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

2020 #Top10Films (1-10) 1. A White, White Day (Hvítur, hvítur dagur) 2. Quo Vadis, Aida? 3. Minari 4. First Cow 5. Collective (Collectiv) 6. Dear Comrades! (Dorogie tovarishchi) 7. Never Rarely Sometimes Always 8. Martin Eden 9. Sorry We Missed You 10. Soul - - - #Top10Movies #movies

2020 #Top10Films (11 - 21) Another Round (Druk) Night of the Kings (La Nuit des rois) TIME Wolfwalkers Judas and the Black Messiah Gunda Feels Good Man Promising Young Woman Nomadland Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time (Felkészülés meghatározatlan ideig tartó együttlétre) TENET - - - #Top10Movies #movies