Tsunami - Help

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For what it's worth, I urge you all to at least take a look. Thanks.

Steve Zissou - The Life Aquatic

A good, funny movie. A little weird - but all of Wes Anderson's movies have been described that way. Rushmore, The Royal Tanenbaums...
It gives me the chance to invoke one of my fave quotes: "In a mad world, only the mad are sane". Wes Anderson takes us on a witty tour of the "life aquatic" as he would imagine it.
Bill Murray is great, and Owen Wilson drops his characteristic comic routine to give a sincere performance. Anjelica Huston (Adams family..), Cate Blanchett and Jeff Goldblum support.
Some of the funniest performaces come from people I've never seen before. It's not blatantly funny all the time, but once you get used to the tempo, it's very good. Murray is getting better every day as an actor.

Admittedly a little self-indulgent. Funny neverthless. I recommend it.

Rating: 4/5

D'OH !!

It was just pointed out to me that my blog did not allow for anonymous comments. I have now opened it up to comments from anyone... so comment on!
Cheers.

Swades

A noble attempt at reversing brain drain, well researched in many respects... SRK's NASA id strap even had "Goddard" written on it!! Unprecedented research for Bollywood!
Overall a rather ordinary film though. Too long, very preachy (the kiss of death for many films in my opinion).

Rating: 3.5/5

ski trip

Was over at Pennsylvania for a ski weekend (well a ski sunday actually). A couple of friends from all over the country are here in or around NY. So with a bunch of friends and friends-of-friends, we went on Saturday evening - got drunk adn partied Sat evening away - and went to the slopes on Sunday. It was massive fun. It's the second time I'm doing it (the last time was in New Mexico in Dec '02) but I was mighty pleased to see that, like riding a bike, skiing is not something you totally forget over time!! It was a short trip... but I realized how much I love the snow (well.. nto the muck on the streets in winter) and winter sports.

Snowboarding is my next target! Party on!

What the Bleep...

I watched "What the Bleep do we Know" today. Interesting title, interesting concept, and a fair attempt at demystifying the existential impact of quantum physics and other 'meaning of life' questions. NY Times called it a 'great movie' and a 'sleeper hit' and 'thought provoking'.

I disagree.

I think it would incite debate (as it did with people I watched it with... of course it did help that I watched it in the ultra-liberal west 13th street area). Debate among the many people (especially in america) who would not run across the street to avoid the hard thinking it would require, that is. And while it is an attempt at provoking thought and adds credibility with the many PhDs and professors in the narrative.

What strikes one (it did me) right away is that not only are these professors and academics fringe workers in the area of pure uncertainty and quantum physics (when they are not among the Minsky-like senile dreamers), but also that most of them gravitated to thought in the area from other fields. And an overtly (and sometimes preposterously) simplistic connection between optimism, spirituality and quantum physics and alternate realities didn't appeal to me either.

The beginning of the movie attempts to demystify the 'realities'. However, sensationalism, fuzziness and an unconvincing overall argument eventually leaves the viewer with quite the opposite view by the end.

A brave attempt. I will give it that much. Especially here in the US... where basic math is considered quite an unnecessary skill for the average joe.

Rating: 3.5/5

Shwas

A marathi film. India's official entry to the oscars this year. I happened to stumble upon an asian-american theater on 59th st. Serendipitious really. It's a nice theater. Just opened. Shows a new movie 3 shows every day for a week. Lot of good Indian films.

I loved this movie. Shwas is a poignant potrayal of a young boy and his grandfather, who needs to have surgery to save his life - but will lose his vision. The grandfather struggles to bring himself and his family to accept that. And then struggles to break it to the kid. Eventually, it's a hopeful story about the strength of the human will. What I really liked was that it was not overly melodramatic, yet tugged at the heartstrings. Many a moist eye left the theater (there were very few in the theater to begin with, which brings me to the issue of how badly promoted the theater and the movie is - so far!).

We had a Q&A with the director (Sandeep Sawant) after the movie. Good stuff. On a shoestring budget.

I urge you all to go watch it - and tell your friends. Support this movie.

Rating: 5/5

Dissent in the ranks

Maybe they are finally tired of fighting a war that wasn't for them to begin with. Maybe, with political mandate and economic viability no longer an issue, Dubya doesn't care. Read the article... for a tale of moral dissent.

Liberal

The concept of liberals and conservatives has popped up a lot of late. Maybe it's because I'm cocooned in America with its self-indulgent ways... and recent obsession with elections. The issue of what exactly this term constitutes, however, was brought to the table when I was recently reading about Sarkozy's succession to the center-right party presidency - threatening to usurp Chirac in 2007.

Originally, liberal implied a progressive outlook (or so I thought). There were the right-wing conservatives and the left-liberals. Them the issue arises... how far left is left? And have economic and social issues have varying degrees of drift towards modernism? The 'conservative' opinion of old was actually a lot more progressive and less intrusive than even the current liberals. So there has obviously been a move there. However, the issue remains - what is liberal?

If one were to look at the american presidential race this time, the liberal policy seemed to be the cessation of fiscal independence... and increased government monitoring. Conservatives went for increased self-governance and tax deregualtion. Socially, however, the conservative view of "behind closed doors" as far as abortion, gay marriages and nearly everything of the nature was in stark contrast to the democrat view. So, in that case, is liberal now meant to be social independence, fiscal regualtion? And when did it crossover from an all independent view?

Of course this brings into discussion the case of France and the 'liberal' view there. Jacques Chirac was the 'liberal' turned center-right party president who went on to become president of France. His former protege, Nicolas Sarkozy (finance minister) is now the party leader of the party that was formed by Chirac. However, owing to a split in 1995, Sarkozy, the fils rebelle, and Chirac parted ways... but I digress.

In this case, the liberal view is the social and economic liberation - for the fraction of people who work. (Sure, France is rich and productive... but it's lazy and a large proportion of it freeloads... making it a nightmare for capitalist dreamers). The conservative view, increasingly (the Chirac way) is appeal to farmers, regualted expenditure and sluggish (but safe) growth [or so I am led to believe].

So, is 'liberal' the fiscal opposition of status quo and social independence?

Well.. in India, the Congress party - is supposed to be the socially liberated party, but plays the farmer and government regulation card in fiscal policy. And BJP is much like the american republican party. Hmm... full circle. [Bynote: I think our generation, especially the urban youth body, is way more conservative in more senses than not - than earlier generations. As someone was telling me the other day... it probably has to do with the fact that we have nothing to fight for. Easy money follows an easy youth and childhood. Something to ponder...]

So where do we stand? Hard to say? I suspect I raised more questions than I answered...Hmm...