Disney's dalliance with live-action retellings and interpretations of its beloved characters and stories continued with its latest venture- Cruella, which was set to establish an origin story for  Cruella De Vil.  the primary protagonist of   The Hundred and One Dalmatians,  an animated classic beloved by many. Disney roped in some of the popular names in the industry for the project- Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Mark Strong, Craig Gillespie (director of Oscar-nominated I, Tonya) among others. Here's the review of Cruella. Young and rebellious Estella witnesses the death of her mother, of which she believes she was the reason. Guilt-ridden and orphaned, she meets teenage grifters Jasper and Horace. From there, her swindling days slowly takes her to the Baroness (Emma Thompson), a very popular fashion designer whose very presence can intimidate and frighten those in front of her (sort of a 70s era Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada ). Estella's ambi...

While the cinema industry's functioning came to a moribund standstill due to shut theatres and physical distancing measures rendering shoots near impossible, Take Off (2017) director Mahesh Narayan seems to have made the most out of this constrained environment by scripting, shooting, editing, and directing a picture, entirely shot in a virtual milieu, riding on the backs of previously produced similar films like 2014's Unfriended and 2018's Searching. c u soon, starring Fahadh Faasil, Roshan Mathew, and Darshana Rajendran, released today on Amazon Prime Video, making it the third Malayalam picture to have a direct release on an OTT platform. Director Mahesh Narayanan carries the entire narrative of c u soon through a set of video calls, personal chats, google map images, screengrabs, and everything that a laptop or phone screen can accommodate. c u soon kicks off as Jimmy (Roshan Mathew) swipes right and left on his Tinder account. When he gets a match in Anu (Darshana Raj...

Geetu Mohandas's second directorial, Moothon (The Elder One), released on the OTT platform, ZEE5, after doing it's rounds in the festival circuit, including the acclaimed Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Mohandas returned to the director's chair after National Award-winning 2013 film, Liar's Dice, which starred Geetanjali Thapa and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Moothon had a fine and talented crop of technicians behind the camera, including the likes of Rajeev Ravi, who handled the cinematography, B. Ajithkumar, who was in charge of editing, and most of all, Anurag Kashyap, who penned the Hindi dialogues in Moothon.  The film is currently streaming on ZEE5. Moothon tells the tale of Mulla, a teenager in Lakshadweep, who travels to Mumbai in search of her elder brother, Akbar, whom she calls Moothon, who, in turn, had left for the city many years ago. Mulla's journey takes her to the dark, sordid underbelly of the city, where she has to fight several odds to find h...

Sometimes the society one lives in is the biggest villain. The structures, the people, the very system that dictates how things work, become the catalyst in a man's slow descent into madness, into dilemma. It may be   this year's  Joker,  Todd Phillips' retelling of the legend of the infamous comic book super-villain and arch-nemesis of the Caped Crusader, that best works in depicting this socially relevant and prominent issue, after Martin Scorsese's masterpiece, Taxi Driver. Here's Reviewer's review of the film. In the sprawling city of Gotham, we first see Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) painting his face to work as a party clown. But we are sure that the smile he paints on his face is just a facade, his real life is in the deep recesses of the above mentioned sprawling Gotham city, where he is only one in the hoardes of people who struggle to find jobs and meet their ends.   His attempts to be a stand-up comic is a complete failure- people view ...

The Keanussance is upon us. Considerably, one of the best action star of our time, Keanu Reeves continues to impress his fans and audiences with his on-screen and off-screen charisma. In the height of his career resurgence, Lionsgate came out with the third installment of the critically acclaimed action franchise, John Wick , starring the Canadian star. After the first two successful installments, the third feature promised fans of the actor and the franchise a gripping and bloody two hours. Here's what the Reviewer ©  felt on John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. After the unsanctioned killing of Santino D'Antonio, a high ranking member of the High Table, skilled assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is declared "excommunicado", stripping him of his privileges. Adding to his woes, a $14 million bounty is put on Wick's head, sending the most dangerous and ruthless assassins in the world on the hunt for Wick. John has to wriggle himself out of peril's way,...

Disney's fascination with the live action retellings of its' classic animated films continues with presumably great success, turning the venture into one of the movie production giant's most lucrative businesses. 2019 would appear, for most, to be Disney's most profitable years, with it's colossal blockbuster releases, Marvel's Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel  and Pixar's Toy Story 4 shaking the cash registers and grossing over a billion dollars. In it's latest in the series of live action re-imaginations of previous animated classics, Disney released the photorealistic remake of the 1991 animated musical classic, The Lion King. With Jon Favreau, who previously helmed 2016's The Jungle Book, returning to direct the film and a stellar voice cast signing up to voice the iconic characters, once could only expect the gigantic way in which the movie would attract huge footfalls. Here's Reviewer's review of The Lion King. Honestly, there...

After the epic showdown in the blockbuster Avengers: Endgame ( read full review here ), MCU-philes were eagerly waiting for the next installment in the ever-expanding universe- Spider-Man: Far From Home. With Kevin Feige, the brain behind Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, announcing that FFH would be the final film in the Phase Three of the MCU, the hype surrounding the film was only upped to witness what it would do in setting up the next series of events and films in the MCU. The Reviewer reviews how the second installment in the second rebooting of the franchise about the web-slinging friendly neighborhood Spider-Man intends to treat the exploits of the superhero . In the new world order after the Blip (as the Decimation and the reversal are named in the MCU), Peter Parker is still reeling from the loss of his mentor-cum-father figure Tony Stark, who sacrificed his life saving the universe in the events of Endgame. All he now wants is to make some progres...

Note: This film was the recipient of the Best Picture Award at the 91st Academy Awards. Among the many movies released in 2018 that highlighted the pertinent issue of race relations, Green Book was one small movie that vowed to stand out. Promising a talented duo of Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali in lead roles, the story about the acquaintance between an Italian-American bouncer and an Afro-American pianist in the 1960s, the height of racial violence in the "Land of the Free", became a surprise favorite in the race to the awards season. Here's how Green Book appealed to the critic and moviegoer in me. The film follows the lives of an Italian American bouncer, Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) and an African-American pianist Dr. Shirley (Mahershala Ali). Tony is tasked with the responsibility of escorting Shirley, who gets to perform a series of concerts, through the xenophobic American South. The timing is just perfect. The South has become notorious for it...