Coconut Cruncher

7th Dec 2017 I have been thinking of making video essays for a while now, but hadn’t thought of it through fully because of work. Today I found out that ‘Every Frame a Painting’, one of my favourite channels on youtube that does video essays on Cinema - is officially dead. It was extremely saddening to hear that they have decided that this was the end for them, and that they had to move on to other endeavours. EFAP taught me a lot about film, about art, and about making video essays as well. Their article covers their journey so far, along with their learnings, challenges and rewards. I thought to myself - if they couldn’t do it, who can? But I’m so glad that something so great has been put out there that will be available to anyone anywhere - forever. I wish them good fortune and all the best the world has to offer, and a big thank-you for all the learning and inspiration. :) You can read their overwhelming article here > https://medium.com/@tonyszhou/postmortem-1b338...

27th July 2017 When I saw the trailer for Circle something like a year ago, it seemed pretty interesting, something similar on the lines of Black Mirror. As the film progressed I only noticed how bad the writing, direction and acting was (despite the renowned cast). There was an obvious, in your face message of the dangers of a world surrounded by surveillance and a lack of ‘privacy’ in a futuristic digital world. The main character Mae’s decisions are so contradictory to her established personality, she feels very superficial and unrelatable. Her actions seem to be without motive or any prior driving force.   The very apparent difference between a series like Black Mirror and a film like Circle, is that the former allows room for question of ethics and basic human rights. It provokes deep thought and discussion. I guess they intended to present a larger-than-life social commentary on the ‘dangers of technology’ but instead leave you absolutely disappointed with...

23rd Jan 2016 I watched La La Land today.  I’m not really one for musicals, but the story completely overpowered the ‘genre’ of the film. The trailer didn’t excite me much, but I was curious to know why it won SO many Golden Globes, and besides – it was directed and written by Damien Chazelle, the same man who made ‘Whiplash’; another film I was awed by.  I still have first-screening frenzy, but I’ll try to look at this as clearly as I can. This was not just a musical. It is an honest and heartfelt film about dreamers; a subject which is very relatable to us all. Emma and Ryan are so cute and charismatic, and it’s lovely to see how their ambitions unfold and how one makes the other push forward and become someone more. I don’t think it’s a love story, but a story about the honesty and drive with which the characters dream. However you do root for the two of them, and the love story is beautiful to watch at parallel. I was left speechless choked up by the end....

Hey guys! Some quick TV and Film Reviews of this week: Arrival, Moana, Westworld Arrival I went into this movie blind. Akshay was super excited for it since he was anticipating it for a long time, and I was advised to go without watching any trailers! I was pleasantly surprised to watch such a kickass film. The direction is so good, so subtle and smooth. I watched this last week and since then have been trying to figure what the story of the film is – I’m still not sure, but I like how it showed the concept of time in such a beautiful unconventional way. Most films involving time definitely have some loopholes – it is indeed a difficult subject to tackle in film; but Arrival conveys it smoothly with the help of SciFi devices fitting well in the world of the film. I especially loved the colour key of and pace of the film. It made it look so simple, effortless and void of distraction. Amy Adams as always was brilliant, and all the supporting cast did great too. The writing I im...

21 Nov 2016 I loved Before the Flood​. It definitely focused most Coal Consumption, but I thought it could still be much more holistic covering all major sources of global warming. It seemed a bit biased, and gave little or no emphasis on other major causes of climate change like cattle consumption. I just came across Nat Geo's first episode of Years of Living Dangerously​. It covers the US energy situation where the powerful and corrupt utility monopolies are making it impossible for their solar to succeed. On the other hand, David Letterman covers India's energy consumption as an emerging economic power, and the decisions India has taken to switch to cleaner energy. The US situation got me so depressed, just like I felt with Before the Flood, but India's situation only felt positive. I was so relieved to see that we're actually taking steps and have energy goals to accomplish by only 2019! I always thought we were backward, and hated India's government for b...

17th Sept 2016 So I watched Battle Royale recently, and finally understood why it's compared to The Hunger Games so very often. Battle Royale (2000) is a Japanese film where a class of 9th grade kids fight till the death on an island in a 'game' invented by adults. I absolutely loved the film, as gruesome as it was. I felt the overall theme of the film was friendship and trust, and how these two variables change depending on different individuals and the situation they are faced with. Each character, (as long or less as they appear on screen) has a clearly defined personality and a justification for it. It's interesting to see how the game forces each one of them to change. Some of the situations have so much irony. (SPOILER AHEAD) For example when the girl who poisons Nanahara's food accidently kills another girl, all the girls who seconds ago trusted each other turn on each other and die on by one - but the girl who started the whole affair gets ou...

The Witch is directed by Robert Eggars. It's his directorial debut. It's based on true recollections of people who have witnessed witchcraft and evil spirits in old England. The film is about a puritan Christian family that encounters forces of evil and witchcraft in the foods near their farm. The story picks up when their baby suddenly disappears, and their daughter Thomasin is blamed for it. It evolves to discover a witch in the woods, who reappears later in the storyline. The characters all turn on each other at various points, and you see them all going through a steady mental and physical decline. Different elements are used to symbolize dark forces surrounding the family, like the rustle of leaves, the goat giving blood instead of milk, the male goat with the horns, and the rabbit who misses a bullet in the beginning. Initially the film was a bit slow to me, but the metaphors and acting really held it together. The palette is dull and desaturated, and t...

Blackfish Review - 30th Jan 2016 I watched ‘ Blackfish ’ tonight, and it’s one of the best documentary films I've seen. Blackfish is directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, and it follows the controversial captivity of Orca whales (killer whales), and it’s dangers towards both humans and whales. The documentary is incredibly shocking, disturbing, education, heart wrenching, and painful to watch. It just shows how low we can stoop as humans. I have always felt very strongly about wild animals held in captivity for human entertainment. I remember when I was about 13 and we went to Mahableshwar, my parents wanted to take me horse riding. Most horses aren’t wild anymore, they’re considered domestic animals. But I just didn’t feel right to sit on it for ‘fun’. I just didn’t want to be a part of it, and everyone else had a good time, and I was pretty relieved that I didn’t join them. They would call me oversensitive; But seriously thinking, how many times have you guys gone for sho...

Quick review of films watched last 2 weeks! Inside out: Absolutely beautiful! The design wasn't extremely unique, but the thought behind it and the storytelling was lovely! It didn't follow the usual pixar story structure with one character and his/her arc (which is also awesome), but was great nevertheless. Terminator: Genysis: I didn't have extremely high hopes for this film, but it was really below whatever expectations I had. The action was good, but they took some of the iconic shots from the originals. The storyline was haphazard and the time-travelling was so overused. The characters really needed to be fleshed out better and Khaleesi was terrible casting for Sarah Connor. She looked chubby and cute instead of badass, and trust me, I love Emilia Clarke. But no. The rest were pansies, besides Schwarzenegger of course. He never ceases to be awesome as the terminator (a.k.a: Pops) Jurassic World: I really regret not seeing this in the theatre. Lakshmi total...

17 th May 2015 Mad Max – Fury Road Mad Max is the 4 th film in the Mad Max series directed, produced and written by George Miller. We went to see the film in Inox Screen 1 with Dolby ATMOS sound. I couldn’t be more lucky to have seen it there.  This is evidently the BEST action film I’ve seen in all of time. The film is based in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have now become a wild inhumane race. In a stark desert landscape, the story is about journey of two rebels, Mad Max – a blood bank for the War Boys, and Imperator Furiosa on a wild ride to escape from the Citadel with their ruler (Immortan Joe)’s child brides in desperate hope for a better home.  The film’s characters are so well rounded and their goals are so evident. The film is thrilling with some glorious visual effects. But what I was absolutely floored by was the fully rounded world that was created in the film. Everything seemed to have been so well thought out, from the vehicle rigs, th...

22nd June 2014         This movie is one of the most underrated films if IMDB's got to give it a 6.6. The only disappointing thing about this movie is the title and the poster. The people who rated this film obviously read the misleading sysnopsis and saw the misleading poster, expected some amount of explicitness and got disappointed. This film is more than about getting over somebody. It's about how you should treat people, how people should treat you. Carter, the lead character moves in with his gradmother. Being a writer he has a thirst for new stories and characters with depth. He percieves things differently from others and doesn't care to express his opinion if asked for one. The film has such subtle beauty in it, and such full characters that you actually live as someone else for a while. I aspire to make a film like this one someday. Hats off to Jon Kasdan for writing such lovely people. I'd give it a 9/10.

6 th April 2014 So I was downloading the Oscars about a month back, contemplating whether I should allocate all my bandwidth to it, since I was disappointed with Oscars 2013. Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey won best actor over a lot of really good nominees for Dallas Buyer’s Club. And then I knew – I HAD to see it. I had no idea what it was gonna be about. TDBC is about Ron Woodroof, an AIDS patient fighting the disease and helping others fight it by using non-approved FDA drugs smuggled in from Mexico and eventually fighting a case against the FDA for making no difference in the lives of AIDS patients. I am just floored by Jared Leto’s performance, who plays a Rayon, transgender woman suffering AIDS. There are some really moving scenes which made me feel so much for the character that I was heavy hearted for the rest of the film. Matthew McConaughey has seriously outdone himself and absolutely deserves that Oscar. His acting is so convincing and heart wrenching –...