Una noche (2012) - 90 min

Country: Cuba
Director: Lucy Mulloy
Cast: Dariel Arrechada, Anailín de la Rúa de la Torre & Javier Nuñez Florián.
Two friends Elio and Raul are planning to flee to Miami. Elio stores the important things needed for their journey and Raul already made up his mind about leaving Havana, now it's up to Elio to leave behind his twin sister Lila and family. Furthermore Raul is accused of assaulting a tourist and Havana police is looking for him.
Mulloy's storytelling and her characters draw you into the Cuban culture and the people's day to day life. She spent years in Havana to study the heart of the Cuban people to make the story looks real and while doing her homework she finds the lead actors from the street. It won many awards in the festivals and everyone likes it due to the thrill factor of the third act. Overall, it's a simple movie about three characters and the eager of what happens next to their actions keeps you attached to the story.
Verdict: Good

One Way Trip (2016) - 90 min

One Way Trip is a South Korean film directed by Choi Jung-yeol.
Starring Ji Soo, Kim Jun-myeon, Ryu Jun-yeol & Kim Hee-chan.
Four best friends on a trip to have a goodbye party before their buddy joins the military. It was meant to be a fun ride, but sadly they witness an incident which led to another accident.
Four entirely different personalities and the only thing common in them is their bond towards each other. When it comes to emotions and ending, Korean movies follow a unique style of expressing the characters' feelings to the audiences which is quite brilliant though. This drama movie pursues the same principle ingredients of those usual stuffs with an ending that's worth your time. The script deserves some praise for turning a coming-of-age movie into a dark-society madness. Overall, it has a solid performance from the young cast and the closing note will be 'Please don't help anyone'.
Verdict: Good 

Enemy (2013) - 90 min

Country: Canada
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon & Isabella Rossellini.
Adam Bell is a history professor who follows the same routine of his daily lifestyle without doing much. His colleague recommended him a movie and In the evening he decides to watch it. One of the actors in that movie looks exactly like him and he wants to meet him personally.
"Chaos is order yet undeciphered". Like the two sides of a coin, it follows the same principle of good and evil or reality and fantasy. The background score from Bernard really makes you entirely stuck into the story. Even though Villeneuve gives you many clues at crucial points, still he misleads you into elsewhere. Gyllenhaal, the versatile actor portraits two entirely different roles with a calm and vicious personality. Overall, it's a mind blowing psychological thriller movie with a final trademark scene of Villeneuve.
Verdict: Good

The Tribe (2014) - 130 min

Country: Ukraine
Director: Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
Cast: Grygoriy Fesenko, Yana Novikova, Roza Babiy & Oleksandr Dsiadevych.
Sergey, a young student arrives at a boarding school for the deaf students. Later he joins a gang that performs sex, violence and prostitution. Eventually, Sergey plays along with the gang till he falls for one of his classmates.
The whole film is a challenge and the director welcomes you to a new world of madness. It tells the unbelievable story about deaf mafias without any spoken dialogue or subtitles. The main plot can be easily understood by characters' activities and don't know how many people watch this kind of movies where you don't have any clue about what they saying. Talking about the performances, Slaboshpytskiy manages to provide a naturalistic performances from his cast. Overall, it has a unique style of storytelling method and only recommended to experimental movie lovers.
Verdict: Good

Bad Genius (2017) - 130 min

Bad Genius is a Thai thriller film directed by Nattawut Poonpiriya.
Starring Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, Chanon Santinatornkul, Teeradon Supapunpinyo & Eisaya Hosuwan .
Lynn is a brilliant math student and after seeing her academics, the principal of a well known school offers her a scholarship. Grace is the only friend she had in that school and when Grace asks for some help in the exam. Lynn agress to cheat in exams and after that she decides to make huge money from it by helping the weak students.
The highest grossing Thai film of 2017 and it is based on a true incident. The story was told like a heist movie and exam halls were presented as the building block for creating tension. It may not deliver a good message to the viewers, but I was enthralled by the concept and the corrupted school system was nicely shown by the director. On a serious note, it reminds me of my entire school-college life, Cheating was my favorite thing to do at that time and To be frank I always outrun my opponents. Overall, it's a fresh approach towards the crime-thriller genre and an incredibly fun movie to watch.
Verdict: Great

Jake Gyllenhaal Films

1) Donnie Darko (2001)
Donnie is a smart kid with a mental illness and One day he starts to see a metal masked rabbit figure wherever he goes. That rabbit figure introduces himself as frank and tells him exactly when the world will end.
2) Brokeback Mountain (2005)
The love story of two cowboys, Ennis and Jack. They first meet in Wyoming during the time of sheep ranching. From that time onwards they share a strong bond towards each other.
3) Zodiac (2007)
It is based on Zodiac murders which occurred in San Francisco during the early 1970s. Zodiac killer challenges the police department by calling the police and sending letters to show them they can't touch him.
4) Love & Other Drugs (2010)
Jamie Randall works as a pharmaceutical rep and is struggling to meet the ends of living. He accidentally meets Maggie and from that moment onwards they start to share a unique friendship which is hard to see nowadays.
5) Source Code (2011)
Captain Colter Stevens is on a highly classified mission to find the person who planted a deadly dangerous bomb in a moving train. It's a loop, it will not stop until he figures out the bomber.
6) End of Watch (2012)
Police buddies Brian and Mike were the most efficient officers in L.A. Brain films everything that happens around him whether it's a chase or shootouts. The film tells the story of their busy schedule of pursuit.
7) Enemy (2013)
Adam Bell is a history professor who follows the same routine of his daily lifestyle without doing much. One evening he decides to watch a movie and it turns out to be a big mistake, the actor looks exactly like himself.
8) Nightcrawler (2014)
The moment Louis Bloom sees a freelance photographer taking photos of a car crash, he says goodbye to his current stealing business and decides to make some serious money.
9) Southpaw (2015)
Billy Hope is an undefeated boxing champion and he wants a break in order to spend valuable time with his family. At a charity event, a fellow boxer challenges Billy to fight with him in the ring. Billy was not interested in it, while leaving from there with his wife the fellow boxers brother fires his gun.
10) Demolition (2015)
Davis works in a financial firm and the recent death of his wife puts him in a weird mental situation. His life gets interesting when he meets Karen and her confused son.

Committed (2014) - 90 min

Country: Cyprus
Director: Stelana Kliris
Cast: Melia Kreiling & Orestes Sophocleous.
It tells the story of two strangers who meets on an unusual circumstance. Due to an argument with his fiance, George leaves the house to rethink about the decisions he made in his entire life. While riding through the Cyprus roads, he meets a runaway bride with the same commitment issues.
Visually, it's a beautiful movie to see and the stunning landscapes of Cyprus were well shot. More than a romantic movie, it actually comes under the category of road movies. The dialogues written by Stelana Kliris were not that catchy, still works without causing any trouble. Performance wise, Melia Kreiling did her best as the runaway bride and she was gorgeous in the wedding dress. Overall, it's an enjoyable movie with a small twist and watch it with zero expectations.
Verdict: Good

Logan Lucky (2017) - 118 min

Logan Lucky is a heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Seth MacFarlane, Riley Keough, Hilary Swank & Daniel Craig.
Jimmy works in a construction company and on a fine day, without any solid reason he loses his job. He needs money to deal with family issues and he teams up with his brother Clyde, who lost an arm during the second Iraq war.
The film opens with a cute father-daughter conversation to show their bond. The whole equation of a normal robbery movie suddenly shifts into a new direction when the Joe Bang's character showed up which is played by Daniel Craig. As per his filmography is being concerned, this role was an entirely new league for him and the funny accent of the character makes it easy for him. Soderbergh is a master of crafting robbery-heist movies and the interesting thing about the movie is a similar theme of a robbery concept was shown in a Malayalam movie. Overall, it's a fun movie to watch and it will not mollify your favorite moments.
Verdict: Good

The Class (2007) - 99 min

Country: Estonia
Director: Ilmar Raag
Cast: Vallo Kirs, Pärt Uusberg, Lauri Pedaja & Paula Solvak.
Joosep, a high school teenager who is continually bullied by Anders and his fellow gang members. The whole class enjoys the things they did to Joosep except Kaspar. He decides to defend Joosep and its their fight against the whole class for the dignity.
The story is divided into chapters and the soundtrack used after the chapter title shown were outstanding. Raag manages to pull off some good performances from his cast and locations also suits the whole high school atmosphere very well. The main reason behind this film to be made is to convey the dangerous side of bullying and their after effects. Overall, it's a highly recommended movie that gets under your skin and if you want to spend some quality time on a serious story.
Verdict: Brilliant

Machan (2008) - 105 min

Country: Sri Lanka
Director: Uberto Pasolini
Cast: Dharmapriya Dias, Gihan De Chickera, Darshan Dharmaraj, Namal Jayasinghe, Sujeewa Priyalal & Mahendra Perera.
Based on a real life incident of 2004, it tells the story of a group of unemployed men in Sri Lanka and their attempt to participate in an international handball tournament held in Germany. Their main intention is to get a job in Germany and send money to their families.
First of all, it's a hilarious story which is told in a fictional way. The realistic comedies that come along the script were pure and simple. Each character has a clear motivation to do such kind of stupidity while showing the struggling life of Colombo city. It puts forward some genuine Sri Lankan crises of mothers leaving their kids behind to work in abroad which is the only option for their family to survive in that environment. Also the emotions of people in slums and how they manage to meet their daily ends were perfectly shown by Pasolini. Overall, if you are looking for an out of the box kind of movie, then do watch this incredible movie.
Verdict: Great

The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) - 109 min

Country: South Africa
Director: Jamie Uys
Cast: N!xau, Sandra Prinsloo, Marius Weyers, Nic De Jager & Michael Thys.
San tribe bushmen lifestyle changes when Xi discovers a glass Coca-Cola bottle which is dropped from a plane. They think it's a gift from God and used as a new object to ease their work. Sadly, it brings greed and jealously to the tribe. Xi decides to throw this object to the end of the world.
A hilarious journey with Xi to convey an environmental message. N!xau who portraits the bushman Xi was the true gem of the movie and his childish behavior to everything happening around him will definitely grasp your attention. The tranquility of African landscape was beautifully captured and it helps to show the innocent life of San tribe more generous. It was a box office record breaker and a game changer in the history of the South African's film industry. Overall, it's a fun ride and if you like satirical films like Airplane(1980) ,then it's worth your time.
Verdict: Good

Under the Bombs (2007) - 90 min

Country: Lebanon
Director: Philippe Aractingi
Cast: Nada Abou Farhat & Georges Khabbaz.
Zeina, a young mother arrives in Lebanon and looks for a taxi to take her to the South of Lebanon. Nobody is willing to go out there after the war broke out, except Tony. He needs money and agrees to Zeina on a dangerous road trip to the South.
The film was shot right after the war, which makes the movie more deadly than it actually looks. The collapsed buildings and broken roads shown in the movie were the outcomes of the real war. There is an undefined bond between the taxi driver and the woman. Both lead actors did a fine job in the acting department and I like their physique more than their performances. Director, Philippe Aractingi crafts an exceptional anti-war film that shows the emotional side of two people who were affected by the war chaos. It has a conventional narrative style and I don't know why director includes a sex scene in the middle portion of the movie. Overall, it's an honest film about two characters who met under an unusual circumstance.
Verdict: Good

Interstellar Through Mann's Eyes

Dr.Mann - The Real Hero

Dr. Mann was the leader of the Lazarus mission, a one way mission to find a habitable planet. The crew consists of twelve scientists, including Mann. After entering the wormhole, they split in order to go separate planets. If the planet is capable of sustaining human life, they can send a signal to NASA claiming that it's a habitable planet. Everyone says Mann is the best scentist NASA ever had. To prove that statement Nolan includes a conversation in the movie where an important decision taken by Cooper crew. More than a character, he represents the true nature of a human being.

Cooper : You once said that Dr. Mann was the best of us. Amelia : He's remarkable. We're only here because of him.

1) About Mann's Planet:

A planet that resembles Earth and according to statistical data this is the best planet for mankind. The planet is cold and stark. The days are 67 hours long-cold and the nights are 67 far colder hours. The gravity is pleasant and it posses 80% of Earth's gravity. The water present in the planet is alkali and the atmosphere is thick with ammonia. Talking about the ammonia planets, the first thing that comes into my mind is it share similar properties of the earth which can be the main reason Mann choose this planet in the first place. Instead of water vapor, this planet uses ammonia as variable gas.

2) Raised from the dead:

Mann was very sure about the planet. The moment he reaches the planet, he understands the fact that this was uninhabitable. Due to low altitude, it's very difficult to breathe in his planet more than one minute. With the help of robot companion KIPP, they explore every spot on the planet in looking for a surface where human can easily breathe. Unfortunately, they never found one. The fact of being wrong in choosing the planet and never seeing a human being again triggers him in pressing the button, even though he tried his best not to press it. Ultimately, he sends the signal to NASA and decommissioned KIPP fully. He uses KIPP's power source for his hypersleep chamber system and set a trap on KIPP's rebooting function. If someone tries to access the archives of KIPP, it will explode. After that, He went to sleep without setting a waking date. Dr. Mann spends 30 years on that planet until someone came to his planet looking for him. Cooper and crew arrive on Mann's planet after their visit of Miller planet. Cooper wakes him up manually by opening the hypersleep chamber. Mann bears a strong personality, but he literally breaks down when he saw cooper's face.

3) Moment of truth:

Mann's Plan X & Y. Plan X means telling the truth right away. When Amelia asks him about the planet, he knew the ones who came to rescue him were morons. So he goes along with Plan Y. The plan is very simple, providing some fake data that he made while exploring the planet to prove there is a surface where human can survive. Mann's confidence level increases when the crew starts to believe every word he says to them. He needs time to slowly unfold the mystery about his planet. His Plan Y was working fine until Murph's revelation message came from Earth. The video message of Murph changes the whole equations of Mann's Plan Y. Still, he maintains his coolness and explains them about professor Brand's intentions of telling that big lie. From his attitude, one thing was crystal clear he was actually laughing inside on seeing a bunch of nitwits.

Amelia: My father dedicated his whole life to Plan A. I have no idea what she's talking about. 
Mann: I do.
Cooper: He never even hoped to get the people off the earth? 
Mann: No
Amelia: But he's been trying to solve the gravity equation for 40 years. 
Mann: Amelia, your father solved his equation before I even left.

4) Master Plan:

After the revelation and explaining, Cooper decides to leave with the Endurance to see his daughter. A scientist like Mann, who dedicated his whole life for this mission will not tolerate this kind of foolishness. Cooper makes all the arrangements and decides to go on a site visit with Mann. After hearing Cooper's stupid decision, Mann decides to kill him at any cost. By eliminating Cooper from the equation helps him to reach Edmund's planet to build a colony. After executing the master plan, come back to the base to inform about the tragic accident and convince other two crew members with the dangerous side of the planet. Romily's death was never pre-planned and Mann tries his best to convince him to not touch KIPP archival functions which later Romily touches and dies. The last thing he explained to Cooper was about survival instinct. Survival instinct is a very strong thing when we talk about Mann. The dream of completing Plan B pushes him so far to survive. After the encounter between Mann and Cooper, The good side of Mann couldn't watch Cooper going through this suffering and leaves behind Cooper by saying he want to save all for cooper.

Cooper: Dr. Mann, there's a 50-50 chance you're gonna kill yourself. 
Mann: Those are the best odds I've had in years.

5) Last Ride:

Mann steals Ranger 1 and travels towards the Endurance to take control over the mission. Tars disabled the autopilot endurance docking procedure. Unfortunately, Mann was not aware of it and the only option he had was to open it manually. For that, he opens the pressurized hatch, which instantly kills him causing a huge explosion. The only thing he did wrong in his entire life was underestimating the trust settings of Tars. A man who dedicated all his life for a single mission wasted his entire dreams by underestimating the natural instincts of a man-made robot, Tars. If the story of interstellar was told in Mann's POV, he would have been the real hero and Tars will be the main villain.

"This is not about my life, This is about all mankind".