CUNNINGKRUGER

I loved watching horror movies as a kid, but that love faded away as I grew up as the standard of the genre dropped. Now, I detest the typical horror movies, trying to pull off a constantly shrieking character with exaggerated makeup as a ghost or whatever. In an era of lazy storytelling in the genre, Hereditary standouts out as a movie based on which future horrer/thriller movies will be judged.

It is more of a family drama cum psychological thriller than a typical horror movie (similar to IT).

It starts off slow, and builds the story up in a very emotionally engaging way, with an amazing opening shot. The last 30 minutes of this movie might be the most mentally engaged I’ve been than any other movie in recent years. It does get a bit supernatural by the end and demands constant attention for you to keep up with all the pieces that are starting to come together for the story to make sense.

I am still a bit confused by the ending, which is more often than not, the sign of a good movie in this genre, as it leaves the meaning of the events that have transpired, for the viewer to interpret.

An amazingly directed story topped off by even more amazing performances by Toni Colette and Alex Wolff, which make this movie a must watch (and a must re-watch for me).

Also, if you watch this movie and like it, there is an amazing korean horror movie The Wailing, which in opinion is even better than Hereditary.

Many of my favorite hollywood movies have been from the 90s and this one adds to that list. The story revolves around the lives of two seemingly antithetical characters - a blind army veteran, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade and a virtuous high school student, Charlie Simms. Charlie is hired for the thanksgiving weekend by Colonel’s niece to take care of him while they are away, but little did he know that the Colonel had hatched a plan of his own. Both of these characters are at a crossroads in their lives, where they have to choose between an easier (the wrong) or a difficult (the right) path in their respective journeys.

Al Pacino, playing the tetchy blind army veteran delivers a stellar performance, who above all things in the world, loves women, and in his own words, “A very distant second is a Ferrari.” The story is not particularly great and Pacino essentialy carries the movie through his performance. The plot is plain, predictable, and offers very little in terms of engaging discourse. Albeit, Colonel’s plan with Charlie is one thing that kept me engaged.

Colonel Slade has a lot of catchphrases - most of which I found really funny. The timing & delivery of those will make you appreciate the performance even more. While playing a blind character, a lot of focus is on the eyes of the actor and I was occasionally remembering Pacino’s famous line from Scarface, “The eyes chico, they never lie.” Not many actors convey emotions well through their eyes, but Pacino isn’t one of them. Infact the performance wouldn’t have been this great if his eyes were covered more than they were.

The best part of this movie as I have emphasised, was Pacino’s acting and one of the factors that made it so great were his monologues. They are spread throughout the movie but the one at the end was the bomb. One of the greatest monologues to have ever been delivered in a movie. It is five minutes of pure acting genius on display with quintessential dialogue delivery and strong emotions. Without giving too much away I would like to share my favorite line from that monologue:

"There is nothing like the sight of an amputated spirit. There is no prosthetic for that."

One of the greatest performances ever to win an Oscar.

Easily one of my favorite movies of all time. The title might throw some people off (remember True Detective), but it is a spectacle. I was engrossed from the opening scene, which is five minutes of high octane, action packed car chase with Bellbottoms playing in the background.

Music is the primary theme of this movie, more so than action I would say, and most of Edgar’s movies have a great soundtrack, but the synchronisation of bullets going off with the beats of the music, oolala. Music works in unison with every scene in this movie. Mundane activities like someone typing, or placing stacks of cash on the table, everything is complemented by a beat.

It’s an energetic, engaging watch from start to finish. My only regret, I didn’t watch it in a theatre.

If you watch it and like it, I would also recommend watching Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy, and another one of my personal favorites, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

If anyone's interested here's the link to a spotify playlist I made from the soundtrack.

An album so good and rare, which, hooks you in and doesn’t let go. Each and every song is gold and worth listening to. Before this album I hadn’t heard much of Kendrick’s songs, apart from some features like The Greatest by Sia. But after listening to this album I was so enamoured that he was my top Spotify artist of 2017.

About the album, there were the big hits, Humble, DNA, Loyalty ft. Rihanna, but it also had some hidden gems like XXX ft. U2, PRIDE, FEEL, ELEMENT. I am writing this while listening to the album for the umpteenth time and it’s tempting to list the entire album here.

Kendrick has a very different style of singing/rapping. It isn’t very conventional and it shows in this album. Some of the songs include verses that tell stories while sending allusive messages against racism. The videos for most of his songs are beautiful but the ones from this album just take it up a notch, especially Humble, which is also my favorite song from this album, with good lyrics, awesome music, and an amazing video to complement it.

Safe to say that Kendrick is now my second favorite rapper after Eminem (duh!) and I am eagerly waiting for his next album.

Listen on Spotify

I absolutely loved the Kafkaesque opening of the film. The plot revolves around a laid back, unambitious and unmotivated, Software Engineer, who just wants literally, “to do nothing.” He perfectly describes himself in this line, “The thing is Bob, it’s not that I am lazy, it’s just that I don’t care.”

Anyone who has worked in an office will find the situational humor extremely relatable. This is the type of movie of which, the characters stick in your mind, just to be referenced in a funny situation.

My favorite character from the movie has to be the obnoxious boss Bill Lumbergh, who delivers the same five lines exceptionaly throughout the movie.

Based on recommendation from a friend and then finding out that Bryan Cranston was a co-creator on this show, I decided to watch it. At the time I didn’t want anything to binge on, just something which I could watch while eating, and this was almost the perfect show for that. But, it did test my restrain ocassionaly by dropping some cliffhangers.

Giovanni Ribisi is the heart of everything in this show, well, let’s just say that he is the heart of show. He delivers excellent performances episode after episode. I didn’t rate him much of an actor before, but now, I definitely do. All characters in this show are perfectly cast and play their roles exceptionally well. Bryan Cranston’s role in this show is limited to the first season, nevertheless it is awesome. Playing the antagonist, it reminded me of the glory days of Breaking Bad, and his character totally had the “I am the one who knocks” vibes.

I can’t remember a show where characters were so perfectly cast, and as much as I love the cast, the real mvp of this show is it’s plot. It keeps you guessing which proliferates the excitement of watching this show even further. Crime-drama is amongst my favorite genres, and this show is definitely one of the best in it. Also there aren’t any big commitments as Amazon has cancelled the show after 3 seasons, so it is perfect for a binge.

I discovered this movie watching this video by the hip-hop duo RunTheJewels. With the runtime just under 90 minutes, this is a short satirical, hip-hop themed comedy with some surprising twists that make it a light, albeit fun and engaging watch. Soundtracks are meticulously curated which adds to the hip-hop vibe.

Don’t watch it if you’re too uptight and don’t consider dumb shit funny, because the plot is full of 3 idiots and a nerd doing dumb shit while trying to survive as the elderly dukes of scottish highlands chase them down to bring back parity to society by eliminating the drug-abusing, unworthy and entitled youths.

Not my usual choice of music, but when the reviews are so good and reddit recommends something so highly, you have no choice but to check it out. And, I wasn’t disappointed, on the contrary rather. I was familiar with Fiona’s music from the opening theme of “The Affair” (not recommended), and of course from the wildly famous Criminal.

I was hooked from the moment I started hearing this album, it was nothing like anything I had ever heard before. Each song in it is so unique even for Fiona.

There are some tracks on the album which fall inside the spectrum of my musical preferences, Under the Table, Heavy Balloon, Shameilka, and On I Go. But, I’ve listened to this album on repeat several times and never had an urge to skip any of the songs.

My favorite track from the album is the opening track, I Want You To Love Me. If you listen to just one song from this album, this is it. Everything about this song is perfect, the lyrics, the piano in the background, the slight increase in tempo with drums playing towards the end as Fiona’s invigorating voice becomes more forceful. A 10/10 song in every aspect.

Listen on Spotify