As the weekend fast approaches, shed yourself of your work attire, don your weekend lazy-pants, and cook up some popcorn… it’s time for Movie Montage, The Weekend Film Guide. We help satiate all your film cravings, queries and confusions to ease you into the ultimate debate of, “What should I watch this weekend?”
The Ladykillers (2004)
DIRECTOR: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
CAST: Tom Hanks, Marlon Wayans, Irma P Hall, JK Simmons
PLOT: An eccentric professor rents a room in an old widow’s house, and his crew of thieves pose as a band of musicians to rob an offshore casino. Soon the unsuspecting landlord discovers their plot and they must kill her.
This film probably isn’t the biggest or the best offering from the Coen brothers (this is more Oh Brother Where Art Thou than No Country For Old Men) and would definitely not be the numero uno of films to recommend from their curriculum vitae, but this production has a khichdi of oddball characters, over-the-top hijinks, and twists at every turn.
Tom Hanks is at his best as the creepy yet charming Southern professor. Irma P Hall is one of those hard-as-nails church-attending black ammachis who doesn’t give two hoots about loud music and “hipidy hop” language. And not to forget the miscreant characters in the thievery crew from Pancake, the clumsy demolitions expert to Gawain MacSam as the potty mouthed casino insider, are all hilarious in their own weird-ass way. If you want to watch something light-hearted yet odd little mystery that has a great story line taken from the original 1955 comedy, that starred Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers, this is it.
Look out for: Othar’s painting. And how each of the crew members tries to snuff out Marva Munson.
Check out the trailer for The Ladykillers below.
Moon (2009)
DIRECTOR: Duncan Jones
CAST: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey
PLOT: An astronaut miner, Sam Bell, is working on a three-year contract, extracting Helium 3 (moon gas) and sending it to Earth as it is the clean and abundant fuel of choice. However as his employment is coming to an end, strange things begin to happen and it appears that his employers weren’t completely honest with him.
This psychological sci-fi falls in the same vein as 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Solaris, where it explores the isolation and eeriness of being in outer space that can only be imagined by laypeeps. Space may seem like the new and unexplored frontier, but it can also be daunting as the film plays with the intrinsic fear of the unknown. Duncan Jones creates a haunting visualisation of a desolate landscape within and outside the ship, and the isolation that it festers.
Sam Rockwell puts together one of the best solo performances I have ever seen him in. How from an upbeat guy who can’t wait to come back to earth after being away for three years, to complete and utter mind-f$#k where he (and you) have no idea what is real and what could be a figment of his imagination; what is true and what lies he’s been fed.
By the way Duncan Jones is David Bowie’s son, and this was his debut film. He most recently directed Source Code which starred Jake Gyllenhaal.
Look out for: Clint Mansell’s sublime soundtrack.
Check out the trailer for Moon below.
Everything Is Illuminated (2005)
DIRECTOR: Liev Schreiber
CAST: Elijah Wood, Eugene Hutz
PLOT: With the help of an madcap Ukrainian local, a deranged dog, and his “blind” grandfather, a young Jewish American is on a search to find the woman who helped his grandfather escape during World War II from a Ukranian village that was ransacked by the Nazis.
Here is film that will make you laugh and cry all in a heartbeat. Guaranteed hilarity will ensue with the caricature character like Eugene, who loves hip hop, and American pop culture. He speaks wonderfully crafted hodge-podge English – “Many girls want to be carnal with me… because I’m such a premium dancer.” Oh yes. And yet interspersed with a goofball like Eugene Hutz’s character, is the journey of a man who’s discovery only elicits a sense of realisation and understanding among his fellow guides.
Based on the book by Jonathan Safron Foer, the movie is not told at all like the book. In actuality, it is just the barebones of the story that is taken to create the screenplay. However, being true to the book is never what matters in this movie. This movie is equal parts funny, endearing and touches you in the deepest recesses (#twss) of your heart.
Look out for: The scene where Alex (Eugene Hutz) has to ask some construction workers for directions and kicks Sammy Davis Jr Jr – the officious seeing-eye bitch.
Check out the trailer below.
Rabbit Hole (2010)
DIRECTOR: John Cameron Mitchell
CAST: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Sandra Oh
PLOT: After the death of their young son in an accident, the life of a young couple is turned upside down.
This is a tragic film, but definitely worth the watch for the heart-rending performances from Kidman and Eckhart. Rabbit Hole takes you through the tumultuous emotional journey of these two parents. Kidman’s character, Becca, deals with the loss of their son by stripping their house of any reminder or semblence of him, while Eckhart’s character, Howie, feels that taking away their son’s drawings and toys feels like their erasing his very existence. In a way, they deal with this post-trauma contrary to each other.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book (of the same name) by David Lindsay-Abaire, the film pans out like a play, and the powerful dialogues and emotional interaction with the two lead actors, feels theatrical. It is a brilliant depiction of how a tragedy like this, in any family, can breakdown a relationship, and how you live your life day-to-day.
Interesting tidbit, Nicole Kidman had actually turned down a role in Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, as it conflicted with the Rabbit Hole filming schedule. She eventually got nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2010 for her role as Becca.
Look out for: The living room fight between Becca and Howie or when Becca meets Jason, the driver who ran over their son, Danny.
Check out the trailer below.
Biutiful (2010)
DIRECTOR: Alejandro González Iñárritu
CAST: Javier Bardem, Maricel Alvarez
PLOT: Uxbal is a single father of two children, who finds out he has terminal cancer, and is now forced to put his life in order.
Iñárritu films (he directed Amorres Perros, 21 Grams, Babel) all tell the story of how ordinary people deal with extraordinary situations. Biutiful is another one of those stories where a man finds out he is dying and how he deals with his job, his manic-depressive ex-wife, his criminal activities and his two little kids. Iñárritu’s storytelling and the sublime cinematography of Rodrigo Prieto, create this purgatory of sorts as the film pans out like a biutiful car crash.
Javier Bardem brings to the table a riveting performance of a man who is kind at heart and wants to help as many people as he can, but is limited by the law, by people’s mental condition, by circumstance, et l. Life is hard, and bad things do happen, but the good things are in the details, in the small acts of goodness.
Bardem won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival.
Look out for: When Uxbal’s daughter finds out there is something wrong with her father.
Check out the trailer below.
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