Skip to main content

Best Indies - Movie 4 - Once

What it is about - Music. Two music people connect and make a song recording. It's this simple
They say we will decide whether we like a movie or not in the first few minutes. It is not true for some films though. Long back, when I saw 'It's a wonderful life' I experienced this. And again today! This was an easy watch, but nothing held me until 50 minutes. I was about to quit and then saw a very romantic scene. The scene's realism got me for a few minutes. And then they show a fantastic sequence of them recording an entire song. The song was great. I got goosebumps while hearing it. That made a difference for me in the way I perceive this film.
Performance - The performance of both lead characters is great. The guy is a singer himself and all the songs we hear are his songs and it's reflecting on the performance too. He has a love for all those songs and it is good to watch. And the one who beautified this movie is the girl. It didn't even look like acting. A Czech girl who speaks a different kind of English. We can enjoy a small bit of humor in that.
Story & Structure - The character is written well too. We see nothing but innocence in that character. No grey shades. None required for this film as it is a feel-good film. A film where we get hopes in this world. It's a selective reflection of the real world. There are no people conflicts. There are no people obstacles. Almost no major obstacles apart from that the girl doesn't fall easily to the guy. Yet, this has a journey, a plot, a recording of an achievement. A feel-good documentary-ish movie. I say this because I can compare the feeling of this movie to that of the 'Insignificant Man' documentary. Like in 'Insignificant man' where one can enjoy that they can see inside stories of a political party. Here, we are happy to know the inside stories of music production.
Conclusion - I missed most of the lyrics of the songs played in this film throughout which I'm regretting now. I found this film an above-average one. But it's a recommended watch because it's a different kind of experience. Because music drives this film and not visuals.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Best Indies - Movie 1 - Slacker

What is it about - This film is about slackers. People who don't do anything and always have reasons for it. Different people have different reasons but one thing is common - They don't like to work hard. Engagement Level - I was about to quit this movie at about 30 minutes and a shy boy-girl conversation hooked me up. It was realistic and interesting. And it gave me fuel to watch some more. Then I started enjoying this new pattern and it didn't irritate me to watch. I had to quit about 72nd minute because the film is showing the same things over and over and finally it bored me. Craft - This movie doesn't have a cinematic quality. Anybody who knows to write dialogues and direct actors can do this. There is no story, so there's no need for a structure. There's nothing exciting in its Cinematography, Editing, and Sound. Though the characters have a great sense of humor, they don't deserve our empathy. Observations - There are funny dialogues...
Post a Comment
Read more

Best Indies - Movie 3 - Sex, Lies, and Videotape

What it is about - The title almost gives out its premise. It's about sex and lies. Videotape plays a major role in the film. Story & Structure - The flow of the film is too smooth. Nowhere it feels like a constructed screenplay. Like any other story, this too has its fair share of coincidences but the brilliant craft subverts it. The conflict of this story is with themselves and with their partners. 4 major characters - Husband(John), Wife(Ann), Husband's friend(Graham), Wife's sister(Cynthia) . Graham's ex Elizabeth is another character who comes in suggestion. A psychiatrist shares good screentime who helps the audience to understand Ann's thinking. The story forgets to resolve the psychiatrist and Ann's relation. The story works fine without that because it had no emotional hook, it was a tool to reveal Ann. I remember the names of every character because they all have strong and unique traits. The great driver of this story is the ego ga...
Post a Comment
Read more

Best Indies - Movie 5 - Mad Max

What is it about - Series of vengeance stories between a good cop-driver and the bad group of people. Most of the film is set on the road. I am a fan of gripping road stories, but this one disappointed me. The plot is simple, straight and clear. Yet, the story is off at times, losing the grip it could've had. The race, accidents, and car- blasts are shot we ll. But the other scenes could've matched that level. This is a film which I can improvise a lot by having the same premise and characters. The premise is promising. The antagonists are super-powerful and have unique character traits. In theory, this should open up many possibilities. Performances were decent. The sound and visuals were fine. But the story was just O -K. We call our people dumb for liking KGF. But we miss the fact that people all over the world celebrate the same kind of stories
Post a Comment
Read more