Book Review: dogrun (2000)- Arthur Nersesian

'dogrun' is a pretty neat book written by Arthur Nersesian. It is the story of Mary Bellanova who comes home one evening to her unemployed tv watching boyfriend (Primitivo Schultz), who apart from everything else is unusually mad at her (or so she thinks)...well it turns out he is actually dead in front of the tv with his dog, Numb sitting at his side. Mary starts to uncover the other people who knew him to tell them the bad news and in that midst uncovers a lot about his past relationships and even details such as his correct age (or does she?). It is not really so much about stringing together his past relationships as much as trying to rethink what does she really have in life. She is an unsuccesful writer who survives doing a temp job, but her social scene is terrible (with Primo dying..how much worse can it get? or can it?). Her best friend Zoe, has a similar life except that she is concerned her clock on getting a good man is ticking away and she has to explore her space to the maximum. Mary inherits Numb and she has to learn to take care of a dog (really dogs need to be let out to piss & poop every so often..hmmmn I just go to the bathroom)...and visit the dogrun in Thompson Square Park dog run. The book is pretty much about all of that.

The writing by Nersesian is beautifully funny, sure there is some name dropping and referencing to Americana and how cool East Village was but at the same time it is a funny book filled with words such as 'telebotomized'....and there some cool synopses of the stories Mary is writing. The book was perfect for an evening with some wine and music.

http://www.arthurnersesian.com/Dog%20Run.html

Movie Review: Samoan Wedding (2006)

Samoan Wedding (Sione's Wedding) is a wedding movie (duh) from New Zealand. The movie is a very light-hearted, predictable movie but it is not schlock. The premise of the movie is familiar one, 4 guys (Albert,Michael, Stanley & Sefa) who just refuse to outgrow their teenage years. Albert works in insurance, lives with his mom and has never had a girlfriend, Michael is a biker messenger and chases after white girls, Sefa has a girlfriend but prefers to hang out with his homeboys, Stanley keeps imagining the love of his life. They crash all the parties, weddings, get drunk and disrupt things. After a new incident at a wedding the Samoan community in Auckland has had enough and the priest of the community bans the boys from Michael's brother Sione's wedding.....unless they can produce girlfriends with them for the wedding. The rest of the movie is them trying to meet that demand so they can attend the wedding. This is a feelgood movie and does not pretend to be anything else. Most of the cast is from the Naked Samoans & the show Bro'Town, the animated series from New Zealand. Samoan wedding is a prefect Sunday afternoon movie.

http://www.linktv.org/programs/bro_town
http://www.linktv.org/programs/bro_town_2

Movie Review: Old Joy (2006)

Old Joy is an independent road movie by Kelly Reichardt. It is among the most meditative movies I have seen in a long time. If you ever did a road trip through Oregon, you know how beautiful, green and serene it can be. This movie is about two friends Kurt & Mark (& the dog Lucy), who take a trip from Portland to Bagby Hot Springs. Kurt seems like a drifter who smokes a lot of pot and has some very interesting ideas on life, Mark on the other hand is supposed to be the level headed one who is about to enter parenthood. Kurt & Mark were friends once a while ago and Kurt has since moved away to Ashland. In many ways it is about lost friendships and how it gets difficult to relate with old friends, but in lots of ways it is just about being and about taking a road trip to some destination, having no idea where one is going, eventually reaching the destination and having a good time. There is not too much of a story and the radio plays a role as well.

The cinematography by Peter Sillen is spectacularly beautiful and the music by Yo La Tengo is most apt for this movie. I found the movie to be a wonderful slow moving meditative experiment.

PS: The disclaimer in the end that Bagby hot springs does not allow nudity or alcohol consumption cracked me up;-o).

Movie Review: All the President's Men (1976)

In time for 'Frost/Nixon' is a review of the classic movie about the Watergate scandal. This movie is directed by Alan Pakula and stars Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein & Robert Redford as Bob Woodward, the two young reporters working for Washington Post trying to unearth the mystery of the events at the Watergate complex in DC. This is a fantastic movie which although very long (2 hrs 18 mins) is rivetting if you like political journalism and mystery. It does not go too much into the meaning and significance of the Watergate scandals but is more from the perspective of 'Woodstein' as they go about trying to make sense of it all. The movie is based on the book of the same name written obviously by 'Woodstein'. This movie along with Oliver Stone's Nixon provides a very thoughtful insight into a significant event in history.

The acting in the movie is superlative as is the wonderful cinematography by Gordon Willis. It has the trademark paranoia shots, as in the movie 'Parallax View' (which was far fetched but entertaining all the same). Pakula has directed some really fantastic movies such as Klute, Sophie's Choice, Pelican Brief but I think this is probably his best movie.

Movie Review: Winter Passing

Winter Passing is a slow moving independent film made by Adam Rapp. It stars Zoey Deschanel as Reese Holden. Reese is a struggling actress living in New York, her writer parents live in Michigan. Her father (Ed Harris) is a reclusive novelist who has not produced anything for years and her mother, also a writer, has passed away recently. Reese is not particularly close to either parent and is happier on her own away from everything. Enter a literary agent.. who offers Reese a lot of money for a series of letters written between her parents, which has been bequeathed to her by her mother. She makes the trip back to Michigan to see if she can get the letters back and discovers her father is living with 2 other people, a grad student and a musician (Will Farrell). The rest of the movie is about what happens when you have been away from home too long and return to someone who is so familiar to you yet is a complete stranger to your current life.

While reading other reviews for this movie a lot of people seem to hate Reese's character, I for the most part found her character absolutely fascinating. She lives in her own bubble and empathizes in strange ways, sure she might not be entirely happy but she is real. I do not agree that Reese is an asshole and she becomes a good person, that is such an incorrect & simplistic take on the movie that it takes away from the beauty of this movie. Zooey Deschanel is spectacularly good in the movie, as is Ed Harris and Will Farrell (who should do more non-comedic roles). If you liked watching 'You can count on me', I highly recommend this gem. It is slow moving and there are 4 main characters in the movie and there is a lot conveyed through unsaid words.

Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is a movie shot in Bombay and directed by Danny Boyle (who also made Trainspotting). It is a movie with stunning cinematic style and pizazz, but unfortunately sorely lacks any imagination, granted the premise of the movie is sort of innovative.

It is the story of Jamal Malik, a gofer in a call center who has managed to almost go the distance in the TV show 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'? Since he is an uneducated person he obviously will not know any factual information and hence must have cheated....so goes the story. Most of the movie is spent in a police station explaining how he knew the answers to each question to prove his innocence. Each of the explanations are so very cliched and contrived that it takes away from any sort of appreciation one might have for the story. Making him jump through a pile of excreta as an explanation for the simplest of questions to suffering all kinds of cliched horrors one imagine street kids go through in India only demonstrates poor research and conviction. Police torture, religious riots....to list a few since it has no real bearing on the outcome....the outcome is good guys win bad guys lose. To add to this there is a whole layer of a completely unfathomable love story. It appears that the story line is inspired by Danielle Steele and tries hard to harm most of the characters to tug at your heart strings. I guess the only difference is that the end is sort of a happy movie, only if you look at the world in black and white. When I read 'A Fine Balance' I could not put it down and how I hated Rohinton Mistry for taking me through such an emotional roller coaster and at the end of it I was stunned for days to come, thankfully 'Slumdog' did not have such an impact on me. The movie tries so hard to be a Bollywood inspired version of 'City of God' meets 'Nayagan' but fails miserably.

Dev Patel does an amazing job as Jamal Malik, Frieda Pinto is Latika the love of Jamal's life since we all know and believe in childhood love and of course destiny and fate...the most basic of all of life's philosophies....and did I mention Love conquers all. Anil Kapoor is Prem Kumar the host of the show and a very dislikable character. The music by AR Rahman just reiterates the point that switching to higher pitched singing sucked in the 90s and it sucks even now although masked behind digital music.(AR Rahman....give up already and while you are at it stop singing.... for my sake!!!!....and Paper Planes by M.I.A. has been played to death on the radio). There has been only one realistic non-documentary movie depicting the life of street kids and that was 'Salaam Bombay', that wretches your gut and does not seem over the top. Mira Nair & Sooni Taraporevala did a job of perfection in moderation with emotions. Perhaps Vikas Swarup while writing 'Q & A', the book on which 'Slumdog' is based or Simon Beaufoy while working on the screenplay should have thought a bit more about subtlety.

All that said visually the movie is stunning and if you liked that pointless inane crap 'Crash', maybe you might enjoy this as well....remember if you liked it....it was meant to be!!!!!!!!!!!!