Flagons of Grapes

The Home Song Stories

flagonsofgrapes — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:18:45 +0000

The Home Song Stories (2007), written and directed by Tony Ayres, is a punishing mirror of my own childhood memories. This film, autobiographical of what Ayres experienced during his formative years and a portraiture of his enigmatic and volatile mother, is a devastating account of familial dysfunction. Its narrative is an interspersion of melancholia and heartwarming moments, a story of what Vladimir Nabokov would describe as “subliminal coordinates.” The Home Song Stories depicts desperation and despair, innocence and naivety, grace and redemption in the tormented soul of Ayres’ mother and her suicide attempts, in the rapid crossfires of Cantonese, Mandarin and broken English in the kitchen and bedroom as arguments break out, in the encyclopedia-reading young Ayres himself who believed that “I will then know everything.” So much of this film reminds me of my own past, a cinematic apparition of the pain, the chaos and the emptiness which have shaped me today — my mother’s affections for me, her emotional vulnerability and insecurity and subsequent neurosis, my own passion for reading and learning, my estrangement from men in general.

House of Sand and Fog

flagonsofgrapes — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:35:11 +0000

House of Sand and Fog (2003) is a heartbreaking drama directed by Vadim Perelman. It is a melancholic portrayal of loss and regret with an addict trying to desperately recover the house her father left to her when it was sold to a retired Iranian colonel who wanted to resell the house to earn some profits which would give his family a better life in America. The film exposes and highlights mortal vulnerability and fallibility in every turn, it is a cinematic unfurling of a tragedy waiting to happen. Just as there appears a glimmer of hope, a light of resolution at the end of the tunnel for both the evicted addict and the fallen Iranian, a cloud with silver lining — the fog comes, thick, heavy, inscrutable, opaque and inexorably. A touching, moving cinematic narrative.

Crash

flagonsofgrapes — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:07:11 +0000

Crash (2004) is a drama directed by Paul Haggis. This film is a meditation on racial tension in modern day Los Angeles through interweaving stories in which the prejudices and misunderstandings of the different characters crash to create an explosive, volatile cinematic narrative and commentary. Crash makes good use of sharp cutting dialogues and haunting ethnic music to summon the pain of human fallibility and vulnerability. This film has multiple climaxes which make each overlapping subplots somewhat unique yet identifiable.

Shattered Glass

flagonsofgrapes — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:22:49 +0000

Shattered Glass (2003) is a docudrama written and directed by Billy Ray about The New Republic journalist Stephen Glass fabricating stories and fired subsequently when a Forbes Digital Tool writer could not verify the facts regarding an article about a Silicon Valley company’s security deal with a teenage hacker. This film is riveting and compelling with believable acting and gives an insider’s view of what transpires in a publication.

I ♥ Huckabees

flagonsofgrapes — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:06:54 +0000

I ♥ Huckabees (2004) directed by David O. Russell is a comedy which addresses various metaphysical and philosophical conundrums via a free associative form. It is unconventional and somewhat chaotic but entertaining.

Breaking and Entering

flagonsofgrapes — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:00:43 +0000

Breaking and Entering (2006) is a drama written and directed by Anthony Minghella. The film is a meditation on emotional abandonment and adultery — the protagonist experiences rejection while his girlfriend feels isolated as they struggle to cope with an autistic daughter; he falls in love with a woman whose son is involved in stealing his computers; the woman tries to blackmail him with photographs of them in bed in exchange for his promise to not charge her son for theft; he refuses to give in and hurt his girlfriend in the process by revealing the betrayal. It is a fable on how love requires constant, consistent effort and discipline before it can flourish and be nourished.

Broken Flowers

flagonsofgrapes — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:41:19 +0000

Broken Flowers (2005) is a drama written and directed by Jim Jamusch. This film won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival and was critically acclaimed and received as a comedy. I am unable to relate to its humour, but Broken Flowers still has its outrageously mischievous moments which dot the vast canvas of an emotionally taxing storyline. The film resolves by resolving nothing; the melancholic tone of the film reaches its apex in its inconclusive conclusion as the protagonist struggles to come to terms with what transpired during his journey to find out if he does indeed have a son whom a lover almost twenty years ago gave birth to. Perhaps to avoid disappointment, one must learn to not have hopes or expectations.

Margot at the Wedding

flagonsofgrapes — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:08:31 +0000

Margot at the Wedding (2007) is a tragicomedy written and directed by Noah Baumbach. It is an intricate treatment of the family where two sisters have irreconcilable differences. The all-too-familiar tension and struggle to communicate and understand one another are realistically portrayed to devastasting effects as the film attempts to draw the viewer to identify with its characters and the mess they get themselves into.

The Family Stone

flagonsofgrapes — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:16:33 +0000

The Family Stone (2005) is a dramedy written and directed by Thomas Bezucha. This film is a heartwarming ensemble comedy about a family Christmas gathering and the subplots of each member with the thematic thread of love and self-discovery binding the narratives. There is a tinge of melancholia amidst the warmth and joy of the festive season, undergirded the tragedy of the mother’s imminent death.

Burn After Reading

flagonsofgrapes — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:26:08 +0000

Burn After Reading (2008), written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is an American black comedy which marries sex farce with political thriller. This film is witty and entertaining, not a moment too long or short. Outrageous yet believable, tragic yet endearing, Burn After Reading is a funny mess about obsession with physical fitness, cyber-dating, cosmetic surgery, blackmail, divorce and lots of spying facilitated via sharp lines and fine acting.