Movie Reviews

                              Picture this – two individuals are in love but one of them is commitment phobic and decides to run away from the situation instead of facing it. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t love, because it is. Said individual also decides to walk back into the life of the person they left behind at the worst time possible, causing issues but refusing to give up. Sounds like a million other rom-coms you’ve seen before? That is what the tale of  Suryakantham  is all about.  How about this? There’s a mass song coupled with a  desi  dance in lieu of an intro scene, a motor-mouth who isn’t afraid of hitting up people, a loving mother looking to see her child settled, said child stubborn of doing anything but that and instead, choosing to kill everyone with sarcasm. Doesn’t it bring to mind a million intro scenes of every star hero to ever exist in TFI? Here’s where...

‘Us’ begins in the modest 1986 setting when amusement parks on American beaches came with all sorts of funny and mysterious games. In them, was always a dingy fun house with a maze of mirrors that can leave you more terrified than amused. Writer-Director Jordan Peele sets the stage for a mystery thriller right from the start, taking us into his make-believe world of unnerving possibilities. Along the way he also drops subtle hints about the film’s layered narrative that points towards many uncomfortable truths about the world we live in. Pay attention to them. Peele’s storytelling is masterfully unhinged in its execution to accommodate his unique vision. The central theme of the film is gradually unraveled in a disturbing narrative that requires constant suspension of disbelief. Film’s writing is peppered with organic humour that often serves as a natural respite from high tension. The background score adds to the overall impact. While there are a few jumpscares for those looking...

  “Wonder elephant soars to fame,” reads the headline of a newspaper that publishes the story of a flying elephant gliding across the circus tent. That is one of the most exhilarating visuals, which is bound to stay with you much after the film is over. Director Tim Burton’s mastery in creating visual fantasies is once again at display in this simplistic film about emotions that are universal. Set in 1919, every frame of the film captures the essence of what it tries to convey. Burton and his screenplay writer Ehren Kruger stick to the staple Disney tricks in telling a simple yet effective tale that has already been told before. Thankfully, the director manages to get the right amount of restrain from most of his actors.  As a former circus star and a World War I veteran, Colin Farrell is convincing as Holt Farrier. He brings in the vulnerability of a single parent and a circus star, who is reduced to training the elephants after losing an arm in the war. Veteran acto...

Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven, wrote John Milton in Paradise Lost. The same quote is played in the end credits of actor-turned-filmmaker Prithviraj's directorial debut Lucifer. In a way, it's only fitting for a movie that evolves against the backdrop of politics and has taken a few references from contemporary socio-political scenario.  Scripted by Murali Gopy, that much must be expected. However, for most parts, the movie is a massive shift from previous Murali Gopy films with lofty concepts or ideas, with director Prithviraj banking on some tried-and-tested formula to present a straightforward film that has both style and substance. The film kicks off with the death of Chief Minister PK Ramdas (Sachin Khedekar), exposing his political party's ugly side as they scamper for a successor. Arriving as if to aid them is Ramdas’ scheming son-in-law Bobby with an offer to provide funds. His idea is to wrest power by installing his puppets as he pushes Z categ...

Set against the backdrop of illegal bike racing in Chennai, the film is solely dependent on Yogi Babu’s comedy, which works only in handful of scenes. The number of cringe-worthy dialogues and jarring shots are too high in this movie, the duration of which is only a little more than 100 minutes. The lack of interesting characters or sequences starts testing viewers’ patience just a few minutes into the film. பைக் ரேசராக இருக்கும் வீரசமர், டியூ கட்டாத பைக்குகளை தூக்கி வருகிறார். மேலும் அதே பகுதியில் இருக்கும் நாயகி அமிதா ராவை காதலித்து வருகிறார். ஒரு நாள் அரசியல்வாதி மூலம் ஒரு பைக் ரேஸ் நடக்கிறது. இதில் நாயகன் வீரசமருக்கும் ஒரு கும்பலுக்கும் சண்டை ஏற்படுகிறது. அந்த கும்பல் வீரசமரை அடித்து ஒரு பெட்டிக்குள் வைத்து உயிருடன் புதைத்து விடுகிறார்கள். நினைவு திரும்பி பார்க்கும் வீரசமர், எப்படி தப்பிப்பது என்பது தெரியாமல் தவிக்கிறார். தன்னுடைய செல்போன் நெட்வொர்க் மூலம் காதலிக்கு பட்டிபுலம் என்ற பகுதியில் இருப்பதாக தகவல் அளிக்கிறார். இறுதியில் அமிதா ராவ், வீரசமர் இருக்கும் பகுதி...

Agni Dev (Bobby Simhaa), a devoted cop, has taken charge of investigating the brutal murder of a journalist which happened in broad light. As the case progresses, Agni is asked by his senior, Charles (Bose Venkat) to stop from proceeding further with the investigation. He realises that Charles has been intimidated by Shakuntala Devi (Madhubala), a dreaded politician. How Agni tackles her and nabs the culprit forms the rest of the story. The biggest and only plus of the film is its duration. While Bobby Simhaa looks miscast as a cop in many scenes, Sathish’s one-liners — even in serious scenes — are a big turn off. MS Bhaskar is decent while Ramya Nambeesan appears in a blink-and-miss role. The biggest let down, though, is Madhubala’s portrayal as the politician with grey shades. Though the director tries to come up with a flashback episode to evoke sympathy for her character and an ineffective twist towards the climax, it is not enough to save the role and the film from being a c...

  The film is about the different phases in the life of Jeya (Radhika Preethi), a young girl who falls in love with Priyan (Rejith Menon), a doctor. She stalks him and starts living in a dream world. When Jeya shares her feelings to her grandfather (Chandramouli), they form a plan to meet Priyan. But an unexpected incident spoils her plans. With underwritten characters, Embiran lacks the emotional connect to make us care about its characters and their plight. The performances, too, do not evoke empathy. தாத்தா மௌலி அரவணைப்பில் இருக்கிறார் நாயகி ராதிகா ப்ரீத்தி. இவர் டாக்டராக இருக்கும் நாயகன் ரெஜித் மேனனை துரத்தி துரத்தி காதலித்து வருகிறார். தன்னுடைய காதலை எப்படி ரெஜித்திடம் சொல்வது என்று தெரியாமல் தவித்து வருகிறார். இந்த விஷயம் தாத்தா மௌலிக்கு தெரிய வருகிறது. ரெஜித்திடம் இவரின் காதலை சொல்ல, ராதிகா ப்ரீத்தியை அழைத்துக் கொண்டு செல்கிறார் மௌலி. அப்போது எதிர்பாராத விதமாக விபத்து ஏற்பட தாத்தா மௌலி விபத்தில் இறக்கிறார். நாயகி ராதிகா ப்ரீத்தி கோமா நிலைக்கு செல்கிறார்....

The title credits of Airaa plays over an animated sequence that shows the domino effect caused by a Rube Goldbergian contraption. And the title itself contains butterflies. These are the clues that director Sarjun offers us, right at the beginning of his film, to the mystery that is at the centre of his film’s narrative. When the film begins, we see a couple of cops in Pollachi answering a distress call only to find out that the house they are in is haunted. The action then shifts to Chennai, to Yamuna (Nayanthara), a media professional, who has to put up with a misogynistic NRI, whom her parents are trying to set her up with, and a boss who is unsympathetic towards her boredom at writing an Agony Aunt column. She moves to Pollachi, to the very haunted house that we were shown in the beginning. The house is occupied by her grandmother (Kulappully Leela) and her help, Mani (Yogi Babu). Soon, eerie events start happening — creaking doors, rocking chairs, shadowy figures and the wor...

                           Super Deluxe gives us four stories and the protagonists in each of these stories are tested in their beliefs in the strangest ways. For the married couple Vembu (Samantha) and Mukil (Fahadh Faasil), the situation in which they get into is a test of their marital relationship. It is a test of her love for her son for Shilpa (Vijay Sethupathi), a transgender who has come back to her family. For Arputham (Mysskin), who has survived the tsunami and found a new God, and Leela (Ramya Krishnan), a former porn star who is desperately trying to save her injured son, Soori, it is a test of their belief in God and humanity respectively. And there are also three lads who face a literal test of bravery. Giving out anything more about the plot of Super Deluxe will ruin the fun and joy of experiencing something singularly unique. There is a heartless and horny cop, a quirky don, a publicity crazy p...

  Set in the 16 th  century, Mary Stuart (Saoirse Ronan) has recently lost her husband, and returns to Scotland from France with the intent to establish her position as the Queen of Scotland. Naturally, this doesn’t go down well with her cousin, the Queen of England, Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie). Queen Elizabeth is Protestant, unmarried and childless, while Queen Mary is Catholic. Naturally, Mary is immediately perceived as a threat to Elizabeth’s place on the throne. This leads to a series of dangerous scheming in both courts as the two strong-willed women battle their way through manipulative advisers as they take each other on. Saoirse Ronan is an immediate standout; the young actress gives a passionate performance as the Queen of Scotland with a fierce on-screen presence that demands your attention. Margot Robbie is no less impactful, as the somewhat erratic and unpredictable Queen Elizabeth. She disappears under layers of makeup, which is symbolic in how it’s hard to...

 The escape room concept is relatively well known - a group of people are trapped in a room, and the only way out is to solve complex riddles and clues. This sub-genre has been seen before in the ‘Saw’ series, and the concept goes back even further to 1997 with the Canadian film ‘Cube’. In ‘Escape Room’, we’re introduced to a couple of the characters and see how they end up in this life-or-death situation. Along the way, we also discover how the other players fit into the deadly game. Although some of them might get on your nerves for different reasons, it’s the way they’ve been written, with no fault of the actors, per se.  Taylor Russell plays Zoey Davis, a brilliant college student who is an introvert. Jay Ellis plays Jason Walker, a successful, and cocky chap who thinks he’s better than everyone else. Deborah Ann Woll plays Amanda Harper, probably the most layered character of them all. She has a huge role to play in one of the rooms which happens to be the most nail...

Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) is a cyber-surgeon who finds a discarded female cyborg shell in a junkyard. When he restores her, it becomes quickly evident that she’s no ordinary machine. Alita, as he names her, has an innate child-like curiosity. She quickly learns to adapt to the harsh world around her. Along the way she also discovers her history and the real power she wields as she finds her place in a future that makes a clear distinction between the haves & have-nots. To say that producer James Cameron is instrumental in creating a compelling post-apocalyptic future should come as no surprise from the man who knows a thing or two about killer robots. But Cameron and director Robert Rodriguez are also known to pay a lot of attention to a film’s plot; both proving their respective abilities to flesh out intriguing characters and using emotionally driven story-telling to power action sequences. Beyond the technical superiority expected from a film that has Cameron attached ...

Years have passed since Emmet (Chris Pratt) and his friends, Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), Unikitty (Alison Brie), Metalbeard (Nick Offerman), and Benny (Charlie Day) saved the town of Bricksburg. Since then, mysterious beings from another universe have attacked the city and reduced it to ruins. If that wasn’t bad enough, Emmet’s friends are abducted by alien invaders, and he needs to find ways to defeat these new threats, restore peace and harmony to Bricksburg, and generally ensure that ‘everything is awesome’ once again. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who wrote and directed the first LEGO Movie, are back in their writing roles in this sequel. While they’ve handed over directorial duties to Mike Mitchell this time around, they are well aware of what worked for its prequel. ‘The LEGO Movie’ was funny, creative and heart-warming; this second part is no different. It’s a much bigger challenge to pen a compelling story especially since the reveal was made at...

This unusual satire on gangsters and revenge stories, starts off with a quote from Oscar Wilde and some delightful background music that sets the tone for rest of the film. The first few minutes play out like a predictable thriller, featuring a wronged father and his pursuit for vigilante justice. But, what follows is a series of stylised killing sequences, that almost seem like parodies of action set pieces that you’ve seen Liam Neeson pulling off with deadpan ease in the past. Yet, director Hans Petter Noland, who also made the Norwegian film In Order Of Disappearance that inspired Cold Pursuit, and writer Frank Baldwin create a refreshing narrative full of memorable moments. The movie seems bizarrely funny and the snow-heavy setting creates the right atmosphere for the dry and cold-cut humour. The story begins with tragedy and the first few minutes seem dead serious, right up to the point where Coxman confronts his first victim, the gangster named Speedo. But, as the revenge-s...

Joan (Glenn Close) and Joseph Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) get the surprise of their lives when he is chosen to receive the Nobel prize for Literature. Over the course of nearly forty years, they have grown to complement each other, appearing to be a loving couple, and parents to their two children. But when they fly over to Stockholm for the prestigious event, Joan begins to reminisce about the time she met Joe as a professor of literature in 1950, and how they fell in love. Egged on by Nathanial Bone (Christian Slater), who seeks to write Joseph’s biography, she ponders the nature of their relationship and what she’s had to give up to make their marriage work. Although it appears to have a simplistic plot at its core, ‘The Wife’ is a showcase in peeling off the narrative layers to get there. Director Björn Runge also displays how framing can tell an entire story by giving audiences the chance to read emotions from the faces of his brilliant cast. This is particularly applicable t...

'Luka Chuppi' is a situational comedy from the word go. And the situation in question is live-in relationships. What starts as a news story for a local reporter Guddu, turns into his own love story with hilarious complications. But peddling along are a host of other societal issues like misogyny, gender inequality, caste bias and moral policing that are tackled in a funny and harmless way. However, there is hardly a dull moment in the film that never takes itself too seriously.  As a debutante, director Laxman Utekar does a fine job of throwing in a bunch of quirky characters in unusual situations. Starting with the film’s hero Kartik Aaryan, who looks way too polished for his small-town character, but along the way, you soon start rooting for him. Whether he is covering a story or running for cover himself - Kartik exudes an endearing charm that is relatable. Ditto for Kriti. With all her prettiness and poise, she portrays the character of a girl-next-door without being...