The Critique

Dir: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman Dur: 1 hr 57 mins Genre: Animation Rating: 9/10 WOW! Yes, that’s not just what I felt when I watched the film, it’s what I’m feeling even now as I sit and write this review. This is definitely the best animated film I have ever seen. The graphics are incredible. The story is brilliantly woven together despite the colliding universes and the blend of emotional and comic-like storytelling is simply fantastic. The directors deserve more than their fair share of credit for envisioning this project and seeing it through to such a beautiful ending. I’m glad this film won an Oscar; it deserves the fame and appreciation it receives. For a superhero film, this was a novel storyline since even though there is an overlap of universes in the comics it hasn’t really made it to the silver screen. So, this didn’t only make this project novel it also made it incredibly challenging. However, the directors and their team have done a com

Dir: Bryan Singer Starring: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello Dur: 2 hrs 14 mins Genre: Biopic Rating: 6/10  The film released to worldwide acclaim. It made quite an impact and is regarded as one of the biggest box office successes of all time for a biopic. Personally, I wasn’t at all impressed with the film. Critics praised Rami for his depiction of Freddie but I wasn’t too happy. Perhaps, it’s just prejudice. I imagine Freddie to by quite flamboyant and out-there. Rami tries his best but for me, there is some kind of lacuna in his performance. The best part of the film is definitely the music. There is nothing to beat it. The film also drew a lot of criticism for its historical inaccuracies. Something that doesn’t digest very well considering that the film is supposed to be a biopic. Unless you liked the music of Queen and are interested in a little background, you probably might not enjoy this film. The drama is quite drab. The dialogue

Dir: Tabrez Noorani Starring: Mrunal Thakur, Richa Chadda, Freida Pinto, Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkumar Rao Dur: 2 hrs Genre: Drama Rating: 7/10  India is one of the hotbeds of human trafficking and prostitution. I can’t really remember a film that documented the horror quite as well as this (from Bollywood, that is). Mardaani (2016) was pretty good but it focused on the cat-and-mouse chase between heroine cop and evil mastermind. Love Sonia doesn’t bother much with villainizing people. It gets straight to the issues of human trafficking, prostitution and the most deplorable, buying and selling girls like commodities. Set in a remote village of Maharashtra, the film quickly changes the address to Mumbai which is made out to be the red zone. The story takes off from Mumbai, reaches Bangkok, proceeds to the United States and then comes back full circle. The film packs a big load of stars each delivering sterling performances. The highlight, however, hands down is Richa. Not

Dir: Sriram Raghavan Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Radhika Apte and Tabu Dur: 2 hrs 18 mins Genre: Black Comedy Crime Thriller Rating: 3/10 I watched this film on good recommendations. It was hailed as one of the best films of 2018. The mystery surrounding the film went well with the mystery that was actually the film itself. I learnt a hard lesson after watching this film and that is not to go by what other’s say about a film. Given Bollywood’s film making standards, I should not have been surprised. Yet, I found myself pleasantly surprised at the end product. Andadhun tells a complex tale of blindness in a world that is not blind even though it appears so. Confused? Well then, watching the film is not going to make it any better. This film is a classical example of postmodern film-making. It is replete with ample plot twists that don’t allow you to settle into its tricky narrative. Just when you think you have it all figured out, a new twist emerges and challe

Created by: Steven Lilien Starring: Brendan Hall, Violett Beane, Javicia Leslie, Suraj Sharma and Joe Morton. Dur: 13 episodes 45 mins each Genre: Comedy-Drama Rating: 9/10 One of the best coming-of-age stories told in serial form. I absolutely loved every bit of it. First of all, it’s told from the perspective of a young adult who is struggling with ideas of God, faith and religion. He starts out as an avowed atheist but begins to experience a change when an extraordinary event rocks his world — God friends him on Facebook. When I say ‘friends’ I literally mean it.   Like God makes an account and uses it to get in touch with Miles, the lead protagonist, and influence his life. The serial makes a number of bold choices. It makes use of a number of sensitive issues to get across a point. Atheism, homosexuality and priesthood are all significant players in the development of the story. Also, the very choice of lead characters. As you can see in the poster, you have

David Rice , Shattered Vows: Priests who Leave , New York: Triumph Books, 1992, ISBN 0-8007-3037-2, pp. 280, $10. David Rice was born in Northern Ireland and was ordained a Dominican in 1958. He left the priesthood in 1977 to marry. He has worked as a journalist all his life and was an editor and award-winning syndicated columnist in the U.S. during the 1970s. Having undergone the experience of ‘leaving the ordained ministry,’ Rice is in a good position to make this presentation about the sad and troubling, yet awfully sensitive and pressing issue. The book is written in true journalistic style, without jumping to conclusions and backing up claims with significant evidence. One can take his word for truth since he has personally travelled thousands of miles across the globe, visiting, interviewing and even living with ‘priest who left’ besides those who had troubles but didn’t leave. His travels have taken him to places like U.S., Britain, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Germany, F