Joker (2019)

The first thought that comes to your mind when this movie starts is that you probably won’t be able to sit still for a really long time after this movie is over.

Joker tells the story of a middle-aged man who lives with his mother, goes to court-mandated therapy and works as a freelance clown. But when you really watch the movie, you realise that Joker tells the story of a man who is only defined by how society is treating him.

Joker runs for 120 minutes and doesn’t let you guess even for one minute what exactly is going to happen. You obviously know someone will die, and that someone will be blamed and that the seemingly normal middle-aged man will become The Joker – but you never know when. 

The movie made me feel many different emotions right from mild terror to sympathy. I once remember reading that your circumstances play a great hand in making you who you are, and Joker makes you feel like nothing other than your circumstances could make you who you are. Thats how powerful Joaquin Phoenix’s acting is.

There were atleast five different scenes that absolutely shocked me and blew my mind – things I did NOT expect. There were five different scenes that made me feel horribly sympathetic towards this man that everyone was neglecting. (Eg: He keeps a journal and he writes, “I think my death will make more sense than my life”.)

Joker works in so many various ways. The script works. The timeline works. The acting super works. The music works. The make up works. And most importantly, the but-for causation works. [But for that one thing that happened to him, would he really do everything else he did?]

If I have one thing to say about this movie, its this: Watch it.

Spiderman: Far from home (2019)

I was SO reluctant to watch this movie after watching Homecoming because I really disliked Homecoming. I remember watching Homecoming and thinking that Spiderman’s been ruined for me. It seemed so childish and it seemed (to me) that anything was happening – that Peter Parker was not actually being Peter Parker. Only after watching Far from home did I realize how much of Peter Parker he was being. He was a sixteen-year old teenager living a secret life, his mentor had just died, he himself had “Blipped” (as the movie puts it) – he was being as much of himself as he could be.

Far from home takes Peter Parker and his friends on a European science trip for the summer vacation. Peter has decided to not be a superhero this summer and has an elaborate plan to win over the girl he likes and get to kiss her on top of the Eiffel Tower.

Everything about Far from home is really, really good right from Happy and Aunt May’s summer fling, to Ned and Betty’s one week romance. The movie flows so easily and flawlessly that it never seems like too long. My favourite part of the movie is easily MJ (Zendaya) running to give Peter the tightest hug ever – little victories for Peter who seems to be losing way too much in this movie. The movie has mind blowing special effects and no scene bores you, in fact no scene even lets you think for one second that Spiderman’s been ruined for you.

I liked the movie so much that even I was surprised – especially considering that I didn’t care one bit for the first movie. All in all, Spiderman: Far from home is a really good movie and if you do watch it: there are two post credits scenes (and neither should be missed because wow).

Avengers: Endgame scenes that made me ugly cry!

After watching the movie twice and still crying at so many parts, I decided to make a list (this is a normal list making obsession,) – To be honest, I cried a lot in this movie. This is however just a list of scenes that made me like crazy cry, bawl my eyes out and use extra tissues cry.

1. Natasha and Clint go to get the soul stone.
   Really, did you NOT cry in this scene? First, Clint Barton is my baby. Second, Natasha is his. It hadn’t even hit me that someone was going to have to be sacrificed to get the stone. And when it did hit me, I realized why these two had been sent together. Right from the moment they came to know about the sacrifice up till the moment Widow sacrifices herself, I was crying. Literal tears were continuously rolling down with every new dialouge because these two were being huge tear-jerkers.
2. Tony Stark’s death and funeral.
   I’m not sure there are actually people who didn’t cry for this. Right from ‘I am Iron Man’ to that super emotional funeral, I was sitting there and crying. I knew going into this movie that either Iron Man or Cap were going to die. As I had to make peace with this, I decided I wanted Cap alive. But watching Tony Stark actually die – I did not anticipate the emotional mess it made me. Whenever I’m rewatching old movies now, and I see Tony Stark: I’m sad all over again.
3. Peter realizes his Gamora isn’t back.
   Watching Gamora tell Peter Quill that she has never loved anyone as much as she’s loved him and then seeing them separated made me SO angry. What is it with superhero movies and love stories? Let them be happy for once! So when 2014 Gamora saves Peter in Endgame, you can see his eyes become light and happy. And it sucks because you know that this Gamora doesn’t even know he exists. And then you see him knowing it too. This scene was so small and random and also had Nebula’s funny comment, but it made me cry so much.
4. Bucky says goodbye to Steve before he goes to put the Stones back.
   I love Bucky. And I love Bucky and Steve together. When Steve decides to be the one to return all the stones to their original places, he’s supposed to be back in five seconds. Before leaving, he tells Bucky, “Don’t do anything stupid till I get back.” and Bucky replies, “How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” – that is when I started crying. Their friendship is so underrated, especially considering that Steve was ready to give up everything for Bucky. Steve is supposed to be back in five seconds and still Bucky says goodbye like they will never meet again. When Steve stays and lives out his life, the only thing I kept thinking about was – Steve didn’t have Bucky. 

 

Other than these scenes, I was crying for majority of this movie. I watched it twice and I was still crying for majority of the movie.

 

Shazam! (2019)

Shazam is a DC movie. A superhero movie, in fact. Now before my brother showed me the first teaser released for this movie, I only knew one Shazam – that crazy music app that identifies what music is playing.
Shazam at the outset seems like a children’s movie. It also seems like a big joke and not really a DC superhero movie.

It is.

Shazam is a children’s movie because Shazam, our superhero, is a child. But Shazam is also a really good movie with a great script and some really good dialogues.

Shazam (not-so-secret citizen name: Billy Batson) is played essentially by two actors, both of whom do complete justice to the superhero. Zachary Levi is Shazam and Asher Angel is Billy Batson (and is so adorable!).

This movie, surprisingly has everything. It has humour, sarcasm, action sequences and love. The basic story line revolves around Billy Batson who runs away from every foster home he’s placed it in search for his birth mother. When he finally lands in a decent group home, various circumstances lead him to a mysterious cave where he inevitably becomes Shazam.

The movie progresses at a decent speed and has quite a good ending (with two post credit scenes so don’t miss out on that!).

Overall, Shazam packs a punch in the good way and is definitely a watch if you thought the DCU was getting nowhere.

Boy Erased (2018)

Boy Erased is a movie based off a book.
Its also a movie that I was really excited to watch.
Boy Erased is the story of a 18 year boy, who is the son of a pastor and who is sent to gay conversion therapy. From brilliant acting to a brilliant soundtrack, this movie has everything (including Troye Sivan)

The main lead – Jared – is played by Lucas Hedges and in my personal opinion, Lucas Hedges’ acting is impeccable, especially considering that his parents in the movie are played by Nicole Kidman and Russel Crowe (If I was Lucas Hedges, I would be freaked!).

The movie had two trailers before its release and I remember one of them ending with the lines ‘Stop Erasing’. This was what made me really look forward to this movie. I knew the basic story. I knew how it was going to end. But I needed to know how it was going to reach to that ending.

The movie starts with Jared’s mother dropping him off to Love In Action gay conversion therapy assessment program. Over a run time of 114 minutes, the movie depicts Jared’s life during the program with regular flashbacks of his life before the program. The movie is brilliant. There are no other words to describe it. Nicole Kidman’s acting is heartfelt and honest coupled by Russel Crowe’s acting that is equally brilliant.

There’s a part, towards the end of the movie, where Jared is talking to his father and he says,
“I am gay. And I am your son. And none of these things are going to change. So if you want to be in my life, I’m afraid you’re going to have to change.” – This is the heart of the movie.

Through powerful acting and meaningful dialogues, Boy Erased successfully gets its message across – The truth cannot be converted.

This movie is a definite must watch! 5/5 in my opinion (Plus, I cried, like always)

Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Whom?

I had to wait a whole 10 days before I watched the new Fantastic Beasts movie after its release here. For obvious reasons, I’d stayed away from in dept reviews and youtube channels analysing every single scene. Inspite of all of this, I’d come across various reviews and restricted myself to just reading the titles of these. Most reviews conflicted me greatly. Some people loved the movie, some people hated it, and there were none in between. And so when I finally went for the movie, I was SO excited but also a tiny bit worried – I didn’t want to not like it after having loved the franchise for so many years.

The title of the movie is Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindlewald – to be completely honest though, not much happens in the movie related to his actual crimes? More so, it feels like nothing actually HAPPENS in the whole movie. Everyone is running around looking for Credence (Ezra Miller – He’s alive, yes!) and Credence himself is running around to figure out who he really is. The first half of the movie goes terribly slow with the plot not really adding any value.

The movie introduces a ton of new characters and most of them do absolutely nothing! Nagini, a pretty girl (Voldemort’s future bestie, yes;), Leta Lestrange (who I completely fell in love with before they just killed her off!!??), Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law lives up to all his hype but AD literally does nothing in the whole two hour run), Nicholas Flamel (Why, why is an absolutely old man who cant even shake hands with you there in this movie? What is he doing? Who is he talking to? What’s happening?)

Funnily, by the end of the movie, a few things happening around seem to be predictable and I think it was mostly because of this predictability that the movie closes with a mind blowing plot twist that I fail to understand how JKR is going to incorporate in her vast Potterverse.

The movie isn’t great, but I’m hard wired to not hate Harry Potter related things and thus I didnt really come out disappointed. There were moments I completely loved – like when they zoomed in on Hogwarts and played the familiar Hedwig’s theme (my heart melted), or when they showed the Ministry of Magic, and when they showed Newt (Eddie Redmayne) and his brother hugging their hearts out. Personally to me, this movie felt more of a filler movie that has been pushed out to continue the storyline barely, but having said that, I’m now desperately waiting for the next one.

Love, Simon (2018)

To say that I was excited to watch this movie is an understatement.

Love, Simon is based on a book called Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda – I read this book back in 2016 and I clearly remember it being my 2nd favourite book of the year. Becky Albertalli’s writing is addictive and easy and fun to read. Now, since I had already read the book (and LOVED it), I was extremely, totally excited when I saw the first trailer for the movie.

The movie is directed by Greg Berlanti (the creator of The Flash, Riverdale, etc.) and stars Nick Robinson (who’s had tons of movies this year and is so cute and adorable and tall), Katherine Langford (Go Hannah!), Jennifer Garner, Josh Dunhamel (MAN CANDY), Keiynan Lonsdale, amongst others. Despite being a relatively new cast, the acting in the movie is superb.

The basic plot of the movie revolves around Simon, a 17 year old closeted boy who finds the confession of another closeted boy at their high school on their confession page of the school (thats what I think it is!) – Simon emails this boy and they start talking and soon fall in love.

The best part about the book is that there are various chapters about these emails and was they write and talk about and so you can actually feel them and see them falling in love through the pages of the book and its amazingly beautiful.

Now, if you’ve read the book (just like me!) – then you already know who this mysterious closeted guy is and that makes watching the movie even more fun along with people who are clueless!

The movie is simple and cute and beautiful and a true win for the LGBT community and quite literally, a must watch (EVEN MY MOTHER APPROVED OF IT).

On top of everything, the movie has a GREAT playlist. I’ve found some of my new favourite songs and let me just bless your life with these:
Strawberries and Cigarettes – Troye Sivan
Wild Heart – The Bleachers
Love Lies – Khalid

The movie has the cutest ending scene and a happy ending which is so very rare in gay movies (I mean, Brokeback Mountain, Call me By Your Name, etc, etc, etc)

GO WATCH THIS MASTERPIECE OF A MOVIE IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY BECAUSE I’VE REWATCHED THE SCENES A MILLION, TRILLION TIMES.