I’m a huge Matt Damon fan. Have been since Good Will Hunting. I’ve seen all the Bourne films, and Jason Bourne is a decent sequel. I even have a family connection to Jason Bourne — the character is supposed to have been born in Nixa, Missouri which is my dad’s hometown.
Matt Damon wouldn’t return to the franchise unless director Paul Greengrass also returned. It’s just fun to see their partnership again. The first film was so groundbreaking with the shaky handheld camera visceral action scenes.
Evidently Jason Bourne has been earning a living doing illegal boxing matches. No complaints here for the excuse for a shirtless scene.
Julia Stiles is back, separated from the CIA and hacking into their files to help Bourne. I appreciated that they introduced us to a new female cyber CIA expert played by Oscar winner Alica Virkander. Virkander had an amazing 2015 with Ex Machina, which I loved, and The Danish Girl. She should have won the Oscar for Ex Machina, but I’m just glad she won, becaue she’s fantastic. So, happy for her that she gets to do a fun action movie, too. Plus, she’s taking over as the next Lara Croft in 2018.
Bourne has two main enemies in the film, Tommy Lee Jones (he’s so craggy looking!) as the head of the CIA and the always great Vincent Cassel as the assassin out to get him.
There’s just not that much there to the plot. Bourne is trying to find just a bit more about his past, and the CIA is convinced he’s out to get them. The interesting little twist to the movie that updates it from the book is that there’s a tech company, a stand-in for Google or Facebook and Riz Ahmed plays the head of the company, secretly in cahoots with the CIA. There’s discussion of Snowden, and privacy rights online.
The only quibble I have with Greengrass’s direction of the film is the constant shaky motion of the camera. I love it in the action scenes. It makes me feel like I’m right there feeling the impact. But in some quieter scenes when Damon is looking at a computer or what have you, I want the camera to not be shaking around. (Yes, I’m old. Get off my lawn.)
It’s an enjoyable timepass of a movie, but my sons had zero interest in seeing it. I have the nostalgia of the other movies, but they don’t. It’s not a movie you have to run to catch in theaters. Worth catching on cable or renting.
Over and over, I’ve had the 2015 Malayalam film Ennu Ninte Moideen (Yours Truly Moideen) recommended to me. It’s an incredible love story starring PrithViraj and Parvarthy. And it is so incredible because it is a real life story of Moideen and Kanchanamala.
In 2006, director R.S. Vimal interviewed the real Kanchanamala and people who knew Moideen in the half hour long documentary Jalam Kond Murivetaval(or) One Who Was Wounded By Water
Kanchanamal wanted Prithviraj to play Moideen because she thought looked very much like him.
Ennu Ninte Moideen is the tragic love story of an interfaith couple who were kept separate by their families for years. Moideen and Kanchanamala’s fathers were friends and each were land owners in Mukkam, Kerala. Moideen’s father was a renowned Muslim leader, and Kanchanamala’s family were Hindu. Kanchanamala and Moideen went to school together as children, but later Kanchanamala went away from her home to attend college.
As she was returning to college from a school vacation, the family car broke down and she was allowed to take the bus back to the college town (something she was normally not allowed to do). On that bus, Moideen and Kanchanamala’s eyes met, and they fell in love. It’s an adorable scene in the film. Moideen sends a book of poetry to Kanchanamala and then they exchange secret letters.
She steals away from the college, and there is a beautiful love song in the rain.
In their courtship, Moideen and Kanchanamala never even touch once. When their families learn of their romance Moideen’s father throws him out of the house when he won’t go along with an arranged marriage. Kanchanamala’s brothers and uncles react even more cruelly, and lock her up in the house. She’s barely allowed to even leave her bedroom.
They sneak letters to each other, and even come up with their own private language to communicate with each other.
Moideen becomes a political activist, in opposition to his father’s politics. He uses the campaign speaker car to speak his love to Kanchanamala. Moideen’s father attacks him with a sword in the heat of an argument over Kanchanamala, and Kanchanamala’s relatives beat her to try to break her bond with Moideen.
The decades long devotion of Moideen and Kanchanamala would seem impossible to believe and like a fairy tale if it were not based on a real life story.
Finally, they decide to emigrate to America, but then a tragic accident happens. I thought the director had hyped up what happened for dramatic effect, but the documentary showed the newspaper clippings!
Moideen’s mother has left Moideen’s rigid father in disgust after the sword attack, and she takes Kanchanamala into her home as Moideen’s widow.
Ennu Ninte Moideen is an extraordinary love story. Tragic and very sad in the end, but still inspiring. The acting is wondrous both from Prithviraj and Parvarthy. Luminous soundtrack as well.
The real Kanchanamala criticized the director for changing parts of the story, but for a biopic, I think he was maybe almost too slavish to the true events and could have tightened up the narrative a bit. Still, a magical romantic film about love that transcends religious and cultural barriers.
Kabali is my second Rajnikanth Tamil film. I previously watched Enthiran (Robot) which I really enjoyed. You can tell right away that Rajnikanth is a Star with a capital ‘S’. My South Indian neighbor told me that Rajnikanth modeled himself on Clint Eastwood. He wants that kind of “Make My Day” iconic style. It has been two years since the last Rajnikanth film, and since 1994’s Baasha that he has played a Don role. If you have any doubt what an event a Rajnikanth film is, they marketed Kabali by painting a plane!
I saw Kabali twice this week. The first time was a late night show that didn’t get out until 1:30 a.m. I was tired going in and bleary which wasn’t good. And I didn’t have the raucous whistling crowd that I hear is more typical for a Rajnikanth film experience. I thought it was a decent gangster don comeback story, and appreciated Rajnikanth’s style and flair. But I didn’t really get what the movie was trying to show me until I read Margaret Redlich’s analysis and review on Don’t Call It Bollywood.
I knew zero about the Tamil community in Malayasia, the setting for the film and their history of oppression. What Margaret pointed out is that this film is telling you a story of an oppressed people between the lines, skirting the censors (in Malayasia they were required to add a crime doesn’t pay disclaimer.)
On the surface, this is a story like many we’ve seen before. A gangster Don is released from prison after 25 years, and takes revenge on the rival gang that killed his pregnant wife and his mentor, and who framed him for fomenting a massacre. The Tamil speaking policeman warns him to mend his ways when he gets out, and not to disgrace the Tamil people.
His loyal aide Ameer picks him up from prison, and shows him how Kuala Lumpur has changed and how the opposing gang 43 has taken over. Kabali directs Ameer to take him to the secret hangout of the gang, in the back of a pet shop. And this starts the Kabali Rajnikanth signature moves. Kabali is always dressed well in a suit jacket. And when he confronts one of the leaders of the rival gang he makes a point to sit in front of them in a relaxed manner with crossed legs. It’s show of nonchalance, and that he demands respect.
Kabali fights with swift moves and hidden pipes in his sleeves and objects he picks up around him. He strategizes and is a step ahead of his rivals. The action fight scenes are fun and inventive. Pretty bloody at times.
Ameer then shows Kabali the school that he and Kabali’s followers have created to save kids from gangs and other charitable foundations. Kabali finds he feels connection to a young drug addict girl student named Meena. “She’s about the age that my son or daughter would have been.” I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the dark side of youth drug use as presented like this in an Indian film before. It’s also really interesting that Meena is shown as a redeemable character, and that our hero wants to adopt a drug addict.
There are two really great strong women characters in this film. As Kabali addresses the graduating class of the school, we flashback to his backstory with his wife, played by Radhika Apte, who I had only previously seen in Badlapur. I absolutely loved their relationship of equals. They meet as field workers, and she encourages him as he rises from labor organizer to the protege of the TamilNesan leader played by Nasser. And then, there’s Kabali’s daughter:
Dhansika was all kinds of kick-ass awesome as the assassin for hire Yogi. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her work.
I enjoyed the personal journey of Kabali, as he tries to find his lost family more than the action gangster portions.
The reason I went to see the movie again was because I really didn’t get the underlying political message that the filmmaker was showing us, trying to slide it past the censors. After I read Margaret’s great analysis of the film, I went back to see it again and all the song lyrics about oppression and slavery lept out at me. I saw that the Tamil cop who had warned Kabali to be good in the jail collaborated with Kabali to bring down the Chinese gangster Tony Lee, but after that plotted Kabali’s downfall. It seems if you rise too high, you will be chopped down again.
Kabali’s wife has a key speech where she tells him he needs to always dress well to garner respect. She gives up her family to marry our lower caste hero. He always dresses in a suit coat. And his lounging cross-legged before each villain in his suit is a political message in itself. I belong to sit here with you. I am not your supplicant and my caste shouldn’t matter.
There’s also a message in how Kabali’s wife is a domestic servant who is shuttled from family to family and country to country with no say in where she can live. And that Kabali returns to Chennai, the first in his family since his grandfather left for Malayalsia. The villain is Tony Lee, and the fact that he is of Chinese heritage has a meaning. too. I read that Prakash Raj was originally supposed to be the villain and that would have given a completely different meaning.
I think the recent Malayalam film Kammattipaadam did a better job conveying the injustice done to an oppressed people (the Dalit) through a gangster narrative. Until I read Margaret’s piece, I didn’t fully understand what the director was trying to convey. But then, Pa. Ranjith was working at trying to convey a message past the censors in Malaysia. Kudos to Rajnikanth for making this film for his fans in Malaysia. It’s enjoyable just for the surface action story alone, but look deeper. There’s more there than first meets the eye.
Three and a half stars out of five. (Kabali was released in Tamil and Telugu. I saw the Tamil version.)
I wasn’t a huge fan of the rock/rap thrumming electric guitar songs that make up most of the soundtrack, but I did really like this love song:
You can now watch the entire fantastic one-take short film Thunder Road by Jim Cummings. Jim stars as a policemane giving a eulogy at a funeral. It’s heart rending and hilarious all at the same time. It’s amazing. Totally deserving of the grand prize at Sundance for shorts.
I was fortunate to meet and talk with Jim Cummings and his cinematographer at the fest. This little gem shows how creative you can be with very little. Do yourself a favor and watch the whole 13 minute short.
Jim Cummings wrote an open letter to Bruce Springsteen asking for digital rights to the song Thunder Road, so that could show his short for free on Vimeo. It worked! And now you can see this short online yourself, without having to go to a film festival.
Slow West was my favorite narrative film of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. This past weekend there were two things that made me think back to this excellent film. I was visiting with someone at a party who asked me about my favorite films at Sundance, and I read an old article in EW about Rogue One.
I had no idea before I saw this picture that Ben Mendelsohn who was the villain in Slow West is the Empire evil general of Rogue One.
Ben Mendelsohn had two films at the 2015 Sundance. Slow West and the not quite as good gambling drama Mississippi Grind with Ryan Reynolds. I’ll never forget that he wore the huge bearskin coat from Slow West to the premiere.
Slow West is a Western, the debut feature film of English director John Maclean. It was filmed in New Zealand to stand in for the American West of the late 19th century. The scenery is drop dead gorgeous. (Seriously, if you ever have the opportunity, GO to New Zealand. The mountain range near Queenstown is called The Incredibles for a reason.)
Of course, the taciturn Michael Fassbender is perfect to play Silas, a loner bounty hunter in the old West, He has the presence to express much while saying nothing, like the perfect Western hero.
Kodi Smit-McPhee (who I saw in the futuristic set Western Young Ones at the 2014 Sundance fest) plays Jay, a young nobleman on the search for his lost love. He is fresh off the boat from Scotland, and Silas rescues him , and then offers his services as protector for a steep fee.
The movie moves at a measured pace as they travel together, punctuated with startling action scenes — all the more startling coming suddenly out of the slow quiet we have been lulled into. I really liked the relationship that develops between the green romantic Jay and the reserved jaded Silas.
Along their journey, they run into the gang of another bounty hunter, played by Ben Mendelsohn in an outrageous big bearskin coat,. (The actor wore the very coat to the premiere). We find out that there is a huge bounty on the girl that Jay is infatuated with, and her father, and there are many bounty hunters looking for the pair. Silas is among them, although he hides that fact from young Jay.
What I loved about Slow West is how it took the audience expectations of what happens in the Western genre, and turned them on their head. The final climax shoot out scene, which we all see coming, goes nothing like what I expected, and I loved the movie for it. I won’t spoil it by listing in detail what surprised me, but I especially loved that Rose (the object of Jay’s infatuation) was quite simply kick ass and no damsel in distress. Rose is played by Caren Pistorius, who will appear again with Fassbender later this year in The Light Between Oceans.
While you could complain that Slow West was too slow in parts, I felt like it just added to the impact of the action scenes and the New Zealand scenery was gorgeously shot. It’s hard to believe that this is the debut feature of director/writer John Maclean. It well deserved the World Cinema Dramatic Jury prize it won at Sundance. I’m a huge Michael Fassbender fan, and this is one of my all time favorite Fassbender films, and he’s been in so many good ones.
Slow West is available now for rental on Amazon Video (it’s free with Amazon Prime) and on Google Play.
I had almost forgotten that a friend had organized a group outing to see BadMoms at our local theater that has waiters to take food orders (and alcohol!). The waitress told me there were 150 women and ONE man in the audience. One poor husband had come along (and he was in line behind us!). It was a raucous crowd. I laughed SO HARD partly because I was in an audience full of moms. (And the dirty martini helped, too!) I’m not sure the movie will be nearly as funny to wider audiences. Mila Kunis is the lead and a mom with two middle schoolers (supposedly she got pregnant in the film at 20.) I know she’s a mom in real life, but she still seemed too young an actress for kids that age.
Mila discovers her husband masturbating to a woman on the internet and kicks him out. She’s trying to handle single motherhood of a son and a daughter, while being harrassed by the bully PTA president (Christina Applegate in a delicious turn, with Jada Pinkett Smith as one of her posse.)
After a blowup at an interminable PTA meeting on a bake sale (boy, have I sat through those!), she becomes friends with moms played by Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn.
My favorite scene had them going on a drunken rampage through a supermarket. They mix mudslides in a milk jug, and flip one dollar bills to the teenage boy clerk. I was practically on the floor laughing at that point.
Of course Mila runs for PTA President, dates the hot widower, and somehow supports her family with a three day a week part time job. Yep. It’s a fantasy film.
It was a great girls night out film to see together. I just don’t know if it would be quite as funny to non-moms. For me, a mother for 24 years, I was laughing so hard I practically peed my pants. But my sons would have zero interest in this film. Still, it’s nice to have a comedy for adults. All the actresses were great and very funny, and thank you filmmakers for that hot widower sex scene.
Interesting that the film was written and directed by two men. The end credits showed each actress with their own real mom, talking about embarrassing badmom moments.
Dishoom was exactly what it was advertised to be — a silly fun somewhat comedic action flick. Varun Dhawan and John Abraham are odd couple buddy cops directed by Varun’s brother Rohit Dhawan. It wasn’t the greatest flick, but it was an enjoyable time pass.
John Abraham’s tough guy custom agent is introduced to us kicking a guy out of an elevator because the poor guy dared to ask him to not smoke. Funny enough. But the next scene was problematic, as Kathy of AccessBollywood.net points out. John discovers his girlfriend is cheating on him, and holds a gun to her head to get the lover to come out of hiding. Completely unnecessary. There are plenty of other scenes to establish how John Abraham’s character doesn’t play by the rules, and this threatened violence against women is jarring and the one off moment of the movie.
The star player of the Indian cricket team has been captured in an unnamed Mid-Eastern country. John is sent to solve the case and avoid an international incident. Varun is a rookie cop not trusted with more than picking up the captains kids and groceries. He’s an interesting character, a Muslim NRI who jumps at the chance to serve India even though he was born abroad. (And in a running gag, he’s searching for a bride from India.)
Basically, I think Varun Dhawan is the Zac Efron of Bollywood. He’s fantastic with the music numbers, was introduced in a high school musical, and is trying to transition to more mature adult roles. (And he has a nice six pack like Zac.) But he’s still the young kid in this movie, an eager hyper puppy jumping around the stoic John Abraham. He’s one of the best things about the movie, and I love his chemistry with John.
The plot doesn’t make a lot of sense. Villain Akshaye Khanna is angry at the cricket player for losing him money or not throwing a game. Or something. It doesn’t really matter. It’s just fun to see Akshaye embracing character roles, and I welcome his return to Hindi films. He’s sort of the Mark Strong of Bollywood (looks a bit like him, too.)
Jacqueline Fernandez has a fun time as a thief who gets caught up in the plot. She has a great number, sometimes dancing with Varun, and dancing mostly around John.
The cameos were some of my favorite moments. Akshay is gay, super wealthy and sports a man bun. He’s hysterical and obviously relishes playing against type. This selfie with the cricket player is a highlight:
Buddy cop films have a long tradition in Hollywood, with one suffering stoic partner and the hyper funny one. There need to be more in Bollywood like this. There’s so many super cop solo hero films, but having two leads play off each other is great. Dishoom was a light fun summer flick. But it could have been a bit better. My attention lagged a bit in the second half.
But the very end and the final credit song has the last fun cameo — Parineeti Chopra. Loved their number together!
Aagadu (He Will Not Halt) is a 2014 action comedy starring Telugu superstar Mahesh Babu as a super cop, the Indian superhero genre. On Friday night I was glued to news of the military coup in Turkey, but I just couldn’t take all the bad news with that chaos on top of the massacre in Nice. It was too much, and I needed something crazy to get my mind off it all. Telugu films are great for that, and this one was particularly crazy. Aagadu is not the greatest movie in the world, and it’s certainly not the best Mahesh Babu film, but it made me laugh. Evidently it was not his most successful film, but it was an enjoyable watch. The director, Srinu Vaitla, had previously made the hit film Dookuduwith Mahesh Babu (which I really liked.) And, I’ll admit it, I just like Mahesh Babu in a cop uniform.
Aagadu mixes the comedy with some more serious drama of an orphan boy adopted by a policeman, who takes the blame for a fatal accident for his adopted older brother. He’s sent to reform school, but his only goal is to become a cop like his estranged adopted father. Telugu action films I expect to be over the top in their violent action scenes, but the director and Mahesh seemed to delight in taking it even more over the top, for the amusement value. Mahesh even references many of his past films, and there’s a running gag of him conning the crooks that they’re just like his long lost brother, who…..insert plot of Dookudu, Okkadu, etc. I was glad I’d seen a number of Mahesh Babu films so I was in on the joke, but the subtitles also pointed out which movie he was referencing.
I recently watched the Malayalam film Neram, and the language play comedy in the film went right over my head. This film veered towards slapstick comedy, but it made me laugh out loud.
Sonu Sood is the mustache twirling villain. I took a picture of this scene where he’s intimidating a local and explaining that Sonu’s power plant project cannot be stopped. His examples of what ELSE couldn’t be stopped cracked me up! “I didn’t like Abishek Bachan [sic] marrying Aishwarya Rai. Could we stop it?” LOL
Tamannaah is the love interest. Mahesh thinks she’s sweet and innocent when he sees her handing out sweets to children, but comes to find out she’s a strident sweets shop owner. She’s about to marry an NRI just to be able to open new sweet shops in the US. Mahesh cons her, and her family, too, in a very amusing way, to stop the engagement to the NRI. Tamannaah catches on, but enjoys the manipulation of Mahesh — she sees she’s met her match in scheming.
The songs are completely over the top and crazy, too. For no apparent reason this one is filled with what look like Thai dancers. This song compares Tamannaah to Bhel Puri, the spicy street food – and all sorts of other foods. I’m sure I’ve never, ever heard a girl compared to tomato soup.
Eat me like a Dhoodh peda (Milk sweet)
There is Sweetness in your words, cuteness in your deeds, Lassi (Butter milk) in your smile, there is coconut water too in it!
Aagudu was welcome escapist fair. Mahesh seems to delight in mocking his past film personas, but at the same time, acts super cool in the action sequences. After a huge one at an oil refinery (big explosions! crooks covered with oil!) he strides off and says — “My bladder is full with useless discussions with fools. Where’s the toilet?” And interval. Bwhahaha!
The romantic plot is not the main thrust of the film. It’s mostly Mahesh the cop, tricking and catching each crook in turn, as he works his way up the criminal empire to Sonu Sood at the top. And of course avenging his adopted family, and making his adoptive father proud. Sonu Sood is reliably great as the villain, even if most of his dialogue is obviously dubbed. Nasser plays a bumbling corrupt cop, none too pleased to have Mahesh as his new boss. Shruti Hasaan has a nice item number, too.
Aagudu is not my favorite Mahesh Babu film, but it was an enjoyable timepass. I’m sure there were tons more Telugu movie line references I missed, but it was still funny to this non-Desi. It took me away from the darkness around us for a few hours. I’m glad I own it, in case I need something silly again.
Three stars out of five. Aagudu is available for rental on Amazon video or iTunes, but it’s free with subtitles on Youtube! (Love that about Telugu films!)
The Malayalam film Neram was disappointing for me. Watching comedy in Indian movies can be very hard for a non-Desi like me.
For the first movie I picked to watch from the big MyIndiaShopping order from Kerala I gifted myself for my birthday, I picked Nivin Pauly’s Neram(Time). It’s an action-drama-comedy from 2013, and Nazriya Nazim (from Bangalore Days) is his love interest in the film.
Neram was disappointing and just not very good. The romance between Nivin and Nazriya is pre-existing, and frankly they had more of a best friends chemistry than romantic.
Nivin borrows money from a loan shark because he’s lost his job and has to pay for his sister’s wedding. He can’t find a job to pay the loan shark back and on the day payment is due, the packet of money a friend gives him to pay it off gets snatched out of his hand by a mugger. He has to pay back the loan shark by 5 p.m., thus the Time (Neram) of the title.
So it has bursts of action, and is sort of a farce with all sorts of misunderstandings and close shaves and farcical elements of different robbers scamming each other. But it just didn’t hold together.
It’s set in Chennai, so there’s some people speaking Tamil, mainly the bad guys. There are many misunderstandings and mispronouncing between the Tamil and Malayalam which I guess was meant to be funny.
But since I don’t speak either all that went completely over my head, and the subtitles didn’t help. (Some films like Happy New Year clue you in to the word play)
Nivin Pauly was just okay, and this is the first movie of his I would say that about him. It’s from 2013, early in his career, but I did love him in his earlier 2012 film Thattathin Marayathu. Nazriya is not given a lot to do, and mid-way she gets kidnapped and stuffed in the trunk of a car for the rest of the film.
The editing needed to be snappier and quicker, but the camera work was at least more interesting than most. It was just meh. And from Malayalam cinema I’m used to expecting much better than meh.
About half way through, I told my husband it wasn’t that good, and he asked me why I kept watching? How to explain that the second halves of Indian films can be dramatically different. The second half did improve, but not enough.
Captain Fantastic may have been my favorite film of Sundance 2016. Viggo Mortenson is a home schooling father with six children in the wilderness forest somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, completely off the grid. The film opens with him teaching his oldest son to hunt a deer by making him kill it with only a knife and wrestling it to the ground.
(l to r) George MacKay stars as Bo, Charlie Shotwell as Nai, Nicholas Hamilton as Rellian and Samantha Isler as Kielyr in CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
The young actor, Brit George MacKay, who plays the oldest son, Bo, was amazing. The family must leave their forest home to attend a funeral, and the children come to realize how isolated they are from the real material world, and how they may have book knowledge, but they don’t know how to interact with other people outside the family. In one of my favorite scenes a young girl flirts with him at a campsite on route. They kiss, and then he falls to his knees to propose and ask her mother for her permission to marry her daughter. They both laugh and think he’s just kidding, but he’s acting just as he’s read about in all the classic novels he’s read. He afterwards confronts his father, “I don’t know anything!” The oldest son wants to go away to college, but fears his father’s reaction.
Viggo is the only person I can imagine in this role. He is exceptional, and this may be the finest role of his career. (And that’s really saying something, after Aragorn, Eastern Promises and A History of Violence) He has the intelligence and the screen presence that makes you believe this is a charismatic father who could raise his children to be philosopher kings. And that he could take it all too far. He doesn’t let the kids believe in Christmas, but they celebrate Noam Chomsky Day!
Writer/Director Matt Ross premiered Captain Fantastic at Sundance in January. He’s known more for his work as an actor in series like HBO’s Big Love and Silicon Valley. Matt Ross talked at the Q&A about how he grew up in communes himself in California. He shows us the simple pleasures of this life, singing around the campfire together in the evening — but also how isolating it is.
All the kids are terrific, and have great chemistry together and with Viggo. You could see the rapport they still have with him at the Q&A. I was stunned at the performances Matt Ross and Viggo got out of these very young child actors.
Frank Langhella (always excellent) plays Viggo’s father-in-law, and they have a confrontation over the way he is raising the children. After one of the kids has an accident, Langhella wants to take the children away and sue for custody. You need someone as powerful and imposing on screen as Langhella to be a worthy antagonist for Viggo Mortenson.
This film is quirky and heartfelt like Little Miss Sunshine. I got teary eyed, and it has a very satisfying hopeful ending.
Captain Fantastic released today in a limited number of theaters. It’s playing in downtown Chicago, and I hope it will move out to suburban theaters in the coming weeks. I’m hoping Viggo gets an Oscar nomination for this role.
Five stars out of five. Cannot recommend highly enough.
I’m a huge Matt Damon fan. Have been since Good Will Hunting. I’ve seen all the Bourne films, and Jason Bourne is a decent sequel. I even have a family connection to Jason Bourne — the character is supposed to have been born in Nixa, Missouri which is my dad’s hometown.
Slow West was my favorite narrative film of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. This past weekend there were two things that made me think back to this excellent film. I was visiting with someone at a party who asked me about my favorite films at Sundance, and I read 
The Malayalam film Neram was disappointing for me. Watching comedy in Indian movies can be very hard for a non-Desi like me.
Pardesi Reviews 