Monthly Archives: February 2023

Film Reviews

Film Review: The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

STORY

Pádraic and Colm have been lifelong friends until one day Colm decides to sever the ties by considering him ‘dull’ for him. Colm is a folk musician and feels that old age is catching him. Therefore, he now wants to be remembered by people after he dies. So he concentrates on composing music. But Pádraic is unable to buy this sudden contort and repeatedly tries to break the ice which later on has heavy consequences.

INTRODUCTION

‘The Banshees of Inisherin‘ is an Irish black-comedy film. The film is set on the fictional isle of Inisherin located off the west coast of Ireland where the Irish Civil War is at the closing point in 1923. The film is shot on the attractive isles of Inishmore (Inis Mór) and Achill Island.

REVIEW

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ is an emotional drama that is not skeptical about reflecting on the dynamics of companionship. It is a well-thought signature of substance that roots in the mediocrity of dysfunctional distrait in a relationship.

Let me forward you why the film is so noisy about a silent assassination of a friendship.

INCIDENT RATHER THAN A STORY

The films usually dramatize a story where the characters have to grow with time, meet their peak point and proceed toward a conclusion. But this film dramatizes an incident of a life that occurs in a small community between the two whose friendship was known to everyone there. The whole screen time is invested in the troubling impact of a sudden breakup. The film wishes to broaden the aftermath of severity.

DEPTH OF AGONY

There are always human errors on both ends that builds ice between a long-lasting friendship. Some move on and others don’t. Colm is calm about what he stands for. But Pádraic is broken. The significance lies in the attempts and every time Pádraic meets disappointments.

The writing could have been easily ridiculed in dramatizing this segment of endeavor but the annoyance is well handled by bringing arguments, applying realistic humor, and directing Colm’s silly ego leading towards shocking consequences.

ARTISTIC TRAGEDY

You have to be a very genuine storyteller if you are interested to present an emotional tragedy that occurs in friendship but not in some romanticism. The value of pain is subtle because angst of Colm is unexplainable. He warns Pádraic that he will cut his fingers if he bothers him.

This madness for me is artistic because this kind of warning is a heavy reference to Vincent van Gogh, a famous Dutch painter who mutilated his left ear to seek his painter friend Paul Gauguin‘s attention. Being aware of his state of being a folk musician and how worthy his fingers are to play his violin, he still is unmoved about his foolishness to display.

TOGETHERNESS

The British presentation of lives in the countryside has always been sublime and rich. ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ is another good example of working on aesthetics that gives you a natural feeling of togetherness. The British tone for the village and small talk settles so easily.

The characters circulating in this small part do not require an introduction at all. It grows on the audience naturally. The local Garda, a publican, a physically abused kid, a postmistress, and the old lady, all fit and settle in the film so easily.

WHAT IS ‘THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN’?

The title of the film is quite a collection of unused words and thus, sounds interesting. Inisherin is a fictional isle that is set on multiple islands. The word ‘Banshee‘ comes from Gaelic folklore it is a female spirit whose wailing is considered a dark sign for a family that one of them will die soon. The physical appearance of Mrs. McCormick perfectly qualifies as one of the ‘Banshee’ of Inisherin.

CLOSING REMARKS

The film carries technical brilliance in cinematography and direction. The film is strongly led by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as Pádraic and Colm. Their screen presence in their arguments is visibly astounding.

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ is not a story but a moment of our life and this is why it is so heartwarming and emotional from the human point of view. If there is a tangible form of self-destruction, it exists in ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’.

RATINGS: 8.6/10

SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND WATCH MY FILM REVIEW HERE

FOLLOW ‘THE DARK KNAIK’ ON OTHER SOCIAL PLATFORMS

TIKTOK  https://www.tiktok.com/@thedarkknaik
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/thedarkknaik
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/thedarkknaik/

TWITTER

Film Reviews

Film Review: Jogi (2022)

While Delhi builts scattered turbulence across the city, Jogi and his friends tries to liberate many Sikhs after Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated.

Jogi is a survival-thriller period film based on the horrible three days after the assassination, a tragic event that is now called “1984 anti-Sikh riots“. A film based on a highly sensitive topic and haunting political unrest, the dramatization of riots does have that gripping intensity but what avoids the film to be considered amongst the best period films of recent times is the lack of quality screenwriting.

The aesthetics are too Bollywood-scopic. Dubious writing, overhauled musical score, predictable continuity, and an extremely weak setting for the conclusion. Lali is obsessed with hating Jogi to kill him but not makes his chances when he had. Looks silly to gaze at him near his sister’s dead boy but not shoot him considering to be responsible for her death. With long hair and a beard, how was Jogi not suspected of his being a Sikh at the station and the warehouse, is quite surprising. Especially, when he requested a bottle of milk, how come no one raised eyebrows? Why would anyone ask for milk in a warehouse of weapons and kerosene oil?

The most awful writing of the film; is an MLA personally arriving to kill Jogi and the rest. Why would he drop his hands in the dirt? Why would he risk his position? Anyone in their right state of mind will order someone to get his hands dirty for them.

Diljit Dosanjh as Jogi gives a fabulous performance and carries not only the Sikhs but also the film on his shoulder. Why was Ali Abbas Zafar chosen as the director for this film? How can you expect a quality outcome from someone who directs Salman Khan films? If I was the producer of Jogi, I would have chosen Konkona Sen Sharma, Hansal Mehta, or Devashish Makhija. Jogi lacks that narrative crafting that compels and boils the blood to watch the riots.

RATING: 4/10

SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND WATCH MY VIDEO FILM REVIEW HERE

FOLLOW ‘THE DARK KNAIK’ ON OTHER SOCIAL PLATFORMS

TIKTOK

https://www.tiktok.com/@thedarkknaik

FACEBOOK

https://www.facebook.com/thedarkknaik

INSTAGRAM

https://www.instagram.com/thedarkknaik/

TWITTER

Film Reviews

Film Review: All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

STORY

Young Paul Bäumer and his school friends join the Imperial German Army. They get excited when the uniforms are handed over to them and begin to romanticize their gallantry on the battlefield. Not a single clue do they have what they are about to watch as they are moved to the Western Front to fight trench warfare against the French.

BOOK

In 1928, the German novelist Erich Maria Remarque published “Im Westen nichts Neues” based on his experience when he joined the army to fight the great war. The book achieved widespread critical acclaim and sold 2.5 million copies in the first 18 months.

Two years later, the book was adapted into an American film “All Quiet on the Western Front”. The film won both the Best Picture and Best Director awards at the Oscar, the first to do so. Also, the first to win Best Picture that was based on a novel.

Unsurprisingly, the author was declared ‘unpatriotic’ by the government in the following years, and his books were banned, removed from the libraries, and burned. There had never been a film produced in any part of the world that adapted this novel until none other than a German film production decided to adapt it.

REVIEW

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ is based on the final events of the first World War dramatizing blood-boiling painstaking action sequences that reflect the mental and physical trauma the German soldiers faced and suffered.

ANTI-WAR

The most successful point about the film is that it is a period film that magnificently establishes and serves its purpose to be an anti-war film. Usually, films based on war try to glamorize the heroics of one and satanize the other. Some war films focus on basing the film on a depressive note highlighting a tragic story that suffered during the war. But the essence of this film lies in the negative nature of the war. This film successfully proves that war brings no hope but despair.

HUMANISM

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ is extremely human with a realistic approach towards the mannerism and wants. For example, a few soldiers witness some French women walking in the fields. It is such a delight for them to watch after such rough times on the field. One of the soldiers couldn’t resist and spent some time with one of them and returned with a woman’s scarf as a souvenir. When the soldier shows the scarf to his friends, each of them smells and feels it. An accurate and very understood affection the human is bound to take pleasure in after fighting on the field.

There are a few such scenes that recognize trying to establish some sense to the most powerful people in the world today. An illiterate soldier asks Paul to read his wife’s letter to him. A soldier collects the lockets of identifications and spots the one who saved him before. The one that was very compelling was when Paul repeatedly stabs a French soldier and distances himself. Seeing him dying remorses him and then he makes an unsuccessful attempt to save him but it is too late. The message was clear in this incredibly shot scene, the war brings no peace but destruction.

GAS

The significance of gas masks has been highlighted in this film. Somewhere in the first 20 minutes, the German troop is immediately alarmed by the gas attack and ordered to wear a gas mask. In the midst of the film, 60 of the missing troops are killed by the gas because they mistakenly took off their masks soon.

The use of this psychological weapon of a chemical attack was the counterattack of the French. Because it was the Germans who introduced this poison gas when they used it in the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium in April 1915. If I am not wrong, this was the first ever poison gas attack in warfare history. How ironic to see the German Army being the victim of what they created!

UNIFORMS

One of the most critical observations about this film is at the beginning of the film. Rational and thoughtful. When the soldiers get killed in the war and buried in their coffins. Their uniforms are washed, pressed, properly starched, sewed, and made to look new and fresh product that gets reused by the new recruits who wore them excitedly.

This matter can be taken lightly or pressed in a positive or a negative matter. Fully depends if you are okay with that or if you find it rubbish. From a positive angle, it is the transfer of honor from one to the other.

From a negative and a more critical perspective, the uniforms were handed over without respecting the martyred because the uniforms could have been delivered to the families. Perhaps the film wants to show that the-then army didn’t want to invest in the new uniforms. Or maybe this is how it is in some parts of the world. I have no knowledge about it but in all honesty, I feel the uniform of the martyred either should be handed over to their family or bury the martyred in that uniform.

ARMISTICE

The film remarkably settled the balance of the noisy battles and the table-talk silence. The latter part is the people in power trying to outdo each other. I found out on the internet that the scene of the armistice is not in the novel. But I am okay with it because including the events of the armistice was extremely important as the film intended to show how the first World War actually concluded.

It is highly accurate that the armistice was signed between Germany and the Allied Governments at 5am and would take effect at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month. And the battle was intentionally fought until 11 am.

But I am not sure about the real reason behind the six-hour delay. Why the war has to end at 11am? Why not at 5am when the armistice is signed? There were nearly 11,000 casualties on the final day of the war. 3000 of those lost their lives in those six hours. A very costly delay but the film took the responsibility to dramatize the fight of those six hours that you may rather call brave and courageous or foolish and madness.

CLOSING REMARKS

I didn’t base my film review to develop a discussion about history but to inform the readers that ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ is one of the most human films based on a great war and reflected on its consequences. An anti-war film that does not allow to glamorize heroism but rather dramatizes it as the need of the hour.

The ugly sense of blindness about the harsh realities of war are well dramatized. The displaying of horrifying war action sequences in compelling cinematography is breathtaking. This film would have looked more realistic if directed in monochrome.

One of the biggest achievements of the film is that despite the fact that it is a German film based on the Imperial German Army, the audience will not distinguish it but consider it as a loss to humanity showing no concern about what side you are on.

The film is a dead man’s poetry that flew away and sunk into the mud. It is one of the most honest representations of the tragic human phase of the fighting soldiers who died in the most brutal fashion with a picture of his wife and kids in their pockets.

RATING: 9.3/10

SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND WATCH MY VIDEO FILM REVIEW HERE

FOLLOW ‘THE DARK KNAIK’ ON OTHER SOCIAL PLATFORMS

TIKTOK  https://www.tiktok.com/@thedarkknaik
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/thedarkknaik
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/thedarkknaik/

TWITTER