just because i really want to revive my substack journey, i decided to make a little compilation of the stuff i’ve written on letterboxd so far in 2023 that i was most proud of. i didn’t make too many edits unless there was something glaring i didn’t like lol. this substack may not be permanent, but for now i feel the need to share my work, no matter how insubstantial, and i’m gonna fulfill that need as long as it’s there.
click here if u wanna follow my lb lol
air (2023), written on april 1st, 2023 (shortly after i saw vidhuthalai - chapter one)
rote and predictable in every aspect, funneling itself through each plot point you’d expect from a sports biopic primarily set in nike meeting rooms. there are some interesting ideas thrown in here and there, but ultimately it really is crafted to go down as smooth as possible, highlighting work from legends of the business both behind and in front of the camera mainly to deliver some very classically conducted (and at times eyeroll-inducing) laughs, thrills, and brief moments of contemplation. everyone does good work, but this would be pretty forgettable if not for the question of why affleck and damon and the rest would even decide to tell this story. but by the time you hear ben’s phil knight impression say the word “equity” you realize the noble intentions put forth here; as the first Artist’s Equity production, affleck and damon’s production company dedicated to making sure all cast and crew members get what they deserve from making the film, Air is clearly a depiction of a moment in history when artists wanted to take the reins of an industry designed to exploit them, and with michael jordan’s eventual status as the greatest basketball player of all time, it was a successful coup, one which affleck and damon wish to recreate in hollywood. say what you will about their role in making it an exploitative industry in the first place (to which i say, there are few big names in hollywood who didn’t contribute), but i am warmed by the stories from this film’s set of the many behind the line workers feeling more nurtured than ever, or even a storied actor like viola davis herself stating she’s never felt more at home. this may be a Dad movie at its core but, more than phil knight or sonny vacorro, i think ben really sees himself as mrs. jordan, the nurturing mother with faith in the talent he sees present throughout this dying industry that made him, that it can pick itself back up on its feet, and without the lead of the shareholders or sex pests it was ruled by until now.
me, personally, seeing what films from all over the world are doing in 2023, i honestly think hollywood will be the last industry to survive a new artistic revolution, if it even does lol. but hey, after the emotional devastation that viduthalai filled me with, i gained a lot of pleasure from sneaking a tallboy into a packed movie hall where i got to watch godly actors like chris tucker, jason bateman and chris messina riff sublime for two hours with robert richardson’s pleasant, direct lighting and framing as well as some of the most basic but comforting 80s needledrops guiding the way. in other words, as a thinly-veiled metaphor for ben affleck’s meatheaded but endearing vision of a socialist future for hollywood, and as a meat-and-potatoes good time at the movies, i give this two thumbs up. jumpman jumpman jumpman them boys up to something etc etc. make sure you watch the new vetrimaaran if you have a choice between the two, though.
(above: an image of the greatest actor on the planet in vidhuthalai - chapter one)
contact (1997), written on april 16, 2023
every space movie i’ve seen, but especially the ones produced in hollywood, seems to be in conversation with one another. obviously this is in many ways a progression of films like close encounters and 2001, and interstellar, arrival, aloha and other films to come would prove to be an expansion on this. i think what makes zemeckis’ film special is in its totally sincere, indefatigable idea that faith and science are two inherently linked concepts and that by separating them through neoliberal bureaucracy and our own isolation from the rest of the universe, and even those around us, we are never going to understand the meaning of our existence. different filmmakers have had different takes on this idea - interstellar, for example, also takes kip thorne’s wormhole theories to show us that love that reaches across time is the way for us to understand what’s out there - but i think zemeckis shows us here that art is the truest link between faith and science, the best way for us to understand each other and the cosmos. because at the end of the day, the only proof we have of ellie’s journey is her passionate emotional testimony, and 18 hours of recorded static. since dreyer and the early days of the silents in general, we have been using cinema, objectively a technological invention, to communicate ideas beyond our grasp. i think the reason why so many auteurs, not just in hollywood but across the world (memoria came out just last year!!!), make or consider making a space film is because it is a way for everyone, regardless of one’s personal beliefs, to have faith that we are not alone. to me, the rebirth at the end of ordet is the same sort of spiritual transference as ellie stumbling onto that beach, a strong-willed affirmation that we should never stop searching for answers.
deewane huye paagal (2005), written on may 12, 2023
a strange translation of there's something about mary to the nadiadwala house style that largely feels simply like a louder and dumber (and far more mean-spirited) version of the original, liberally borrowing situations and characterizations (akshay kumar’s performance as discount matt dillon was disappointing for me as someone who used to think he was the best part of nadiadwala's comedies; just not enough bite) but without any of the same sense of comedic inspiration.
it does have its pleasures though; for one thing i grew up watching these actors in this specific era so their antics are a bit more amenable to me than they would be otherwise. the film does arrive at some of its own coherent satire too, such as with paresh rawal's character, even if the tone just isn't there to make his character not feel offensive (especially considering the respectful way in which the farrellys treat their disabled characters). and the ending was pretty insane, the big reveals of the original transplanted onto a desert standoff that climaxes into a giant action setpiece filled with bike and atv stunts and every actor in the movie beating the shit out of unnamed soldiers and blowing up cars. there's something there about all of these men having their Good Guy facade drop out in such a maximal and typically masala way that, again, is sorta incisive but it just isn't enough for me...
(above: a still from the far-superior there’s something about mary)
post grad (2009), written on april 22, 2023
i love reclaiming random hollywood rom coms from this era that no one watched or liked (except for roger ebert, surprisingly). this one is directed by shrek and shark tale auteur vicky jenson and written by my queen kelly fremon craig (reminder that you should go see are you there god? it’s me margaret in theaters because i said so), the dad played by michael keaton (there’s a shot of him here that legitimately prefigured birdman) is named walt, the mom played by jane lynch is named carmela, the grandma is played by carol burnett, and the bitch former classmate is played by catherine reitman who is one of my favorite nepo babies solely off the strength of her all-timer recurring role as maureen ponderosa in always sunny. and the little brother was in holofcener’s friends with money which took me very long to realize.
anyway the cast and crew appealing hard to the wikipedia lobe in my brain aside, i like these movies that are based in very tangible, specific conflicts and anxieties; fremon loves to tell stories of young womanhood at odds with middle class existence, and here bledel’s character is very close to my heart as a fellow 22 year old woman feeling stuck, unable to truly launch into the stratosphere the way she wants. i loved seeing her character put the puzzle pieces together in her mind, conversation by conversation, antic by antic. even if, again, it’s nothing new and it doesn’t quite get to the intense brooksian emotional catharsis that fremon craig’s directorial debut edge of seventeen would years down the line, i still laughed and swooned and teared up a lot. jensen directs this limbo plane very warmly and handsomely, and the cast is totally game for everything here. there’s a great scene where, after her little brother wins the boxcar derby, the main character spots out of the corner of her eye one of the smaller prize winners as he’s being consoled by his mom. she hands him an eskimo pie, and he takes his first bite, and you immediately see his face light up and alexis bledel’s too and it reminds you of everything the movie wants to remind you of and oh god i love it so much!!! i love boundary-pushing imagery as much as the next person but, i mean, minor key delights are still delights, you know.
mission: impossible - dead reckoning part one (2023), written on august 5, 2023
stahelski and mcquarrie do have one thing in common: they both gotta learn to let go of the pen sometimes. this and john wick 4 are so self-satisfied with philosophical dialogue they forget to let the action speak for itself... The Entity is such a terrifying force in concept and i feel like ironically its existential power is robbed the more it's explained to us in those scenes of just pure pontification...
regardlsss, its presence is certainly felt in this movie's simulacra of ethan hunt's past, key moments and people and events recreated from not just the first (mcquarrie is so clearly trying to call back to de palma here; dutch angles and hitchcockian tension galore) but all of the other MI movies as well, as if this artificial being is putting hunt, and by proxy, tom cruise, through this hyperreal theme park ride of memories complete with death and destruction. paired with the glossy, unpredictable digital camerawork (probably the best looking MI movie since 2 honestly) cruise and his commitment to practicality creates an interesting tension between analog and digital, as if we, the watchers, are The Entity, in complete control of these characters and the world they inhabit. and i mean the setpieces are as nail-biting as they've always been, but there's an added dimension of weight to them knowing they're being puppeteered by an all-knowing force. not mcquarrie, not cruise, not A.I., but us!
the past few MI movies I assumed the point was that tom cruise was gonna save the world with the power of cinema. this one, though, feels like tom asking us to save the world. i could be wrong though; idk what scientologists think of climate change. but in spite of when it got in the way of itself, i mostly bought it…
note: as a recent buyer of the ally i appreciated the copious asus republic of gamers product placement (see image above)
maaveeran (2023), written on september 3, 2023
if i had to nitpick i would say it could have used a better color grade, but fuck it, it is so refreshing to see a superhero film fully steeped in the unbreakable/spider-man 2 tradition, the working-class hero achieving self-actualization and decentralizing himself for the good of the people around him... not that this is inherently novel to masala filmmaking, of course, where we often see a regular man just have the supernatural ability to fight and know his enemy's every move as he tries to achieve peace for those he cares about. however, the added layer of the vjs comic book narration (the credits cite stranger than fiction as a direct influence) is genius meta-commentary and really wonderful, creative comedy and brilliantly staged action comes of that (some of the coolest application of the mocobot i've seen!). filmmaker madonne ashwin never lets go of his sociopolitical awareness, though, leading me to think a lot of something like ranjith's kaala in his deep care for this community he's written. there's a push and pull here that i find deeply moving within the artist protagonist, someone whose inaction manifests in his comics as the warrior he sketches onto the page fights for his people's rights but he can't seem to do the same in real life, even once fate or God or Makkal Selvan or whatever you wanna call it begins doing it for him... his sudden transformation into the warrior he's written about, and then his eventual acceptance of the role, seems to be ashwin asserting that art can translate into action; he understands the mass hero as a symbol of liberation and hope for the marginalized, which may not be inherently novel, but seeing it in the context of a meta-superhero movie, certainly feels a lot more resonant than fucking deadpool or whatever.
as usual, shoutout south indian cinema keeping real emotions and creativity alive in making movies for the masses. god i would've loved to see this in a bangalore single-screen
note: highly recommend this fantastic deep-dive on maaveeran from my friend may
jawan (2023), written on september 8, 2023
atlee has never been a director who worked for me and I couldn't really pin down why. on the surface he was always just a shadow of his mentor shankar but that can't inherently be a bad thing... somehow seeing him finally reach his full potential here clarified for me his issue in the past: that he never really saw his characters as people with interiority but as simple action figures to clash around while he simultaneously tried to convince you that what you were seeing meant something, sociopolitically or emotionally. i honestly felt that way during the beginning train hijacking scene, where the thread about the farmers being woven into the film felt insanely tacked-on and irresponsible (the insert shot of the farmer about to hang himself until someone runs up to him... come on bro). i was really worried that my most anticipated film of the year was going to preoccupy itself with issues that its director couldn't handle...
something started to click after that though. srk and vjs and naya began to convince me more, finding real weight and conviction within atlee's very hyperstylized masala world. the politics of the film felt more tied to the characters' emotions, and eventually i found myself swept up in every moment of pain, tears, love, longing. there's a real art to masala, as you have to balance a lot of different routes of filmmaking, ranging from sincere expression to ridiculous entertainment, sometimes within the same scene even, and still maintain the grip of an audience. not everyone has that control over their worlds, and i feel like atlee never did until now. in jawan there is real weight to every body thrown around, every life lost, every object used for violence. everything is given a spotlight formally in a way i hadn't noticed in atlee's style until now, the camera feeling like a force which moves and shakes and feels wholly attuned to the feelings of its characters. there are many things one can critique about this movie, but i'm not just giving it five stars because it felt ripped from my dreams to see my two favorite actors on the planet fuck each other up, but because atlee finally reached the platonic ideal of masala, his melodrama, action and political perspective (ultimately it's pretty non-specific so i can't say it's "radical" or anything lol, but still...) feeling inherently and uniquely tied together and all done justice by the end. the climactic monologue in many directors' hands could've read as didactic or silly, but here i found it to be one of the more moving gestures of faith in an audience that i've seen. one can compare the blockbusters in india to what's largely produced in hollywood today all they want, but the biggest difference i still find is that mass directors have complete faith in their audience to follow them wherever their minds go. that trust is what leads to something like the immense emotional wallop of the deepika flashback, easily the best thing atlee has ever directed, a feat of dramatic command i never would have expected from him.
this movie's intense empathy for the female experience was as a whole not something i thought the guy who made bigil could've pulled off lol. it's really good to know he cares deeply about both his characters and his audience, and moreso than that, his country. if there's one thing this movie's pan-indian and pan-world success should teach popular film as a whole, it's that.
leo (2023), written on october 21, 2023 (warning: i discuss some spoilers, if you haven’t seen the movie yet i’d recommend going in fresh and then giving this a read after)
it's interesting to compare this movie to a history of violence; while, yes, even loki will admit that rajini and baasha beat cronenberg and the original american graphic novel to the punch with this ordinary-man-hiding-his-violent-side concept, it's important to look at the direct influence cited by him, especially considering his fairly westernized take on masala filmmaking throughout his filmography. a history of violence reckons with the violent masculinity inherent to the images we have of the american nuclear family, a graphic pulpy gangster movie slowly bursting out of the chest of the small-town hero tale it begins as. how does this translate over into south indian - or rather, pan-indian - filmmaking?
well, lokesh isn't quite the body horror guru cronenberg is, so instead we get the mind of a really sincere, weird, maybe arguably kinda conservative, but very vividly imaginative filmbro. leo follows a history of violence's story structure closely, but lokesh's thoughts on leo das' violent past are not tied to a national conscience but rather to the history and tradition of the masala film. thalapathy's performance here - pretty handily his best from what i've seen - puts him in league with kamal, fahadh, and karthi not just for the cinematic universe connections but because of loki's reverence for these Great Pretenders of cinema. all these characters have pasts they aren't proud of and do what they can to maintain the image they choose. leo is probably the most psychotic of them, doing everything he can to prove he is a normal father and not a violent drug dealer, solely because he 101% believes it and wants to believe it. i see the gaslighting scene as equivalent to the staircase sex scene in the cronenberg film, the point in the film where the protagonist weaponizes his relationship with his lover to assert his role as the husband and keep his world together, but betraying his inner turmoil in the process. the character himself refers to his current life as a "snowglobe" in the film, perfectly represented by the very cold, hazy look of the film, some of the coolest use of digital textures and shallow focus i've seen recently.
but again, loki doesn't really want to critique him for his crimes but rather seems to thrive in them, hence why parthiban eventually embraces his past in his bloody revenge. the mass flashback may be somewhat half-heartedly applied with underdeveloped side characters (if there's one flaw with this movie i can't forgive, it's whatever the hell is going on with madonna ma'am's character LOL) but it is all in service of the legend of leo das, and more importantly, the image of the badass namma thalapathy vijay. and boy, do we get a lot of ass-kicking from the man, as the camera spins and flies and attaches itself to odd places (when i compare it to peak tsui hark, i fucking mean it), lokesh using all kinds of technology to his advantage (also further proving that cgi that looks fake can embrace its artifice to be insanely cool and fun) as he crafts some of the goriest violence i've seen in a south indian production. as i said above, there's quite a lot of western influence to loki's world, but i don't think it feels pretentious or anti-masala or anything but rather just shows us that he is a young filmmaker high on his own supply who wants to provide some real top-notch entertainment to his audience.
the ending's direct callback to a history of violence is far more tongue-in-cheek than it is damning, and then the very end stinger of hearing nayagan's vikram voice going off about the "drug-free society" and how leo can devote himself to creating it really clarifies loki's point-of-view here. no, he's not deeply interrogating the violent urges of these guys, but he is showing us the bleeding heart of the masala protagonist, someone who learns to use their violent urges to the advantage of protecting the innocent, a very optimistic and sweet view that i can't help but be totally enamored with. the lcu is lokesh bringing together all the actors he admires to clash like action figures, but it is also him bending the hypermasculinity of the action genre into a very unique, endearing mold, one of a melting pot of influences and a sense of real joy and honor to be a successful world-renowned filmmaker in the 21st century.
this is all a lot of words to say, kanagaraj sir knows exactly how to appeal to my lizard brain and i will forever love him and stan him for it. give me 800 tie-in movies please
note: i didn't even mention philomin raj's odd, dissociative cutting here, further proof that he's one of the greatest editors working today and totally undersung!!