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'Sara'S' review: Anchored by a powerful script, this simple film breaks the conventions of the feel-good template

Jude Anthany Joseph's third feature, after Ohm Shanti Oshana and Oru Muthassi Gadha, released on Prime Video at midnight today. This seemingly feel-good film, also seemingly made in limited spaces and with a shoestring budget, tackles a concept and issue never tested before in Malayalam cinema  circles. In Sara'S, we follow the life of Sara Vincent (Anna Ben), a young, bubbly, yet unapologetic filmmaker who struggles to make it big in the industry. She continuously assists male directors and is in the scripting works of her dream film. Sara has decided, from her school days, that she would not bear any kids. This is when she meets Jeevan (Sunny Wayne); her relationship with him subsequently brings her ideology and decision into a confrontation with the established norms of society, family and child-rearing.  Anna Ben in Sara'S The best aspect in which Sara'S has excelled, without doubt, is its hard-hitting taut script. Debutant Akshay Hareesh deserves praise for managin...

Spotlight review- a riveting newspaper drama

Note:   Spotlight is the 2016 Academy Award winner for Best Picture. Depicting a challenging topic such as the Catholic Church child abuse scandal might have appeared as a challenge to director Tom McCarthy and writer Josh Singer, but the way the duo has executed this movie is a testament to the success of factual storytelling. Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), a self-contained and observant journalist, arrives at the Boston Globe  as the new chief editor. The year is 2001- a few months before 9/11. He encounters Walter Robinson (Michael Keaton), the editor of the Spotlight team, the oldest continuously operating investigative journalism team, and assigns to the team the task of following up the hidden, but infamous Geoghan case and its subsequent cover-up by the Catholic Church. The team, consisting of Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Matt Carrol (Brian D'Arcy James) and supervised by Ben Bradlee Jr. (John Slattery), plunges head on to th...

88th Academy Awards: Pre-show report

The Oscars are back... After a long wait, we will now see the Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) honor the best of 2015 ( click for Top 10 films by Reviewer-The Blog ) The host of the ceremony Chris Rock As it always is, the Oscars nominate some of the best films of the year and nothing has happened to that tradition this time too- The Revenant received a whooping 12 nominations, Mad Max: Fury Road with 10, The Martian with 7 and Bridge of Spies,Carol and Spotlight with 6.  The nominees were announced on 14 January by Cheryl Boone Issacs (Academy President), actor John Krasinki and directors Guillermo Del Toro and Ang Lee. Nominees for a total of 24 categories were announced. Here is a pictorial debrief of the nominees for Best Picture: Bridge of Spies Brooklyn The Big Short Mad Max:Fury Road The Martian The Revenant Room Spotlight Here are the nominees for Best Actor: Bryan Cranston (Trumbo) Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs) Edd...

88th Academy Awards Pre-show report : Curtain Raiser

A detailed pre-show report on the upcoming 88th Academy Awards  will be shortly posted on Revie wer-The Blog © Reviewer-The Blog©

Reviewer-The Blog's Top 10 Films of 2015

  2015 saw movies that exceeded expectations, movies that were much hyped and failed to provide and some which we were sure wouldn't make the mark. Even though we saw the commercial successes of sequels, 2015 showed us that audiences and critics loved original ideas as well. There were unexpected successes and disappointing failures which gave that mixed feeling of satisfaction and frustration in the movies of 2015. Beginning with Woman in Black:Angels of Death and wrapping up with the much anticipated Star Wars:The Force Awakens, 2015 has been a year of surprises and failures, admiration and dissatisfaction.  Not to forget that 2015 was lauded by the success of female-centric films. As critics spent their time whining away with issues such as gender gap, 2015 showed that Hollywood still has hope left for gender equality.  As 2015 comes to an end, Reviewer-The Blog has compiled its Top 10 Films of 2015 . This list is being compiled after extensive research, by ...

Top 10 Films of 2015- Curtain Raiser

On 26 December 2015.... Reviewer-the Blog lists its Top 10 Films of 2015... As 2015 comes to an end, Reviewer-the Blog will unveil its Top 10 films of the year... Do you have any opinions ? Which movies do you want on the list? Then post your suggestions on the comments below... \    Reviewer-The Blog © 

Jurassic World- crazy and all-out thrill

When the Jurassic Park  came out to the silver screen, movie-goers had expected to see something off the books, something the Spielberg-y style; and Steve Spielberg didn't disappoint in carrying out that job. As the two sequels moved on, the same audience had somewhat lost hope on the dinos hitting the screen once again. But when Colin Trevorrow promised something big, the hopes were revived once again. Here's the review on Jurassic World . We are journeyed back to the old Isla Nublar we saw in the 1994 Jurassic Park, but this time it is no longer the old dinosaur breeding/sanctuary park but a high tech amusement theme park, or figuratively the Disney land of dinosaurs. Headed by Simon Israni( Irrfan Khan ) and the park's bossy yet brave operations manager, Claire Dearing ( Bryce Dallas Howard ), the scientist group at JW create a hybrid dinosaur, the Indominus Rex,  for the intention of attracting sponsorship and at the same time increase visiting numbers. However, th...

Boyhood - a saga of picturesque metamorphosis

Boyhood  demonstrates the different phases of a boy's life, from 6 to 18; it turns into a tale of a metamorphosis from boyhood to manhood.   The film begins from 6-year old Mason Evans Jr.( Ellar Coltrane ) and travels through 12 years of the boy and his sister, Samantha Evans's ( Lorelei Linklater ) life. Patricia Arquette  plays Mason's mother, Olivia Evans, who moves in and out of marital relationships, while Ethan Hawke  plays the siblings' divorced  father. Every precious moments of a boy's life appear- birthday parties, graduation parties, family get-togethers, road trips, family meals, launch of a Harry potter book and other milestones.  The film doesn't point out that it is jumping to the next age. Such a transition is marked by the change in physical appearance in Mason and Samantha. Nevertheless, the physical, mental and psychological metamorphose of the siblings is the whole "coming-of-age" story about. A still from the movie...