No End in Sight

Ferguson, 2007, 102m

The decision making process behind the Iraq war is the subject of this dazzling documentary film. Even without grasp of the history of the period, the exposition is authentic, honest and focused enough to give one a perspective on how the gears of our world operate, and the kind of people  who deliberate the chess moves in which thousands of lives are at stake. Greed, vindictiveness and callousness worthy of the fading memories of fascist dictators are the forces that generated this war. The people at the helm seem to be as insulated as someone playing video games in the comfort of home. A highly illuminating film.

The Visitor

2008, 105m

A delicately shaded humanistic drama set in post 911 US, involving characters from different nationalities. Some of them are illegal residents, living under the constant possibility of detection and deportation. While the romantic quadrangle has been nicely presented, what holds attention is the plight of the large floating population of undocumented aliens, whose bliss in paradise may be rudely interrupted by any small banana peel in the form of encounter with the authorities. There is a thriving profession of immigration lawyers. Manna from heaven is the proverbial green card. As the young Syrian drummer, having fallen foul with the police, says through the bars of his cage in a detention center, " you are outside and I am inside", as though speaking of alien species. I am left a bit puzzled by the contradiction between the juicy bunch of grapes America appears through the eyes of aspiring to be legalized residents, and the harrowing visions of Michael Moore. Maybe they are just the vastly different views of insiders and outsiders.

Inside Job

Charles Ferguson, 104m, 2010

An outstanding documentary. Panoramic cinematography and razor sharp editing give us a visually and mentally exhilarating presentation on a subject that is too abstruse for most of us to understand. Most of us have been victims of the global inflation and impaired employment following the recession starting in 2008, when some leading financial institutions and banks in the US went bankrupt. Life has certainly become harder, even as the symbols of homogenized development, different kinds of concrete structures, mushroom all around. The film examines this phenomenon in calm but merciless objectivity. What becomes clear is that the cause lies in the greed and selfishness prevailing among the rich, mighty and learned, people in positions of the highest social respectability, like professors and deans in the best known universities and the captains of the finance. It is a puzzle how a self respecting individual can guzzle packages running into hundreds of millions, even as ordinary folk are rendered homeless or jobless. The clear answer is that these are hi-tech crooks. These are the creatures who run the world, or are at least key players, engineering wars if their need be. One needs to make the mental effort to glean the corruption and decay that underlies the glitter of apparent progress and growth of knowledge. Indeed, to borrow Michael Moore's word, we are living in a fictional bubble. It ought to be scary. This is a low decibel more clinical version of Moore's Capitalism: a Love Story.

A Better Life

2011, 97m
Carlos is a document-less immigrant Mexican gardener, single parent to his teenage son, laboring hard to provide his son with a future in the US. He adds his savings to money borrowed from his sister to invest in a truck which he hopes will be his gateway to prosperity and legalization. But in a trice the truck is stolen and he is plunged into problems with the authorities. A well made film which gives us glimpses of the fringes of immigration. The story has some resemblance to The Bicycle Thief. It is an engrossing, understated movie on a simple theme.

Bowling for Columbine

Michael Moore, 118m, 2002

Going by Moore, the US must be one of the worst societies in the world. Its people live in fear and insecurity, their minds constantly manipulated by the rich and powerful. Two students of a school gunned down seven fellow students and a teacher in 1999. The film explores the high crime rate prevailing in the US, compared to neighboring Canada, as well as some European and Asian countries. He particularly focuses on the laws which provide easy availability of firearms and ammunition. An interesting sidelight is Charleston Heston, the famed film star, who played Moses in The Ten Commandments. Heston was an office bearer of the National Rifle Association, which enthusiastically encourages gun ownership. It is amusing and chilling to see  an erstwhile Moses vehemently espousing the cult of gun posession. On the whole, this first of Moore's films, which catapulted him to fame, is less focused than the subsequent ones. Its thesis is, "violence exists", rather than "why".