Last Night in SoHo

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https://www.soctex.com/last-night-in-soho-2021-review-details-trailer/

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith
Where to watch: Lionsgate Play
To watch or not to watch: A highly recommended watch for horror genre movie seekers

Ellie Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) is an aspiring fashion designer who is inspired by the style of the 60s. She has some supernatural powers which enables her to see her mother who committed suicide when Ellie was a kid. She moves from a small town to London to study fashion and lodges with an elderly lady named Ms Collins. At night, in her dreams, Ellie is transported to the 1960s London and she sees the city life of nightclubs through the eyes of an aspiring singer Sandie. Sandie falls in love with a nightclub manager Jack. These dreams instill confidence in Ellie and also inspires her fashion designs in real life. Steadily, her dreams of Sandie start to become nightmares where she sees Sandie being exploited by Jack and her descent into prostitution and drugs. Ellie is extremely disturbed by what she sees in 1960s London that she starts seeing the people from her dreams in her real life.

This movie is pure horror and nothing but excellence is expected from any Edgar Wright. It will live in the movie world as one of the best horror movies ever made. It covers the emotional aspect of a misfit’s desire to find affection, confidence and an emotional connection with another fellow human, and uses that emotion to blow into a nightmare and mystery of epic proportions. It has a hint of exploitation of females in the mid-90s but doesn’t dwell on it. In fact, it takes that exploitation and turns it into empowerment at an unbelievable scale (least said unless it becomes a spoiler).

Edar Wright is regarded as an original movie maker for a reason – he takes the most common genres and spins a story which is uniquely crafted and Last Night in SoHo is no different. It has flawless transitions between time periods, and dreams to reality. It is easy to feel the angst in Ellie because of the way she is treated by people and her longing to make friends. It is easy to understand why she was completely enthralled by Sandie and her confidence. And when Sandie’s life hits a downward spiral, Ellie takes it upon herself to save her one and only friend. Just that, Thomasin’s delivery does fall slightly flat at times. She needs to mature a bit more in the acting game. Anya Taylor-Joy is spectacular and a perfect choice to play Sandie. No one could have done it better.

There is no end of praise which can be showered on the movie. Suffice to say, please do watch it if you love horror.

Criminal: UK

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Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Starring: Katherine Kelly, Lee Ingleby, Mark Stanley, Rochenda Sandall, Nicholas Pinnock, Shubham Saraf, Aymen Hamdouchi 
Where to watch: Netflix
Seasons: 2 seasons, 3 and 4 episodes each, 43 min per episode
To watch or not to watch: A highly recommended watch for every whodunit aficionado

Criminal comes in different versions, that is, for different countries, but this review is only specifically for the UK version.

Jumping the gun here a bit (and breaking structure of the reviews), this is one of the best series written (and seen) in a long while. In a world of mediocrity, comes this masterpiece which will have you at the edge of the seats and biting your nails, heart beat so loud that you can’t hear the dialogues.
Ok, that last part was a bit exaggerated. But the series is good. Ok?

This is an anthology series, with every episode a new case, so the viewers get the gift of 7 expertly crafted episodes, which have compelling stories with masterful performances.
The concept of the series is to get to the bottom of the crime and the criminal while the suspect is in the interrogation room and is being questioned. Most of the investigation is already done and that makes the series a kind of closed room mystery, what is left is either irrefutable proof of the crime or a confession. The police officers in the interrogation room and the ones in the observation room (on the other side of the mirror) have one goal only – to catch the criminal.

The series is very focused on the case, but there is a small sprinkling of office politics to keep the viewers invested in the characters as well as the case. The tangential story line is only the sprinklers, and not the actual donut so it adds to the whole, but doesn’t distract. All in all, a refreshing, must watch.

Aside: There are about 3 plot holes, which appear towards the last few episodes, but it is nowhere a deal breaker.

The Ipcress File

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Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Starring: Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton, Tom Hollander
Where to watch: Lionsgate on Prime Video
Seasons: 1 season, 6 episodes, 45 minutes each
To watch or not to watch: A brilliant, exciting watch. Definitely stands out from the crowd

Harry Palmer (Joe Cole) is under arrest for smuggling American ware across the border from West to East Berlin during the 1960s. He has some special skills and knows people, which is ideal for the British Intelligence. Major Dalby (Tom Hollander) is the leader of an unconventional and elite spy agency WOOC(P) and needs a man like Palmer to help the British find a nuclear scientist feared kidnapped by Kremlin. Jean Courtney (Lucy Boynton) is the second is command and is a handler for Palmer. Courtney and Palmer then go through a series of events which leads to the unravelling of the mystery behind the kidnapping and a plot to create an international scnadal.

This series is a breath of fresh air in a long list of less than average recent releases. It has a very strong female lead, which they are very comfortable with (they don’t push that fact in the viewers face, it is just a fact) and a regular looking male lead. The story is non-linear and thus can be a bit difficult to follow, a little reminiscent of John le Carre, but it is the way of good spy thrillers, probably. The excitement is real, the thrill can be felt through the bones, and the plot setting is something the world can relate to, given the current international political situation.

The best compliment to give this series – it is binge-worthy. Not only you would want to watch it all it one go willingly, it is also recommended to be able to follow it better. The acting is superior, the sets, costumes and storyline believable, and a great tribute to the old movie, on which it is based (which is, in turn, based on a book). There is no reason to not watch it. Make time over a weekend to watch it all together.

The Great Indian Murder

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Rating: 3 out of 5
Starring: Richa Chadha, Pratik Gandhi, Ashutosh Rana, Sharib Hashmi, Shashank Arora
Streaming on: Disney+ Hotstar
Seasons: 1 season, 9 episodes each around 40 minutes
To watch or not to watch: Meh. Won’t be missing out if this is missed

Vicky Rai (Jatin Goswami) is the son of Chhattisgarh’s Home Minister Jagannath Rai (Ashutosh Rana), and is an industrialist in his own right. He is caught by Delhi Police when his car was found with 2 dead bodies of underage girls, creating a frenzy in the media. He is also not exactly the model human being, and doesn’t have any regard for human life. Rightly, he is shot and murdered in a party he has thrown on being acquitted of the crime. Then progresses an investigation which is mired in political agenda, corruption and self-serving mis-directions.

The series is loosely based on the book titled “Six Suspects” by Vikas Swaroop. The people suspected of being involved in the murder plot are his father, a retired IAS officer (Raghuvir Yadav), a petty thief (Shashank Arora), a B-list actress, his step-sister whom he raped when she was 13 years’ old and a tribal from Andaman. There are other characters too, whose job descriptions is impressive, but like in real life, the resume is good but real action is negligible. The creators also forgot that there needs to be six very clear suspects – people who were supposed to be suspected, had no means and those who had the means, had no motive – so either everyone was a possible suspect or no one was.

The series is a complete kaleidoscope of plots, stories and characters. There is a random naxal angle too, and another related to supernatural phenomenon which apparently make sense in the whodunnit genre?! Because that is what this series basically is, a whodunnit. Just a poorly done one. It does keep the audience engaged in the first 3 episodes, then like a parent who is sure their kids are engrossed in the film, they slip out and leave the kids to their own, the series forgets all the responsibilities of the concept of story, time or sequence of events.

Credit where credit is due, the plot is very interesting, and all the characters are well crafted. Richa Chadha and Pratik Gandhi were spot on, surprising no one. Vicky Rai was a truly deplorable character, and the acting makes you hate the actor too. Wish they stuck to the theme and had a better story board for the screenplay. All in all, the series can be skipped.

Bhoothkalam

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https://www.manoramaonline.com/

Rating: 4 out of 5
Starring: Shane Nigam, Revathy, Saiju Kurup, James Eliya and Athira Patel
Streaming on: Sony Liv
To watch or not to watch: A good watch for people on the hunt for a thrilling movie

Asha (Revathy) and her son Vinu (Shane Nigam) live together with Asha’s mother in a house. They are financially hard-up, with Vinu not having a job since one and a half years after graduating, and Asha being a school teacher, not making enough. Vinu has taken to substance abuse and Asha suffers from clinical depression, which is aggravated by her mother’s passing. Slowly and steadily Vinu’s mental health starts declining and he becomes sleep deprived, easily startled, and aggressive. So his hearing sounds at night and seeing shadows is attributed to his addictions and is a counsellor is consulted. That is when the history of the house, incidents with the past tenants comes to fore and story takes shape.

The storyline is stupidly simple, in a good way. There is linearity in things unfolding and not much is said about what happened in the past in Asha’s and Vinu’s lives which has shaped them this way – it is only hinted at. And it is annoying. It neither helps nor can it be ignored, as it is fundamental to the relationship mother-son share, which is in-turn fundamental to the story. There are also false starts (Granny staring at Vinu when he is helping to put her to bed), loud music from out of no where, which dies the sudden death special to amorphous entities, with nothing to show for it. And also a love song in the background of Vinu’s and Priya’s date, when it has not shown to have any bearing on Vinu’s life – Priya just exists.
Now that that’s out of the way, we can come to why this movie is recommended. The movie shines in camera work, direction and ACTING, a bit of story too. The play of shadows and difference in views of Asha and Vinu are beautifully done, the viewer gets to be in the same room as them and understand the agitation, helplessness and frustration when they are not able to understand each other. The show-not-tell segue into the past of the house with the counselor investigating the truth is better done than in most movies, though far from perfect.

This movie wins on most points, specially since horror has been an under-performing genre in Indian cinema as a whole. The fact that Revathy stars in it, who is better known to the masses, helps bring this movie to the fore, and demography of cinema lovers is all the better for it. It is a simple movie, no gore, crazy made-up ghost or VFX, it is a plain haunted house horror. The last 17 minutes of the movie, shot in one bedroom and dining area really does justice to the almost one and a quarter hour spent before. Only wish the cinema can grow to understand movies can be made with without a romantic angle in the lead’s life and some more of the backbone story. And it is only being said because this movie was so so close to perfection. Highly recommended.

Another Miss Oh

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Starring: Eric Mun, Seo Hyun-jin, Jeon Hye-bin
Streaming on: Netflix
Episodes: 18 episodes, each close to 70 min long
To watch or not to watch: Should watch, it leaves a happy feeling in the heart

One day before getting married, Oh Hye-young’s (Seo Hyun-jin) (aka just) fiance calls off the wedding, saying he has fallen out of love with her and that he doesn’t like to watch her eat. Understandably devastated Hye-young has only one condition, that the world should know she has called the wedding off. Some time passes, and Hye-young meets Park Do-kyung (Eric Mun) and they start to fall for each other. There comes the twist in the story. Park Do-kyung was engaged to be married to another named Oh Hye-young (Jeon Hye-bin) (aka pretty), who left him on the day of the wedding. One year after that, he hears Oh Hye-young getting engaged to another man, and ruins his business as revenge. Only that woman was not his Oh Hye-young. So yea… Also, Do-kyung is suddenly clairvoyant and can see how the future will pan out.

The biggest reason why this series stands out is because of Oh Hye-young’s (just) attitude. She is the boss. Despite being gossiped about, ridiculed and almost cast away from society for cancelling her wedding, she owns it like a bada**. Whatever her internal emotional state may have been, she never let anyone put her down. Another reason to like the show is because it is good. The story line is very different and refreshing and all the main character and most of the supporting characters were well crafted, they had depth. The human state of mind is pretty rightly defined, there is jealousy, revenge, want of societal acceptance and self-esteem issues. The chemistry between the main characters is lacking though – Oh Hye-young (just) has a better on screen chemistry with her ex-fiance than the man she is supposedly in love with.

K-dramas do know how to play on the heart strings, they have that right. The viewer cannot help but feel Oh Hye-young’s words when she says she is ok to not be happy later, but she wants to be happy now. As with all other K-dramas, the series could have been wrapped up within 12 episodes easily, if they had reduced the work which Park Do-kyung was doing. And his sister’s absurd behaviour was overly exaggerated and at some places stood out like a sore thumb with respect to the tune of the main story. These can be easily skipped. But the rest is well worth the watch, highly recommended.

There is more to The Exorcism of Emily Rose than horror

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Starring: Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jennifer Carpenter
Genre: Horror – but not quite

The plot of the movie is revealed in the title itself – but only a section of it.

Father Richard Moore (Tom Wilkinson) is accused of negligent homicide of Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter) while performing exorcisms. The case is high profile and is given to Erin Bruner (Laura Linney), an ambitious lawyer who is fresh off a recent win and is looking to be promoted. The prosecutor’s stand is that Emily Rose was suffering from epilepsy and schizophrenia, and it was negligent homicide by Father Richard. The rest is a court room battle with people’s accounts of the events from the time things started going wrong with Emily till her unfortunate death, and is captured in flashbacks.

There is more to the movie than the plain horror – it is a court room drama. It questions the reality and the faith of the people giving multiple perspectives to the same situation. It is a different side to the possession trope, and explores the grey area between spirituality and science.

The beauty of the movie lies in pure subtlety. The prosecutor fighting for science is a devout Christian and the defense attorney is agnostic, bordering on atheist. Both fighting the opposite argument, challenging their own beliefs, making them question Science and religion, truth, fact and well, believes. Hence, this movie is not horror – only a court room drama where the case is horror. It is similar to, say, Law & Order with a gore case – it doesn’t make the series gore (hope this makes sense).

The whole story of everything which happened to Emily Rose unravels slowly as the movie moves and nowhere does it keep the viewer wondering what’s happening. All this is underscored with very subtle background score. It is no secret that Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson can act, and they both together fighting the good fight is a treat to watch.

Honestly, having the right perspective when watching something is so important. Sadly, even the creators messed up in the marketing of this movie. Maybe they wanted to compete with Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist? It will be interesting to see the reception if it is advertised as a court room drama.

Flower of Evil

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Starring: Lee Joon-Gi, Moon Chae-Won, Jang Hee-Jin, Seo Hyun-Woo
Streaming on: Netflix
Seasons and epiosdes: 1 season, 16 episodees, slightly over 1 hour per episode
To watch or not to watch: Brilliant watch 90% of the time

Beak Hee-Sung (Lee Jong-Gi) seems to live a happy life with his wife and daughter, but doesn’t seem to get along with his parents. His wife, Cha Ji-Won (Moon Chae-Won) is a police detective and stumbles upon a murder case which has links to a serial murder from 20 years ago. It also brings up Hee-Sung’s past. Nothing is as it seems since he met his wife 14 years back. There is more to him, his family and his personality, which is revealed slowly and need-based as the story progresses.

This is a typical thriller where there are hidden depths to the protagonist. There are parts where the viewers doesn’t know whether to root for the hero or not, and it makes for a fascinating watch. The first truth, where they reveal a mysterious part comes up pretty quick in the story and makes the series exciting from the beginning. Then comes the second truth, which makes the first truth questionable. All a very twisty-turny roller coaster ride, all very thrilling and exciting, minus the unnecessary gore. It also balances out the serious and tense moments with few moments of humour and cuteness.

About 70% of the series is streamlined, with the information coming out as it is supposed to, which makes logical sense to the viewer and also keeps enough information of the action to keep wanting more. It touches the topics of effects of unwarranted social stigmas, and how the victims sometimes get no respite. It ultimately becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. After that 70% mark, the series then becomes a bit too unexpected. There is overuse of twists, exciting, but tiring. All this combines results in a series which is a brilliant watch 90% of the time.

Only Murders in The Building

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Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Starring: Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez

Streaming on: Disney+ Hotstar

Seasons and episodes: 1 season, second in production. 10 episodes, 30 minute each

To watch or not to watch: A must watch, a mandatory watch

Arcadia is a posh Upper-West side New York apartment where Charles Haden-Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) live. The three bond over their mutual love for true-crime podcast, and don’t you know, there is a murder in their own building. They start their own podcast investigating into the death of Tim Kono. What follows is a series of twists and turns and hidden information surfacing about the three hinting towards nothing-is-as-it-seems. There is even a sly reference to popular sponsorships on podcasts.

The show owns up everything – how everyone is starting their own podcasts these days, the generation gap in communication and challenges faces by people after a certain age. Each episode ends in a cliffhanger, which makes you want more, but also, it is not a tease. This right here is art!

Mentioning the acting skills of Steve Martin and Martin Short is redundant – it is like saying the sun is bright. The real stars of the show despite this cast are the story, dialogue and screenplay. There is one episode in which the sequence of events are shown through the point of view of someone mute, and the whole episode did not have dialogues, or sound in general. That did not take away from the story – it was just weaved in. There is so much to admire. The colour palette, the music, use of graphics to depict textual conversation. But then we come to Selena Gomez. That’s the only gripe with the show – her dialogue delivery sounds like it is played in slow-motion and lacks the punch the wriiten word could have had. Also, her make-up makes her look dry and wrinkly. That’s it. The only negative thing about the show. A show after a long time makes life look better.

Strangers From Hell

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https://www.hancinema.net/

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Starring: Im Si-Wan, Lee Dong-Wook, Lee Jung-Eun, Lee Jong-Ok, Park Jong-Hwan, Lee Hyun-Wook, Ahn Eun-Jin

Streaming on: Prime Video/Netflix

Runtime: 1 season, 10 episodes, 1 hour each episode

Language: Korean (Prime Video’s subtitles are better)

To watch or not to watch: A must watch for people looking for a true mind-bending psychological thriller

Yoon Jong-Woo is a young man who has moved from his hometown to Seoul when he lands an internship at a company run by his school senior. Seoul also meant being in the same city as his girlfriend Ji-Eun and being away from home with struggling single-mother and sick elder brother. Jong-Woo is looking for a cheap accommodation where he can adjust for a few months, while saving money for his family and security deposit for a flat. He ends up renting a room at Eden Studios, where the neighbours are strange to say the least and the landlady who appears friendly, is a miser and has her own secrets. The relationship with his girlfriend is also less than ideal and is not helped by his work situation, which is filled with jealousy, suppression and harassment. In the parallel is the dentist Seo Moon-Jo (Lee Dong-Wook), who is everything that is successful, charming and friendly – only on the surface. The rest is Jong-Woo’s struggle with life and how it all comes to a head.

It is one of the best in the psychological thrillers genres. It subverts the tropes in that it doesn’t play big on blood and innards. It keeps the audience at the edge of their seats by playing the show-not-tell rule perfectly. We go back and forth in time when Jong-Woo was in the military and had to deal with unruly subordinates. It keeps us guessing about the truth about Jong-Woo, and what drives him. Then we come to Moon-Jo, the one normal functioning around Jong-woo, and how he fits in with the rest of the residents of Eden Studio. Another important character of the story is So Jung-Hwa (Ahn Wun-Jin) who doesn’t have a high run-time but is critical in joining all the plot points to make a comprehensive whole.

The series is near perfect, starting from scenes telling us about his search for a dorm and how sequentially Jong-Woo compromises on the living standards for cost. The scene where he visits Eden Studios has subtle hints on how he gets signs that living there will be difficult like his luggage trolley loses a wheel and he has to lug it up a flight of stairs to reach the dorm. It wins hearts right there. We also feel sorry for the protagonist as he has to tackle everything at home and work, not helped by the lack of support from his girlfriend as she has her own problems to solve. The soundtrack is subtle and well done (underrated part of production but critically important). The end will keep you guessing, and that’s all there is to say about it. Highly recommended to watch at one go, not to lose the beat. Keep something light-hearted lined up to watch after to help get over it. It is that good.