The year is almost over and your checklist on Hollywood cinema has barely moved beyond Gravity and Despicable Me 2.
With all the parties you’ll be attending, some talk of movies is bound to creep in. And you can’t possibly gain much intellectual high ground by going on about the space-SFX-survival miracle that was Gravity – agreeably one of the most genuinely heart-felt flicks of the year.
So to dip into that esoteric elixir of highbrow, this is the only guide that’ll make you sound more profound than you are.
Inside Llewyn Davis
A down-on-his luck singer in the 1960s navigates the folk music scene in New York. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, this movie is based on one week in the life of a singer as he struggles to make it on his own.
Sound Profound: The music is the real star of the film. It holds the movie together so brilliantly. My favourite is Please Mr Kennedy. You should hear it / It’s cinematic magic on screen. Probably The Coen’s brothers’ best yet.
Blue is The Warmest Color
Two girls fall in love as teenagers, indulge in tons of lesbian lovemaking, grow up and grow apart. The film, despite its controversies of extended sex scenes and reports of acrimony between the cast and the director, won the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Sound Profound: It’s an arresting film but the sex scenes are somewhat artificial / The coming of age of a teenage girl is depicted so tenderly.
Her
Joaquin Phoenix is a writer who falls in love with his computer – an operating system, called Samantha, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Heart-broken after a failed relationship, he begins to find comfort in the voice of an intuitive computer program, which leads to a touching, awkward romance.
Sound Profound: It’s not entirely impossible you know, the way things are going, we could fall in love with our computers / This is not just a movie; it’s a commentary on modern human relationships.
Blue Jasmine
A rich socialite played by Cate Blanchett, suddenly finds herself without money and comes to stay with her sister.
Sound Profound: Even though, like most Woody Allen films, this one walks the thin line between comedy and drama, Blue Jasmine might be his most sympathetic and incisive film yet / It’s wonderful how Cate Blanchett slowly disintegrates on the screen.
12 Years A Slave
It’s the true story of a free black man who gets kidnapped and is forced to be a slave for 12 years. It’s adapted from Solomon Northup’s memoir.
Sound Profound: Chiwetel Ejiofor’s - (lead actor, look him up) soulful eyes wrench you by your throat / This is the film on slavery that America has been waiting for.
Compiled by Yashica Dutt
From NU Brunch, December 22
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