The basu! Guide to the Movies

RIP #CharlesGrodin One of my *all*-time favourite leading actor? character actor? comedian? talk show guest? talk show host?…just all around favourite inimitable, irascible, interesting, characters. Just the other day TBH & I we were checking out both of our fave #MartinShort's career retrospective(😬er, sometimes it's better to appreciate the art, not go too deep into the artist…) during #TCMFF (thank you BatManuel!) and they showed scenes from Clifford(no, not *that* Clifford), and I was like, man, this looks hilarious, also, where is Chucky G, haven't seen him anything recently, I should look up what he's been up to… Sigh… I discovered him in…Beethoven…don't judge! It was a fun, funny movie(despite my film school's first-day "brilliant" dissection of the opening sequence reinforcing evil white male hegemonic patriarchy…but, uh, that's a story for another day😳) that made me a lifelong fan, and then, of course, the immortal Midnig...

#Jallikattu 😳😱😲🤭😵‍💫 Holy H*ll…literally! I mean, oh man, like, I, well, the thing is… The most insanest, craziest, gonzoest, brazenest, off-the-wallest, boldest, audaciousest…okay now my thesaurus app is beginning to heat up…simply *most*est movie of the year, any year🤗! And…it's from India🇮🇳! And…wait for it…it was submitted for the Best Foreign Film #Oscar! 😳 G*d bless whatever producer bankrolled this film and whatever entity decided to submit this to the #Oscars👏! I'd have given anything to have seen the looks on the faces of the voters more used to the kind of genteel, well-mannered, well-meaning desi films that usually make the fest/critics' rounds in the West😏 Look I don't want to resort to the kinds of easy stereotypes we used to in School, but the craftspersonship is absolutely *top*-notch, but then I wouldn't expect anything else from a South Indian film 😇 First of all, the directing! Man, this kid is something el...

#TBT so how about a #Throwback Movie? 😁 #Kapurush (#TheCoward) (1965) Stunning, criminally underrated Ray. Man, I get my Underrated Ray's mixed up: #ShakhaProshakha, #Seemabaddha, #AshaniSanket, Kapurush, so I'm glad that the last was the only one available on streaming…what a way to start this collection of movies! What a perfectly calibrated, self-contained, emotional wallop. This is Ray's Noir, no?, so naturally this being a Bengali Noir the most important murder that takes place is of…the heart💔. *Stunning* restoration who(m?)ever did it! Not a blemish in all that lovely contrast-y saturated black and white👏! The cinematography, *luscious* black and white, with those interior(!) sweeping camera moves…#WongKarWai would approve👍. Right from the opening we're hit with a superb single-take, in a film full of great long-takes that all serve to focus your attention on the people within the frame, not the operator outside it. That slow, longing zoo...

#WithoutRemorse Good, clean, dad-action(😳!)-movie fun. Me, I'm a sucker for Sollima's brand of tersely macho, just-the-bodycount-ma'am style of action, especially when it's combined with the lensing of the legendary Rousselot(oh, those drool-worthy nighttime hi-contrast/saturated exteriors). Just, ya know, don't think too hard, in fact, don't think at all about the plot, and you'll have yourself a good time. Also having a good time: Bell playing against type, the fantastic Turner-Smith who deserves a spin-off of her own(hey, what's another entry in the imminent TCCU gonna cost?), and the camera-meltingly charismatic Jordan. D*mn, dude💪! PS. That apartment-attack scene/sequence/mini-movie-all-of-its-own🤩! - - - #StefanoSollima #PhilippeRousselot #TaylorSheridan #Jonsi(yeah, the #SigurRos Jonsi!) #TomClancy #MichaelBJordan #JodieTurnerSmith #JamieBell #GuyPearce(great, in the GP role😇) Brett Gelman(yes, *that* BG) #ColmanDomingo @wi...

#SatyajitRay100 Look, sure, #Bengali(&, by definition, #Indian🤣) cinema is more than just #SatyajitRay, but any chance to celebrate this colossus is not to be missed! Check out #TCM, #Criterion, #HBOMax(?!😳🤩) to get a taste of his incomparable films! Can it have been all those years ago I was lucky enough to watch my first Ray on the big screen, at a film festival in the Middle East, the re-release of #GhareBaire?! Mummum saw, and (mostly)loved all of his movies (that moment when she broke out in perfect song when I mentioned *that* sequence from #Charulata, sigh...), Didu was a little more clear-eyed in her appreciation(as usual, her favourite catchphrase, "mondo na..."). But, thanks to them, I was able to get through the greatest hits, now, I gotta go watch *all* of them, it's my Bengali duty🤩! Speaking of greatest hits, I'd recommend some of the underrated ones once you get through the bold names: #DaysAndNightsInTheForest, #Mahanagar (#TheBi...