Movie Review: Born Into Brothels

In an attempt to capture the poverty of people struggling to cope in one of the world’s most perceived miserable places, filmmakers Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman give India a second visit for their next project on prostitution: Calcutta’s red light district. There, they meet several curious children, fascinated with the rare visitor daring enough to enter such a zone. Wanting to capture life behind closed doors, she decides to give the children personal cameras, and teaches them how to photograph their surroundings. The kids are unexpectedly quick learners, and Briski decides to save them from the fate of prostitution by enrolling them in boarding schools. She is faced with countless setbacks, mostly tedious paperwork, but prevails and succeeds in sending them to school. The results aren’t great, and some of the kids eventually drop out of school, but education and photography remains a life-changing experience in their otherwise mundane lives.

What is so remarkably convincing in Born Into Brothels isn’t the narrative or dialogue, but the footage by the children. The shots are so personal they demand that you appreciate the truth in the unscripted and emotionally charged characters. Briski’s patience with the children is commendable for a volunteer with language barriers, and her hard work pays off when the photographs taken improves as the film progresses. What initially started as amateur shots become increasingly expressive and artistic, as the kids explore terms like depth-of-field and composition. Some even move on to still life photography, but almost every picture taken tells a story of what is captured within the frame.

The film lends a peek into another world, where simple rights are denied to these children as they are trapped and forced into prostitution, so much so that it becomes a family tradition. At ages 10-14, some are already required to help out in menial household chores. We also have a glimpse at the lives of the adults, and it is almost painful to swallow the harsh reality that most of them, desperate and hopeless, resort to smoking hash and engaging in verbal abuse. The kids have all the innocence any other children would have, but are forced to mature quickly in this world of hardship. In fact, prostitution begins as early as puberty, and those who don’t make a living this way end up as criminals.

Much comic relief is brought to screen by Avijit, a creative and talented young artist with many ambitions. “Go slowly, I won’t get there if there’s an accident” is one of the few memorable quotes that indirectly amplify the hope in these children, as they leave home on a journey to various photography exhibitions. We watch with a kind of sadness at the playful and teasing children, who aren’t oblivious to the horror around them, but are seeking solace in their fast-disappearing childhood (kite-flying on the roof for example). In one of the few films where silence speaks louder than words, the film witnesses Avijit’s withdrawal while coping with the grief of his mother’s death. The close-up shots of his face are appropriate in this context, and we feel a candle of compassion for this seemingly lost child. He is the most impressionable of the lot, although the film also focuses on the other children.

When Briski tries her best to free the kids from an endless cycle of prostitution, she is faced with many legal issues such as obtaining passports for Avijit’s trip to Amsterdam, and arranging compulsory HIV tests before acceptance into a boarding school. The audience will heave a sigh of relief to find out that none of them tested positive, after years of prostitution in the family that could lead to high chances of being infected at birth. Indeed, the children are treated as offsprings of criminals and chances of getting into a decent school are extremely slim. The documentary comes to an end with the progress reports of the children sent to school, and while the results were nothing to jump or cry about, it fulfilled the feeling of having at least tried making a difference.

There is very little voiceover narration by Briski as most of the footages capture live sounds and dialogue, though there are some on-the-scene interviews with the kids and their parents. The film leaves its audience with a little more knowledge on the poverty areas of India, and it also gives a sense of despair at the thought that while Briski might have managed to get through to some, hundreds of similar people still litter the alleyways of the red light district.

(First published at InCinemas)

Movie Review: Coach Carter

For those who do not have an interest in basketball, following the dialogue peppered with the game’s jargon in Coach Carter might be as demanding as the academic lessons the characters in the movie had to endure.

But Coach Carter is more than just a movie for basketball fans. It is not a mindless string of basketball action sequences, but a cinematic depiction based on the true story of Coach Ken Carter (played by Samuel L. Jackson), a determined high school basketball coach who takes into his hands the coaching rules of his school and subsequently, his team’s academic performance, attitudes and behaviour. Its focus goes beyond shooting perfect dunks and three-pointers, and through a series of obstacles faced by different members of the team, Coach Carter teaches valuable lessons revolving around themes of priority, decision making and consequences. Unlike other films that offer clichéd, miraculous endings just in time for the end credits to roll, Coach Carter offers a somewhat more convincing finale that does not go along the lines of “happily ever after”. Albeit a somewhat clichéd “have faith” film, it still had its touching and heartwarming moments.

One component of the movie that I enjoyed was the scripting. Written in and delivered in a “I dare you” tone, the movie does successfully challenge the audience, and the general viewpoint of expectations schools and parents have for their children. It paints a realistic picture of situations, and lends a positive influence through its down-to-earth solution approaches. The editing and filming of certain scenes were well-planned to give us the best possible camera angles, especially throughout the progress of the game, a plus point for basketball greenhorns like yours truly.

However, for a movie trying to send relatively simple and clear-cut messages to its viewers, the running time at 136 minutes was unnecessarily long, with excess game footages that had me distracted enough to go on mini breaks without hitting the pause. This movie stands well on its own, mostly in part of the near-perfect performance by Samuel Jackson, but might go unnoticed on the shelf when surrounded with other movies of the same plot.

(First published at InCinemas)

Movie Review: Spider-Man 2

Despite the success of this movie, I am sorely tempted to point out the several illogical flaws that haunt Spiderman 2. First thing first, why did Doc Oct even attempt robbing a bank? Here you have a guy endowed with half the number of tentacles an octopus has, who should have no problem getting the supply guys to just hand over the bloody raw materials needed in his crazed experiments, but instead he takes the trouble to rob a bank? What, was he intending to pay for those supplies?

This is the kind of garbage you get when you take a moment to just stop and think. It’s almost comical that most superhero movies tend to scrape the bottom of the barrel when it comes to logic, yet you’re caught between trying to loosen up to fantasy, and thinking, “hey, I don’t have just three brain cells in my cerebrum you know.”

Spiderman 2 sees Toby Maguire reprising his role as Peter Parker, the alter-ego geek with no time on his hands, supporting three full-time jobs and an only relative, Aunt May. They appear to be recovering from the loss of Uncle Ben, though with one member short, they are now neck-deep in financial difficulties and are on the verge of foreclosure. To make things a little more dramatic, Spiderman seems to be losing his spider powers.

Harry Osborn, on the other hand, has taken over his father’s company Oscorp as head of research division, and is currently funding the research of his idol, scientist Otto Octavius, in a fusion experiment. Things go wrong as they always do, and instead of making a useful contribution to the society, Octavius becomes a four-tentacled monster, nicknamed the Doc Oct. James Franco expands his character Harry in this second sequel, where we witness him slowly but surely being swallowed into the ugly jaws of revenge. Misled into believing that Spiderman killed his daddy the Green Goblin who deserved to die anyway, he swears to find Spidey to give him more than a spanking. This results in a shadowy exchange between Doc Oct and himself: Harry promises to provide Doc Oct with the tritium needed to rebuild his failed experiment in exchange for the live capture of Spiderman. We are treated to a continuation of the famous scene in the trailer whereby Spidey loses his mask to Harry, and…curiosity! Harry finds out who Spiderman really is, and goes all shocked-faced.

So far all the characters have been up-to-standard, and then here comes…Mary Jane. Dude thinks she’s the hottest thing on the planet since boiled water, and continues to demand if she’s being loved by everyone or not. She has to be, since the only other woman on the movie is about eighty years old. Three-quarters into the movie is when she finally discovers the truth about Peter Parker, so you can almost imagine what I’ve had to bear with. What is with all the love triangles? Pirates of the Caribbean has one. Superman has one. Now, I wouldn’t be complaining if it had been half as interesting, but all MJ ever does is freaking whine about herself.

Compared to other superheros like Superman who seems to mope about problems concerning his exposure, Peter leads a more realistic and selfless life that requires him to save trainful of strangers from friends-turned-nemesis. What distinguishes Spiderman from most other heroic characters is that although he tries to keep his identity to himself, he doesn’t obsess over it. You feel sorry for him and you care that he survives every battle with evil, and unlike Superman, he tends to slant closer to telling half-truths than complete lies.

We have a variety of monsters from the Green Goblin to the up and coming Sandman in the third sequel, and the interesting part lies in how these people come to be supervillains. There is a lot more thought put into the creation of Spiderman’s villains than the greedy Luthor family and meteorite-infested freaks Clark has to fight as Superman, and to top it all, you feel for the villains in Spiderman because they aren’t exaggeratedly evil.

The CGI is competent and adds to the overwhelming sense of Sci-fi reality, and Alfred Molina makes an extremely good villain, looks and acting-wise. Behind the insanity of the tentacles is a clever and humorous scientist wanting to be appreciated, a good contrast to the pure-mad rage of the Green Goblin seeking revenge. A good sequel to the original, Spiderman 2 rises the stakes for the third.

(First published at InCinemas)

Movie Review: Bring It On: All Or Nothing

The third sequel following the original Bring It On, this movie keeps none of the original cast, and its straight to DVD release makes it almost tempting for an instant dismissal. After all, is there really that much to talk about cheerleading?

Surprisingly, the filmmakers have managed to retain the admirable traits that made the first a success, but they don’t just stop at that. A bunch of new dance routines and other changes have been made to avoid a complete duplicate. Yes, it is extremely predictable, and it is obviously taking advantage of the reputation it received for the original, but that does not make it any less entertaining. For all it’s worth, this makes it more difficult to meet the audiences’ raised expectations (although the second sequel didn’t exactly impress). More room for disappointment is what I’m saying, and to conquer that is definitely a challenge.

Bring It On: All or Nothing stars Hayden Panettiere as Britney Allen, a “white girl” living the dream as the captain of her cheerleading squad in Pacific Vista High School. She is also homecoming queen, envy of her schoolmates, and an over-achiever (scoring Cs and cheerleading is apparently quite the feat). An upcoming competition for a spot on a television special with recording star Rihanna only serves as an opportunity to bring up her status, and all is perfect until her father whisks her off to Crenshaw Heights, thanks to his job.

Left to adapt in her new multi-ethnic neighbourhood, she finds it difficult to give up her past, and is further thwarted in making new friends by the suspicious and unwelcoming school crowd. She is drawn to the new school’s cheerleading squad, but is blown off by cheerleading captain, Camille (played by Solange Knowles-Smith). Claws flash and eyeballs roll, but Britney manages to earn her place on the team, and they prepare for the same TV competition Britney originally intended to win with her ex-squad. Back home, envious assistant cheerleader Winnie (Marcy Rylan) becomes the new captain, amidst the unhappy team. Both cheerleading squads then fight it out on stage for a place in Rihanna’s television special.

Bring It On: All or Nothing is lighthearted entertainment, one of the few that doesn’t over-glorify cheerleading as a “bimbotic hobby” for the rich and beautiful. What is believable is the amount of effort, practice, creativity and acrobatic skill required to perform the stunts. The scripting is above average but not great, and certain scenes seem to mock the typical cheerleading/blonde culture. The film features some catchy tunes, and I wouldn’t personally call this a “chick flick”, because it does pack more than a group of eye candy.

(First published at InCinemas)

Movie Review: Facing The Giants

It is probably just as well that The Da Vinci Code received criticism from the Christian community, because films like Facing The Giants always come into the picture balancing that beam of belief. I say that because in contrast to The Da Vinci Code, almost every line in Facing The Giants has the word “God” in it. Just take The Departed and substitute every four-letter word with “God” and you get the idea.

The movie opens on a monotone, but gradually picks up along the way. As it progresses, so does the amount of preaching. After the first hundred or so “Have faith in God”s, it starts to get tiresome, and I would personally have preferred it better if they’d illustrated their point through acting, not so much speaking. This movie doesn’t exactly fail, but film is hardly about reading lines from a script as much as it is observing a character’s body language. The acting was mediocre, but nevertheless a good effort made by the group of amateur actors for a non-Hollywood project. The movie slants towards a Christian audience, and underlying values within may be a break from the typical sex-and-violence Hollywood flick.

The movie is about having faith, which Christian high school football Coach Grant Taylor (Alex Kendrick) can’t seem to find in himself. Failing to lead his team, the Shiloh Eagles, to a single victorious season after six long years, he faces the risk of losing his job. Nothing drives the point home like exaggeration, and Grant is plagued with impotency, a smelly house, a breakdown-all-the-time car, BUT a loving wife (hint: behind every successful man is a supportive woman).

Like every desperate person, he gets a breakdown and pleads to the Big Guy for help, which comes in the form of a random visitor who quotes a few more chapters from the Bible. He reads between the lines of those phrases and finds a deeper meaning to life (why isn’t anything ever straightforward anymore?). Things start to look up – though not immediately – to mislead the audience. And in a test of strength and courage, or if you will, money and time, Grant and his team manage to emerge undefeated against all odds. The filmmakers even throw in a couple of babies for effect as well.

Of course, it isn’t only Grant who gets the screentime. David, a new player on the team, gets to perform a miracle towards the end of the movie, thus bringing it to a predictable conclusion. The most admirable character in Facing The Giants is most possibly influential team leader Brock, as we watch a more compelling struggle to success through sheer determination and encouragement.

The movie couldn’t be more appropriately named, with “giant” being a clever analogy of “fear” – facing one’s fears.

(First published at InCinemas)