THERE WILL BE BLOOD

(Paramount Vantage)
Runtime: 158 min

Judging from the title, I thought this is the Saw franchise spin-off, as you know, Jigsaw says his famous “Yes there will be blood” line on Saw II. But it turns out to be more gross and disturbing than Saw or any gore flick, without any gore at all. The music and atmosphere scared the shit out of me, but I just cannot turn my face, the bleaker it goes the more you do not want to close your eyes.

Definitely not a crowd pleaser, with runtime more than two hours you can hear many yawns here and there. The whole film gravitates around Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis), an oil businessman at the early 20th century who works hard to be an oil mogul. After a near death accident, Daniel take care an orphan, which later is named H.W (no hint on what that means).

By 1912, Daniel has become a notorious oil man, and looking to expand his wealth. Accompanied by his partner, Fletcher (Ciarán Hinds), he travels to California to follow a promising lead. What he finds there astonishes him. He seeks to buy large portion of land but stumble upon a preacher, Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), who wants Daniel to donate his money to the local church before he sells. After the contract is signed, however, Daniel does not keep his promises, and shortly thereafter, once the first drill has become operational, there is an accident that costs H.W. his hearing.

Daniel is a fascinating character and full of hatred: “I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.” Daniel bluntly admits ”There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone.” Daniel is a monster who hates all men, including him, he has no friends, lovers, real partners even he treat his adopted son just like a tool to reach his wealth.

But can he get away with things he despises most? Does the massive amount of wealth he accumulates do something to redeem his poisoned conscience? He knows how to manipulate every situation to his advantage. He understands the business of oil and transforms himself from a poor miner into a wealthy businessman who can stand up to the mighty Standard Oil but the richer he gets the more corrupt, conflicted and decay he becomes. In many ways, he's a tragic figure we hate to love, a mixture of Travis Bickle and Richard Nixon.

What cause this man to be monstrous and borderline antisocial? One can only wonder since no clue on Daniel’s past given here.

The first 15 minutes provide you with no dialogue at all, the score sucks the happines out of you and the cinematography is stunning, remind me of some old dark noir.

The production team has worked very well recreating early 20th century oil rig plus give the viewers some insight on how dangerous the search for black gold can be.

Entire cast looks to have stepped out of a photo album from a century ago. Kudos to Daniel Day Lewis who immerse so deep in his character even speak a distinct accent (I never been to Texas but it sounded like a very unique English) and remind me of Bill the Butcher in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York.

If you do not like anything disturbing that will rip your soul apart and then put it together in a despicable manner, do not watch this film, but if you want to watch a stellar performance with a Kubrick level masterpiece, yes There Will be an Oscar!

AMERICAN GANGSTER

(Universal Pictures)
Runtime: 158 min

With a corny title, American Gangster should live up to its premises, blood, violence, a bit about existensialism, greed, bad cop doing honest stuff and a “normal” ending.

Gangster, the word which rhymes better if it puts on the same sentence with some director from New York, got a Ridley Scott treatment, packed with period detail and violent energy once Martin Scorsese had but with less profanity than GoodFellas.

Before I watch it I presume that this film will pay homage to The Untouchables, Serpico, The Godfather even some Harlem crime drama, but there was no homage at all, it was a pure gangster story with the spirit of those film.

Ridley brings two heavyweights contender, Denzel and Russel. It’s just like seeing Ali vs Frazier, with Denzel throws enough punch to nab him a nomination and outshine Russel.

Denzel play nasty, he kicks, punch and shoot anyone on his way, while Russel is not a nice cop who reminds you of Serpico, his marriage has fallen apart and refusing to take a million dollar made him notrious among his peers.

This is the real story of Frank Lucas, a heroin smuggler who defies all gravity while everyone was sucked in to Vietnam war, even the authority consider him above the mafia. Frank went to South Asia, distributes the new blue magic and made a shitload of fortune out of it. This is the embodiment of the American Dream: the corporate way of lie, kill, cheat and success as killer instinct. Everything went well, until Richie Roberts (Russel Crowe) spot him on Ali-Frazier night. After all only an intoxicated Paris Hilton wouldn’t notice a man with an overrated mink coat that sits at the front row.

What follow is the cat and mouse game with the climax where both of the heavyweight contender finaly share the same screen and throws acting punches that will make you gasp. If you like to glorify crime, this is the perfect flick.

CHANTS OF LOTUS (Perempuan Punya Cerita)

(Kalyana Shira Films)
Runtime: 109 min

In the land where most local movies are about shallow pursuits, this film stands out to make a bold statement on woman’s right.

Basically it is a four in one film, made by four Indonesian female directors (Nia Dinata, Upi, Lasja F. Susatyo, and Fatimah T. Rony) consisted of four heartbreaking stories, Cerita Pulau, Cerita Yogya, Cerita Cibinong and Cerita Jakarta.

Here you got the real story of four Indonesian woman in the verge of madness, a midwife who got a breast cancer but conducting abortion on a raped girl in a tiny island (kudos to Rachel Maryam acting as an autistic girl), Safina, a highschool girl and her sex experiment accompanied by her peers loose (and irresponsible) attitude on sex, charged by bootleg porn DVDs, a single mother who works as a janitor for a dangdut pub in Cibinong (rural area) and trapped in child trafficking scheme. In this segment most of the dialogs were in Sundanese (with Indonesian subtitle), kudos for Shanty and Sarah Sechan and the last segment about a young mother in Jakarta who have to face the reality that she got AIDS from her drug addict husband and try to keep her daughter.

Shot in HD, the picture was not as bright as 35 mm, but that is not a big problem. Bitter reality and diversity of Indonesia’s daily life depicted convincingly, from the dark room of a dangdut pub to the clean look on Jakarta’s life, the story packs enough punch in a country where most films are shallow in terms of theme.

Surely the women (and me) were distraught seeing how so many women in this country were mistreated because of the ongoing poverty and the lack of access to good education. This is a major eye opener, with abortion and child trafficking theme told in a dramatic way. Sadly, the censorship board censors some scenes abruptly, disturbing the unity of the film. I think the film should be seen uncensored, since it will make the message bolder.

The most potent segment was from the last one, Laksmi an HIV + infected mother who have to survive from her disease and child costudy battle with her in-laws. How Laksmi has to let her daughter being taken away and silently watch the rain pours on a bus window left a deafening silence. That sort of scene has been re do and re shoot by many Indonesian films, a scene where the main characters feels mellow and stare blankly at the bus window, but this one is totally different. Given the powerful backstory, the viewers were left with the deafening sound of silence seeing Laksmi continue her fight with AIDS.

In Indonesian cinemas starting from 17 January 2008. Don't miss it!

Photo by Syamsul Hadi, taken from Kalyana Shira Films Press Kit CD, resized to fit internet bandwith.

THE NAMESAKE

I never felt like an immigrant, so I have to work hard understanding this film and I have never seen any of Mira Nair’s film, until this one. With a poetic title, I expect nothing much although I am pleased that this got to be a unique Indian cinema where no characters suddenly burst out from a scene to dance and sing, thus the story aren’t as boring as the usual Indian film.

The visual style is appealing, from the crowded street in India to the shaven and clean looks of New York streets and the wonder of Taj Mahal. Since this film was taken from a book, I expect many things botched out, and my expectation on this is fulfilled. Many gaps left, makes me have to imagine what happened in between those gaps.

I never heard the name Irrfan Khan, but Tabu is quite famous for Bollywood movie goers in Indonesia, she is beautiful and talented, while Kal Penn is more famous for "Harold & Kumar" which the sequel for that film due to be released this April.

Spanning a quarter of century, the story is moving too fast (the make up on Tabu is not very convincing), concerning the fate of a Bengali family who moved to New York and has to adjust themselves to the new situation, the kid, Nikhil/Gogol (Not the name of some Russian General in James Bond films) has problems with his names.

So this is the problem, where culture and values clashes and how this Indian family, especially Gogol, have to face that obstacle. The search for a good name in this film becomes a lyrical metaphor for the character's own struggle to assert his identity. I guess it tells the story of American Dream, on how immigrants have the dreams in the new country, while the kids grow up to be a different person and the cultures merge each other.

I am curious on how this film will be accepted in India, since it has short duration plus nobody sings and biref nudity, will it capture the heart and soul of non immigrant Indian? Or will it be banned? Since in India, Indian movies are forbid to show on-screen kiss.

LIONS FOR LAMBS

“I am never afraid of an army of Lions led into battle by a Lamb. I fear more the army of Lambs who have a Lion to lead them”

-Alexander the Great-

I was reluctant to watch this film, since the reviews aren’t as expected. But the hot topic of U.S. politics attracts me. Too bad the Tom Cruise factor gave this film a bad distraction, surely it will draws attention but in the other hand it will also attracts girls who has a serious distate for political movies like this. With three interconnected stories, the one with the senator (Meryl Streep act very impressively here) and A lecturer with his student and two buddies trapped in Afghanistan, the political weigh was enormous since this film was made on ideas, not characters.

This film is a snapshot of 2007; it confines the anger and frustation of some Americans regarding their tiresome war against terrorism. Had someone watch this film 20 years later, it would have a different review. It’s not a simple tale of good and bad, this is a search of which one is good and which one is bad, and this film gives substantial amount to the grey areas.

Tête-à-tête between Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise), a hawkish Republican Senator with acerbic journalist Janine Roth (Meryl Streep) was appealing, although a bit jaded and sounded like an audio version of New York Times editorial. But the segment with Robert Redford and his student is very interesting, on how Robert say that the ignorant will have to pay the price of their ignorance.

Ignorance among university students, that sounds very familiar to me. As an ex university student myself I found this ignorant phenomena very close. Sure the students are the the one who makes the change in this country but huge amount of them are ignorant of everything in this world, all the care is how to get good grades, nice job and hefty amount of porn downloads plus a new PS3 or XBOX 360, nobody give a fuck about change and stuff these days. Do they read books? Rarely. As a country with 220++ million people, we only publish 15.000 book titles per year.

But they are proudly calling themselves an agent of change. Which agent of change who hails Transformers as the best film of all time?

Sordidly, most students here (in Indonesia) will buy Jasper Irving’s rhetoric instead of Janine’s and huge amount of anti war jargon in this film will not appeal moviegoers in Indonesia since most are unfamiliar with thick Americanism in this film. As far as I know this film only lasted two weeks at the cinemas with few copies, and as expected, less people watch this film, even with subtitles.

THE KITE RUNNER

"For you, a thousand times over."

(Paramount Vantage)

Directed by: Marc Forster

Marc Forster has broken my heart twice, from Finding Neverland to this one, an honest tale about cowardice, betrayal and redemption especially when it involves a traumatic event during one’s childhood that will continue to haunt them to the rest of their lives. The kite fighting scene was beautiful, remind me of my own childhood when I use to play kite myself, although Indonesian plays a different kite than the Afghan in this film.

I haven’t read the book and watch this film without any foreknowledge at all and I found this film to be amazing, the child actors are natural and by setting this in pre-9/11 Afghanistan, the production provides the viewer with a gut-level perspective of how repressive the Taliban was.

The film begins in the era before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Childhood friends Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) and Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada) are inseparable good friends despite their class differences - Amir is the son of a wealthy landowner and Hassan is the son of a servant. Such things matter little to the boys. They both are skilled in kite playing, in a scene depicting pre Soviet invasion of Afghanistan where the roads are colourful (which is changed into a desolate place as the Taliban reign), the kite fighting in the sky was depicted very convincing and plays a major role in this film. Then a terrible thing happened to Hassan and Amir, cowardly cannot do anything to save Hassan. Feeling guilty, Amir tries to redeem his sin badly. But the Soviet invasion changes their life.

Fast forward to 20 years later, Amir (Khalid Abdalla) is an author living in California with his wife, Soraya (Atossa Leoni). He receives a call from an old friend, Rahim Kahn (Shaun Toub), who urges him to return to Afghanistan. Amir is initially reluctant but eventually agrees. What he learns when he arrives not only shakes his belief but gives him a way to make good again.

The last part where Amir visit Afghanistan were very haunting, long gone those vibrant colours from the streets, even the trees in his former house were cut down. The Taliban are also worse, and one of them is from Amir’s past. The pic is authentic, given that most of its player is from Middle Eastern descent, so it gives a convincing nature. The song Supplication by Sami Yusuf add a beautiful end for the lack of moving (or sentimental) music score. Somehow this film lingers on my conciousness.

If only those Transformers fanatics able to watch this simple story, they would realize that Optimus Prime jaw dropping actions are more stupid than anything on this world and although I lived in a different culture than this film, I can root for the universal feeling of guilt and redemption.