These are further writings on the eclectic mix of works that I was lucky and glad to unearth from the immediate year that passed . Spread out over the last few months of 2018, they made me aware of the sprawling output the creative industry rolls out with such alacrity. Here they are in no particular order.
*****
ROMA( NETFLIX)
Alfonso Cuaron's paean to the everyday and those who are content living on the frayed edges of personal histories, so much as popular consciousness, centralized the very humanity of every good soul committing to the mundane like a champion.
There is no false bravado or big statements on the surface here in ROMA yet in Cleo's tale and of the family she looks out for as a housemaid( and surrogate mother figure), Cuaron honors the epic journeys we all undergo and in his nostalgic, sepia toned palette, the stark imagery fuses with the elements (earth, fire, water) to become symbolic of the way even a so called insignificant existence is transmuted through universal affiliation to love and a kind of sisterhood that women of two differing classes involuntarily heed to. Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira are au natural in this unforgettable collection of individual moments that is traced through the lens of present day remembering. Cuaron looks back at his own childhood here and the adult's pragmatism shows the world as it was and still is.
CLEO, for me, is one of the many heartbeats of global cinema. Yalitza has a presence of calm and collected dignity that cuts across gender and class lines and lodges itself in the memory forever. I know that's true for me.
*****
OUTLAW KING(NETFLIX)
The recreation of the life and times of Scottish ruler and enfant terrible ROBERT THE BRUCE ( a fine Chris Pine), who dared to initiate a strategic crusade against English overlords in the medieval epoch, is a finely layered representation of bare beginnings for a country and populace. In the Brexit era, it posits echoes of the uncertainty and many moral compasses that pointed towards dangers of decimation and death in the face of a righteous, well meaning uprising.
Director David Mckenzie gave it an epic sweep, savage primitivism of the setting without beautifying the edges and still mounted intimate moments of personal experiences for the king and those on his side while also plumbing the depths of Prince of Wales, Robert's direct opponent, who's a product of a skewed gender hegemony.
As for the rest, the cinematography, musical score, detailing and focus on historical authenticity was spot on while FLORENCE PUGH and AARON TAYLOR JOHNSON made the most out of one dimensional stereotypes with their interpretation and direction by Mckenzie. Above all, CHRIS PINE towered in this respectable cinematic traction of a historical life script. OUTLAW KING relayed the legend and myth with practical chops of storytelling.
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A LETTERED SOUL: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE, CINEMA AND CULTURE .
Non-FictionI have often wondered about the very curdled natures of our opinions so much so that the perch of imagination simply becomes a bystanding abstraction and real thoughts of genuine merit slip between the fingers. That is a human tendency, to beat arou...
