The Critique

Dir: Noah Hawley wrote some episodes and directed the first one. The other episodes had other directors and writers. Starring: Dan Stevens, Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Irwin, Jeremie Harris, Amber Midthunder, Katie Astleton, Jean Smart Dur: The first season has 8 episodes. Each episode is about 50 mins Genre: Psychological drama PG: Pretty graphic but not consistently so. Rating: 7/10 This is a fancy, postmodern way of narrating a story. That it is the story of a lesser-known mutant is another matter altogether. The creator, Noah Hawley wanted to recreate the superhero genre. The lead character is interesting in himself but the narration of events takes an unheard of form. The whole series revolves around David Haller (Dan Stevens) a mutant with a schizophrenic disorder. Since the story is told from his perspective, no effort is spared to recreate the schizophrenic mind and the reality is imagined from a schizophrenic standpoint. Logic leaves for a long tour...

Dir:Ajay Pannalal Starring: Rajkumar Rao, Shruti Hasan Dur:   1 hr 59 mins Genre: Romance Rating: 4/10 The trailer projected a promising story the actual delivery was rather unattractive. The film sought to explore the brother-sister and lover relationship in the Indian society. The climax of the film is an emotionally charged monologue which I barely followed on account of my poor knowledge of Hindi. What I was able to gather from that was that a boy doesn’t have to become a “brother” to protect a woman. Husbands fulfill that role as well. Honestly, sitting through nearly two-hours of cinema to be fed that message at the end of it all is pretty irksome. The story basically is a romance that blooms between neighbours. The boy fancies the girl with all his being while she doesn’t see him the same way. Suddenly, by some mindless-twist in story and direction, she falls in love in him, and not simply “in love” but “madly in love”. No one is aware of their relationship ...

Dir: Alankrita Shrivastava Starring: Konkona Sen Sharma, Ratna Pathak, Aahana Kumra, Plabita Borthakur Dur: 1 hr 57 mins Genre: Drama Rating: 7/10 PG: Quite a few sexually suggestive actions. A few sex scenes. A seriously novel way of presenting reality. Lipstick under my Burkha is offensive, scandalous and yet smells pretty true. It shows the situation of women in Islam. I can completely understand the Islamic backlash against the film’s content. I can’t really say for sure that it reflects the truth but to a large extent it corresponds to what I have heard and read about Islamic culture. I have also heard, seen and experienced stories that don’t follow this categorization and so I am neither shocked nor cool about the issue. I liked the film for it was shameless and bold to say what it had to say and depict a reality despite the obvious consequences. In this regard I admire the director and writer. What scarred me was the amount of and nature of the sexual content of t...

Dir: John Gunn Starring: Mike Vogel, Erika Christensen Dur: 1 hr 53 mins Genre: Biography Rating: 8/10 Faith in Jesus is something that ought to bring about a change in the person. The Gospels are clear on this point. Take for instance, Zacchaeus, a much hated tax-collector who had a life-changing encounter with Jesus. After his meeting with Christ he wasn’t the same person. The Case for Christ documents the fascinating story of an atheist’s conversion to Christ.   Based on the true story of Lee Stroebel played by Mike Vogel, The Case for Christ (the name of the book published by Lee) contains the research and findings with regard to the resurrection. Lee was an award winning investigative journalist whose comfortable like is suddenly upsetted when his wife begins to grow sympathetic to the Christian faith. The Stroebel’s atheism was called into question when one fine day, their little daughter nearly choked to death on a sweet. A Christian nurse was providen...

Joe Mannath sdb, A Radical Love, A Path of Light: The Beauty and Burden of Religious Life , New Delhi: CRI house, 2013, ISBN not mentioned, Rs. 180, $ 15, pp. 224 Joe Mannath is a widely acclaimed author. His previous books have been very well received and he is acknowledged as a good public speaker, writer, educator and animator besides being a formator of religious and priests. He is a Salesian of Don Bosco and has served for many years on the staff of various formation houses and seminaries. Currently he is the National Secretary of the Conference of Religious India (CRI). The inside of the front and the back covers give us ideas of his previous books and the praise they received. Also a brief life note is printed for the reader’s knowledge. I have met him in person and wasn’t quite taken up with the speech he delivered to us while on a visit to our seminary. I have glanced through some of his previous works and all I wish to say is that his style doesn’t appeal to me i...

Dir: Gabriela Cowperthwaithe Starring: Kate Mara Dur: 1 hr 56 mins Genre: Biography Rating: 7/10 PG: Kissing, swearing and war scenes   but not too much of either. I watched this film knowing it was a biography. I was intrigued by the question: How are they building a story about a marine and her sniffer-dog? Megan Leavey tells the true story of a young, restless and uncertain woman who makes her way to the marines. While there she gets into trouble and is punished by being assigned cleaning duties at the animal quarters. It is here she first encounters Rex, her future partner and friend. He is a sniffer-dog who is pretty ferocious and even bites her on one occasion. She doesn’t give up on him and the two finally establish a bond that lasts for life. The film shows a small part of the services the duo rendered to the U.S. forces in Iraq but focuses on the relationship between the two. It also throws in a bit of romance for the sake of it, I guess. The story ...

Dir: Alex Kurtzman Starring: Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella Dur: 1 hr 50 mins Genre: Thriller Rating: 4/10 PG: Some graphical scene specially with the Mummy. I have watched the earlier Mummy series and so I wasn’t expecting something entirely novel. This film is a reboot under the patronage of Universal studios. To be absolutely honest, I wasn’t impressed at all. Except for the better graphics and the new faces, the film had little to offer. The romance was forced and the ending was straight out of a fairy-tale. Even Tom Cruise, with all his ‘Mission Impossible’ achievements couldn’t save the film. The story goes that two greedy U.S. army men accidentally stumble on a great archaeological discovery. Conveniently, (and this for me is where the film already goes downhill) an extremely pretty looking archaeologist, Jenny (Annabelle Wallis) makes an appearance claiming that one of the soldiers stole her map while getting intimate with her the previous n...