

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Selma 2014

Selma has got the movie it deserves. This is a film with energy, momentum and exuberance as it captures one of the rare slices of history in which the flame of the spirit burns, when right confronts might. The central image is of police batons raining blows and cracking skulls, as the people march.  It is a naked face of brutality, power at it's most corrupt. Its hard to watch, and inevitably brings to mind a similar sequence from Attenborough's film. This is a riveting movie--a must see.