July 4-6, 2008

THX 1138 -

Ah, the dystopian future story from George Lucas, one of his first feature length films based upon an award-winning short he made at USC film school.

In terms of story, this is pretty much your standard dystopia tale. People's lives are completely controlled by a corporate state, they take drugs to kill urges and be complacent. One man struggles to break free of the system, runs from the authorities, escapes and finds....well we don't know, the film ends right as he gets away, so there is no sense of closure here, but that's the way it goes. In terms of cinamatographic style, you can tell this is an early film in someones career. It leans heavily towards artsy fartsy. Style for the sake of style, with not so much regard on how that style impacts the emotionality, or lack of it. Also, this is the re-release version of the film, and it looks like the effects have been significantly cleaned up. Waaaaay too nice compared to other film effects of the period.

As would be expected from George Lucas, this film is heavily influenced by other films and stories. There are clear elements from Brave New World, a ton of stuff from Metropolis, a smattering of The Day the Earth Stood Still and I think a little Alphaville in there as well. Possibly some 2001. I'd swear it influenced some later films itself, though. I saw some elements in there that reminded me Logans Run and Rollerball. Maybe even a little Blade Runner.

There's not a heck of a lot to talk about. The story is simple. The style is disjointed, particularly the use of sound is very hectic and blaring. It's a young filmmaker experimenting with things.

Grade: C

Dil Chahta Hai -

I once mentored an undergraduate girl named Puja. She was a med student, and didn't do particularly good work, but she was a nice person and we got along well. We talked a lot. She developed an affection for me as a mentor. Of course, being the bastard I am we lost contact when she left, even though she emailed me a couple times. She even brought me back a blanket from India when she went to visit family. Anyways, to the point, I had mentioned to her how I'd seen come Indian films and that I really liked Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Like most Indian people when I mention this fact to, she first gave me a look like I said I liked to gargle my own urine, then she chastised me for my terrible pronunciation of the name, then said I needed to watch some better Indian movies. She then gave me a list of 3 films I should see. One is called Lagaan, which would've been the third Indian film this weekend making it round out nicely, but it wasn't available from Netflix. The second was this film. Like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, this is a Bollywood film.

Bollywood films are a guilty pleasure of mine. I haven't seen many, but I've liked all the ones I've seen, though admittedly this might be because I've only seen the good ones. It's hard enough to find Bollywood films available to the general public period, let alone bad ones. Bollywood films are like if 1950's musicals from Hollywood got transplanted into India, took root, and refused to die. They are the height of escapism. There are certain guidelines that are really rules for a Bollywood film. First, it's got to be long. No Bollywood film I have seen has been under 3 hours. There is good reason for this, as most people in India are dirt poor and if they are going to spend a little money on a movie, they want the biggest bang for their buck. Two, it's got to have a romance with very good looking people with the guy getting the girl in the end. Again, escapism. These may be the rules, but there is one unbreakable law for Bollywood films. They all have to have extravagant, hugely choreographed and insane musical numbers. During the course of the film, the main characters WILL burst into song with tons of people dancing and very strange moves going on. It will have little to do with the plot. It may appear even at random. But it will happen.

I think the reason Puja recommended the two movies I saw this weekend is that they are more modern versions of Bollywood films. Don't get me wrong, they are pure Bollywood. Three hours long, love is the main topic, tons of dance numbers. But I think they do a decent job of representing a modern India (ok, that's a guess, like I have a clue what modern India is like). You can imagine my surprise when watching this film one of the characters starts playing Sting's Desert Rose album, or when the characters walk out of a theater that's playing Snatch and Charlie's Angels and Chicken Run.

This film is the story of three friends who are as close as brothers, how they struggle to find love and how that splinters them apart. But this is a Bollywood film, so it all works out in the end. And here is where Bollywood really shines. You know why? This film takes it's time. American filmmakers are so concerned with creating the largest emotional impact in the smallest amount of time that often characterization is lost in the name of brevity. Not here. The movie is going to be long, so the filmmakers can take their time to fully flesh out the characters. When the characters fall in love, it's not a love at first sight kind of thing (well, ok, sometimes it is), but the affection between two people is built over a number of scenes. It makes it seem more realistic and the emotional impact is greater. The more people interact, the more their actions become believable. I really found the characterizations and plot devices derived there-from to be very well done, largely because the filmmakers had time to do it.

The types of love stories that come into play are very different, as well as the conflicts with the main characters. It is superbly acted and really resonates. The only real complaint I have is a small thing they added to the ending to make it all happy-go-lucky, but that's to be expected. All in all, I was very impressed.

Grade: A-

Kal Ho Naa Ho -

And even more modern Bollywood film. The story of a young Indian woman (Preity Zinta) living in New York in a fractured family and her struggles to find happiness when all around her is tragedy. Of course, there's a love story, but this times it's a triangle between her, her best friend (Saif Ali Khan) and a newly arrived neighbor who not only manages to teach her to love again, but fixes other various problems with her family. The neighbor is played by Bollywood MEGASTAR Shah Ruhk Khan. He's sort of the guardian angel, semi-mystical person. At least mystical change.

The angel analogy is interesting actually, because I was very surprised to see that the main character and most of her family were actually Christian. Her grandmother was Hindu, and while there was some conflict over the religion, the conflict in the family was largely from other reasons. I was just really surprised to see a family in a Bollywood film being Christian. Good on them, way to break with tradition guys, I'm proud of you.

Like the previous film, this one takes the time to fully develop relationships and emotional reactions, which is good. The problem is that the plot uses a lot, and I mean a LOT, of really really really bad soap opera-ish devices. Not only do you cringe when you see the plot device, they lead to some really bad overacting. The last third of the film is basically people crying. But I'll give the ending some credit, it didn't end with a happy-go-lucky feeling, it had a more bittersweet feel. It seems that this is sort of a revolutionary Bollywood film, in that the director is given credit for taking the Bollywood archetype in a slightly different direction. I still liked the film, and if they had stayed away from the All My Children plot styles I'd think it's better than Dil Chahta Hai, but I just can't take that sort of thing.

Oh, and Preity Zinta is FREAKING HOT. I mean smoking hot here. She actually was in Dil Chahta Hai, and she was hot there, but here she's even hotter, and I'm amazed that's possible. She could be working in American films.

Oh yeah, one last thing. Both Indian films I watched had this strange occurrence. Every once in a while the actors would say their lines in English. Four-fifths of the film is in....whatever language they use in Indian, there's like 12o different dialects aren't there? But about a fifth of the film is in English. It confused the hell out of me at first. I couldn't tell if I needed to have the subtitles on or not.

Grade: B-