Tag: prime video

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.

Drishyam 2

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https://www.imdb.com/

Rating: 4 out of 5

Starring: Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba, Esther Anil

Streaming on: Primevideo

To watch or not to watch: Brilliant watch with popcorn

The movie continues after the first installment where the crime (murder of IG’s son) was committed 6 years ago. The family is constantly under the threat and fear of the crime being traced to them. Meanwhile, Georgekutty (Mohanlal) is chasing his dream of making a movie and the script is in the works for some time. He has spent a lot of money in getting it just right. They have new neighbours, a couple with an alcoholic and abusive husband and a simple wife. The Georgekutty family is living their lives, amongst local gossip about the daughter Anju (Ansiba) who also has PTSD and Georgekutty’s recent alcoholism. The police is still looking to solve the crime and they now have new witnesses and clues. The story then “resumes” from that point and becomes again a game of intelligence and sheer will power.

The movie feels like a sweet melancholic orchestra in the beginning and takes it to the best crescendo any performance could. The movie is long-ish at 2 hours 33 minutes of play, and the first hour is director showing us the lay of the land, to generate the same emotions the first movie generated for the family and how that incident has changed their lives. The performances of the actors is yet again, flawless. Mohanlal shines brightly as a man juggling multitude aspects of life. The protagonist of the movie still remains human psyche. It is present in all the aspects of the story – the crime, the public opinion, human conscience, persecution, everything. It is difficult to express in words.

It is one of the best sequels made, not only for the execution of the idea, but for the idea itself. A crime is committed and how the people affected by it are dealing with the aftermath. The idea of multi-faceted persecution is beautifully depicted. It is more a psychological thriller, exploring/exploiting human nature than a crime genre movie – more so than the first installment. This shows how the line between crime and righteousness is grey and we cannot escape the consequences of our actions no matter how clever we try to be. It becomes almost philosophical at this point.

Do watch it, with a huge tub of popcorn for stress eating.

Fleabag

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primevideo.com

Rating: 5 out of 5

Starring: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sian Clifford, Olivia Colman

Streaming on: Amazon Prime

Seasons: 2 seasons, 6 episodes each

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Season 1: Fleabag is a screw-up. She doesn’t take anything seriously, making life around her chaotic. She owns a struggling cafe, her best friend recently died (accident or suicide, unclear), her sister (Sian Clifford) is massively successful and married, her father got into a relationship with a woman who hates her after her mother’s death. So life is not going well and she is not helping matters. She gets into physical relationships indiscriminately. She doesn’t like her sister’s husband, but he likes her a bit too much, her and alcohol. Even though her relationship with her sister is rocky, she tells her about the husband coming on to the fleabag. That confrontation fired back and she is forced to look at her life’s choices.

Season 2: Fleabag turns her cafe around with the help of a loan from the bank, hasn’t talked to her sister in a year and has ended the unhealthy relationships. The family comes together for her father’s engagement party, along with the priest (Andrew Scott). He is the one person in the whole world who notices Fleabag talking to the audience. The season tackles with Fleabag’s maturity into a person who is taking her life seriously and dealing with the unpleasantness.

END OF SPOILERS

The whole series is beautiful. It is funny, smart, emotional, profound and overall a blast. It is so clever that other than a few characters, Fleabag’s best friend, her on-again-off-again boyfriend and her sister, no other character has a name. Andrew Scott stole hearts with his new-age priest character (named Priest). The interactions of Fleabag with people around her give the correct emotions we need to feel, frustration, longing, sadness, love. The Priest’s speech in the end is something to go back again and again and get perspective on love. This series is a definite must watch.