Tag: Drama

THE BOYS IN THE BAND

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Rating: 2 out of 5.

The boys in the band is an american drama produced by Joe Mantello. Well regarding this movie I had very mixed feelings watching this. 

The plot is about Micheal(Jim Parsons)  who is set on hosting a birthday party for Harold(Zackery Quinto)  who he hates. He hates Harold as he is always being called out by him. The guests for the party are Donald (Matt Bomer), whose analyst has cancelled his appointment; Emory (Robin de Jesús), the most different one in the group; Bernard (Michael Benjamin Washington), the only black man; Hank (Tuc Watkins), who has left his wife and children, and Larry (Andrew Rannells) who are in a relationship but have differing views on commitment and monogamy. One unexpected addition is Cowboy (Charlie Carver), a pretty but dumb escort (as everyone makes sure to let him know) Emory hires for Harold.

Here as the party continues Micheal’s old roommate stops by to give him a visit despite Micheal  averting it. The party starts smoothly only to get to a lot of banter.

Micheal after being instigated from Harold’s words and also in order to get out what was going on with his roommate. The game was simple to call a person who means something to you, tell him your name and lastly was to tell them that you love them.

” If we could just not hate ourselves so much “

-Michael (The Boys in the Band)

This movie shows the side of homosexual which is often not seen or ignored out in public. All the guests are shown with their 2 sides, first is their queer side during their arrival and second is the person inside them who even after coming out of the closet is still afraid of his place in the society.

They feel ashamed of their status. This movie shows the rejected love of the people and how much disturbed they become after contacting them. It shows that part of a person who loves someone but cannot express it to them be it due any reason. They couldn’t express it because the other person was either straight or the other person was too shy to accept them as their lovers.

This movie shows how a homosexual person works in this society or what they think before coming out. This movie is a remake of the original Boys in the band of 1968. This movie really covers a crucial part but still not as a movie, it could work as a short documentary or a play. This movie might not be preferred by all the audiences. 

EMILY IN PARIS

Posted in Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, TV SeriesTagged , , Leave a comment

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS ENOUGH!! It is an irresistible fantasy. It is the best chick flick movie I’ve seen so far in 2020. Being a Darren Star movie we cannot expect anything less than this. We are all aware of his masterpiece, Sex and the City (both series and movies) and it needs no introduction. 

Why this series stands out than others – 

  1. EMILY!!  EMILY!! EMILY!! EMILY!! 
  2. The city of love – PARIS
  3. The clothes worn by everyone
Mindy, Emily and Camille

It has a total of 10 episodes in a season with about 25 min average per episode. You can binge watch it in a go. It shows a story of a girl who was not supposed to end up for a year in Paris but as her boss cannot go, she gets the chance to go.

” Chinese people are mean behind your back. French people, mean to your face “

Mindy (Emily in Paris)

Emily faces many many challenges in Paris but she always pleases everyone and her charm is loved and she is wanted by everyone. Though there are some cliche parts like there is a bitch boss who till the very end doesn’t like her, the first boy she sees in Paris,  she falls in love with her, everyone hates her in the beginning but then magically everyone likes her except her boss of course. 

Emily and Mindy

Emily has a magic where she can clear all the problems. She is very passionate about her job and she is a very humble and down to earth person. She started from just 20 followers to 25k+ followers and her instagram influence helped her grab many clients and win a heart or two. And unintentionally became an influencer. 

This show will fill your heart as it has a lot of croissants, wines, laughers, friendships, tiny bit of heart breaks and a lot of chic and Paris at heart.

QUEEN OF THE SOUTH

Posted in Action, Drama, Hispanic, ThrillerTagged , , , Leave a comment

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Release Year – 2016

Genre – Thriller, Drama, Action

Cast – Alice Braga, Hemky Madera, Alfonso Herrera, Veronica Falcon, Justina Machado, Peter Gadiot, Gerardo Taracena, Joaquim de Almeida

Directed by – M.A. Fortin, Joshua John Miller

Produced by –  Robert J. Wilson Lorenzo, O’Brien MAtthew J., Lieberman Judd Rea

Seasons released so far – 4

IMDb Ratings – 7.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes – 68%

Story line –

This is a powerful story of Teresa Mendoza who is a woman in her early 20s who comes to the US as her drug dealing boyfriend is murdered in Mexico and she wants to avenge his death. Little did she know that her life was about to be changed forever. She then seeks refuge in Dallas after which she is set to run a drug cartel all on her own. She faces near death experience many many times but she is always saved.

Our Views –

This series focuses more on women taking incharge and changing the rules of the game and these things are done very flawlessly.

This is definitely a worth watching show for numerous reasons like it’s full of suspense, drama,  good scenes, good acting and ofcourse Alice Braga herself!! 

When you initially start watching, the first episode will give you the “Narcos” vibes and it might be what you might say is a lady narcos.

As the starting shows us how Teresa runs away from a drug cartel and then held as a refugee and there we can see all the action that we possibly can and then the rate of action declines as the plot matures. At the very first scene the end is shown where Teresa is already running this business and she on the top.

Her aura in the whole series is that of a lone wolf, a lioness and a fighter who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. She is loyal, she wants revenge in the start but later she is calm and she learns about herself that this is what she is made for.

Though the story revolves around Teresa Mendoza but the important part is played by Camila Vargas and Epifanio. The reason for putting this one in the Hispanic section is of course of its Mexican culture influence and its more than self explanatory of being in this section.

JL50

Posted in Bollywood, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller, TV SeriesTagged , , Leave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Release Year – 2020

Genre – Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Cast – Abhay Deol, Pankaj Kapoor, Piyush Mishra, Ritika Anand 

Director – Shailender Vyas

Writers – Shailender Vyas

Story line –

JL 50 follows a CBI officer, Shantanu Das (Abhay), who is tasked with investigating a plane crash. It turns into a top secret mission as they realize that the plane that crashed somewhere in northern Bengal took off from a Kolkata (then Calcutta) airport 35 years ago.

Our Views –

India doing a Sci-Fi movie with a good taste is really rare. But here they really went out of the way and created a masterpiece. JL50 talks about a very unique subject which is rarely talked about in any other Indian movie and that is Time Travel. Though the web series is based on a real story, they have very beautifully linked it with Time Travel. 

Pankaj Kapoor says “Time never moves, Time is always present” in the beginning of the series and it seems on this basis they have explained the whole series. Pankaj Kapoor aka Professor Das appears to be very fishy right from the start. An airplane goes missing with some important delegates in it and in order to investigate it, a plane which was lost 35 years ago is recovered (with 2 survivors).

Abhay Deol aka Shantanu keeps the story rolling forward as being the lead CBI investigator. He is not a believer of time travel until all the other possibilities are not ruled out. He was left at an orphanage and he never got to get closure about his parents but due to time travel he got to know that the survivor of the time travel actually turns out to be his mother.  

It explains a time travel mystery with the sources of the explanation which dates back to the times of Emperor Ashoka and later solved by a scientist in 1984. This web series is on Sony LIV with 4 episodes each and not more than 35 min each is easy to watch in a go. And it’s definitely highly recommended.

MOM

Posted in Bollywood, Crime, Drama, ThrillerTagged , , Leave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Release Year – 2017

Genre – Thriller, Crime, Drama

Cast – Sridevi, Adnan Siddiqui, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Akshay Khanna, Adarsh Gourav, Vikas Verma, Riva Arora, Sajal Aly 

Directed by – Ravi Udyawar

Produced by – Boney Kapoor, Mukesh Talreja, Sunil Manchanda, Gautam Jain, Naresh Agarwal

Story line –

Arya’s life changes when she is brutally gang-raped by a group of spoiled rich students from her school and two of their house helps. Her stepmother seeks justice and takes the help of a detective to teach the perpetrators a lesson. Devki, a biology teacher, seeks help from DK, a private detective, and vows to get revenge after her stepdaughter’s rapists are acquitted by the court.

Our Views- 

The movie plays Sridevi as the central character. And it is a revenge based plot seeks by the rape victim’s mother (Sridevi) on the culprits. The story is like “PINK” but this movie does not show the faults in the justice system but how a common mother seeks revenge. Regardless the differences her 18 year old daughter has with her, still that does not stop her from taking revenge for her. 

The best moments of the film are all the different ways she meets DK (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), be it in the art gallery of ‘Modern Art’ or be it at the metro station or any other place. The movie gives many messages and it focuses on how the whole family all goes through the trauma which the victim also goes through.

Thankfully there is not much melodrama unlike other typical bollywood films. And I especially liked the tactics Sridevi used to take revenge. Sridevi and Nawazuddin Siddhiqui has been flawless as ever but Akshay’s role could have given more depth being the main investigating officer of the case. 

This movie was the last movie of Sridevi and she did an outstanding job. May her soul rest in peace.

SHAKUNTALA DEVI

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

Release year – 2020 

Genre – Biopic, Comedy-Drama

Cast – Vidya Balan, Sanaya Malhotra, Jisshu Senugupta, Amit Sadh 

Director – Anu Menon

Producer – Vikram Malhotra

StoryLine – 

The extraordinary story of Shakuntala Devi, the world-renowned mathematician who lived her life on her own terms. While the film pays tribute to her genius as a mathematician, it also humanizes her as a woman and mother, in trying to capture her indomitable spirit. Told through the lens of her relationship with her daughter Anu, the film highlights their very different struggles and aspirations.

Our Views – 

Like all her movies Vidya Balan did a phenomenal job with her acting. The story shows Shakuntala (VIdya Balan) playing as a kid as solving a maths problem and then her family realizes that she is a genius and starts doing maths shows. There cannot be a better choice of actor than Vidya Balan. She is just so perfect for the role.

The movie is all about mother-daughter relationships. The relationship of Shakuntala with her mother, the relationship of Shakuntala’s daughter Anu (Sanaya Malhotra)  with her. It shows the dilemma a mother faces as she has to juggle between her child, her husband, her career and her dreams. She feels the fear of missing out as her daughter grows and the same fear strikes Anu after the birth of her daughter which draws a wedge between Shakuntala and Anu. The hatred between Anu keeps on piling up since her childhood. The life of Anu and Shakuntala goes on parallely in the movie and it seems like history is repeating itself. In all, it is a good movie and a must watch.