There are good movies, there is superlative cinema. There are movies that win the Oscars and there are those that have people talking about them long after they have left the theatres (both the people and the movie). And then there are films that float under the radar, remarkable cinema that either goes unnoticed, or doesn’t receive as much credit as it ought to.
This is a list of 8 such movies for the connoisseur. Read on.
(A word of note: These might not be the best movies, some of these aren’t even my favourites; however these are movies that have a distinguishing element or a smart stand-out piece of cinematographical ingenuity that sets them apart from other movies).
7 Pounds: The most underrated phenomenal movie. Rated only 36 on Metascore, and a measly 26% on RT, this is a great one that would have been missed by many. A movie that should be talked about much more than it is, and is a great example of inspirational cinema. With Will Smith in an uncharacteristic role, this movie packs a punch. Easily Smith’s best work (yes, above Pursuit of Happyness). The movie builds up a suspense culminating in That Ending! One of the very few movies that had my eyes water up, this one has stayed with me through the years. Powerful meaningful cinema.
1917: For the seemingly single-camera shot. Spell-binding. Unreal. Children of Men in 2006 had a small (compared to 1917) yet significant (9 minutes or so) single-shot, and got famous because of that. Now imagine a whole 2-hour movie in a single-shot. The camera simply follows the protagonists, the shot unbroken from beginning to end. Extreme ingenuity, and hard to achieve. Impressive.
The portrait of the lady under fire: No background score. At all. Only natural sounds. Never encountered this in any other movie ever. Not only did they save money on the background music, but gave us a treat with natural sounds.
The invisible man: Sound effects and sound editing. While I praised the last one for its lack of background music, this one is great owing to smart sound effects. The entire movie has been carried on the back of only these two elements. The movie, the plot, the direction and the acting, the cinematography, are all on point; however, it’s the sound effects and editing that play the most important role in this movie. The sounds effects are absolutely central and crucial to this one, they are what move the story forward, converse with the audience, drawing them in to what the protagonist is feeling, her deepest fears and anxieties. The eerie silence and the smart play of subtle underlying inconspicuous sounds cutting through it communicated more than the dialogues. I’d say the sound effects were the chief protagonist of this film. A word for the camerawork as well, which beautifully accompanied and complemented the sounds.
Manchester by the sea: Casey Affleck. ‘Nuff said. Best piece of acting I’ve seen. Joaquin Phoenix in Joker was great, as was Heath Ledger in the Batman trilogy. Then there are Leo, Hanks et al. However, for carrying a movie that had little else apart from his acting, an absolutely regular drama, and yet making it into a delight to watch, Affleck takes this one. Conveying real human emotions is tough, and the variety of emotions he has played in this movie, the hurt of having lost a brother, the added misery of having to take care of his son, the displeasure with society, the restraint of emotion through it all, the cornucopia of varied and very real emotions, made me feel connected with his character. A difficult role to play. A masterclass in acting. Supreme. Words can’t do justice to it.
Incendies: The hard-hitting ending. As with 7 Pounds, but a more powerful, meaner punch. As with Casey’s acting, no words can do justice to the plot, and its culmination. This one has to be seen to be believed. I was left dumbstruck, rendered motionless, brain-frozen at and after the last scene of the movie. It took a while to sink in. And that piece of acting in that final scene! Absolute gem. That heart-wrenching cry, those emotions. The movie seemed to not really be going much of anywhere in particular … till .. that .. last .. scene. And that bonded it all together. Best last scene of any movie ever (Extremely tight, but Inception considered).
Memento: Chronological and reverse-chronological timeframes merging in the middle, at the end (of the movie). Nolan has to figure into any list of remarkable movies, no? Memento is not my favourite Nolan movie, Inception is. But for the sheer gamble, the ingenuity, the directorial prowess in only his second endeavour, for tying chronological knots over and above the plot, and for spectacularly pulling it all off, Memento finds a place in this list. With the non-linear story-telling in Colour and B&W, the narration of this movie confused a whole lot of people, yours truly included, but then that’s Nolan for you. The synopsis section at IMDb has this to say about this flick: In the two disc DVD set, the second disc contains the movie in chronological order. To play this version of the movie: (1) select the clock icon; (2) select the answer “C” to every multiple choice question; and (3) arrange the tire changing steps in reverse chronological order (3-4-1-2). The movie begins to play with the credits first — in backward order. Some functions (fast forward, chapter skip, etc.) are disabled.
Kingyo (short): Three-fourths of the movie is in split-screen. Covering double the movie in half the time. Simultaneous character development and narration. Hard to experiment with such a device where the audience’s attention has to be shared across two parallel narratives. Very interesting, novel, brave, and innovative narration. Kudos to Edmund Yeo not only for having this thought, but for being courageous enough to go ahead with it, for believing in his abilities as a director. The split-screen technique has been employed for different purposes: To show parallel timelines, to capture different characters in the same timeline, to show different timelines, to capture different moods of the same character in the same timeline, or simply to capture the different frames irrespective of the timeline. At times, two different camera angles have been used within the same shot. Two different POVs. Ostensibly, to mean: ‘together yet not together’. As Erna Mahyuni puts it over at Earnestly, Erna: The split-screens became a metaphor of the former lovers – to be so close and yet so far. To be together and yet not together. The separation and distance between them they could not bridge.
1 reply on “8 remarkable movies”
Thanks for giving me my next watch list… Consider becoming a film reviewer… U have a knack for that