Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 210

Purple Hearts Review – Trite But Tugs Right

The trailer for ‘Purple Hearts’ looked pretty formulaic, reminding some of us of the 2016 film ‘Dear John’, which isn’t necessarily a great thing. So, I streamed the 2022 film with little expectations, but was a sniffling mess by the climax. Yes, it’s predictable, but a predictably engaging romantic movie till the very end.

Directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum, ‘Purple Hearts’ follows the story of U.S Marine Luke (Nicholas Galitzine) and struggling musician Cassie (Sofia Carson) who marry each other for the perks Marines get when they tie the knot – Cassie needs health insurance and Luke wants money to pay off his debts. The two don’t like each other at all and need to pretend to be a happily in love, but an unexpected tragedy complicates their plan.

The story strikes an interesting balance between Cassie’s musical journey and Luke’s combat life, their two very different worlds collide in ways they couldn’t predict. Galitzine’s Luke is more likable of the two, probably because he is a lot more friendly in his introductory scene, unlike the angst-y Cassie who is prejudiced against Marines. Sofia Carson on the other hand shines best in her singing, her character is unwittingly inspired by Luke, so the movie has a few original songs that play a crucial role in carrying the plot forward. The track “Come Back Home”, a song dedicated to those serving in the war, is the most poignant number and plays more than once in the film.

Ironically, there isn’t as much romance as one would expect, the lead actors look great together, but their characters have very little in common. But since they are two very attractive looking people, it’s quite easy to be drawn to each other. It didn’t even strike me that Galitzine played the Prince in Disney’s 2021 Cinderella reboot, since the entire production was so mediocre and forgettable; he makes a more lasting impression in Purple Hearts, the kind that makes you go “ah, he could be the next big romantic lead in Hollywood”. Chosen Jacobs plays Frankie, a common close friend who accidentally becomes match-maker between the lead pair. Despite a very small cameo, he is quite endearing. Everybody else in the supporting cast too have very fleeting roles, so there’s not much to critique.

The climax was on predictable lines, but what’s a romantic drama without the climactic conflict and a sweeping grand gesture that ends with a kiss in the end?

It’s a 7/10 from me. You can stream it on Netflix.

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Listen to Episode 80 – 10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #15thEdition

Instant Family Review – Fun Famjam Flick

Stuck in a rut, couple Pete and Ellie Wagner debate the pros and cons of having kids and decide to adopt a child. When they finally visit a foster care center, the social workers convince them into signing up for not just one kid, but three siblings!

Directed by Sean Anders, who has co-written the 2018 film ‘Instant Family’ with John Morris, the family-comedy stars Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne as Pete and Ellie Wagner. Breezily paced and hilariously executed, ‘Instant Family’ is just the kind of film you can watch with the whole family and learn an important lesson – raising adopted children can be as fulfilling an experience as raising biological kids. Some family members we are born with, others we can choose.

Pete and Ellie are lost, frustrated and almost driven to madness as they try to make their three foster kids Lizzy (Isabela Merced), Juan (Gustavo Escobar) and Lita (Juliana Gamiz) feel at home. The couple desperately want the children to feel like they could be their parents, but having moved from one home to the other in the past, it’s hard for the siblings to take the Wagners seriously. The story wittily captures how scary and exhausting parenting can be.

Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne make a fun onscreen couple and bring a lot of energy to the film. The kids are great too, especially Isabela Merced as Lizzy, the oldest sibling in her ‘teen rebellion’ phase. Her character is very protective of the younger kids Juan and Lita, so getting her on their side is Ellie’s biggest challenge. Margo Martindale has a adorable cameo as Grandma Sandy, who is completely warm and sweet to the kids. The climax was unexpectedly heartwarming and will have movie criers crying.

It’s a 8/10 from me.

Generations – Graphic Novel Review

‘Generations’ by Flavia Biondi is a fictional graphic novel about Matteo, a young man who returns to his hometown, hoping to live at his granmother’s place until he figures out what to do next. To his surprise, he finds the house to be full, all three of his estranged father’s sisters live there and not everybody is happy about having another mouth to feed. For Matteo, the stay becomes a lesson in the importance of family and little acts of kindness.

The book reads like a graphic memoir, it is steeped in reality, yet isn’t too mundane for readers. The artwork is engaing and the black and white inks work well for Matteo’s story, adding a slight retro touch to it, even though the plot is set very much in the present; however, Matteo’s hometown seems to exist on its own timeline, which leads him into assuming nobody would be accepting about his sexuality. He isn’t entirely wrong.

I don’t understand why Flavia Biondi refrains from naming the three aunts, they are simply referred to as ‘Aunty A/B/C’, which made it hard to recall who was who. The decision to keep them nameless dehumanises them, even though they are essential to the story. Everybody else gets a monicker, even though they appear a lot lesser than the aunt, each of who has a distinct personality. One of them is old, bitter and perpetually pessimsitic, while another is laidback, hearty and her very personality exudes an open maternal warmth. I can’t tell you who is who, because despite having finished reading the book only minutes ago, it’s difficult to remember the alphabets assigned to them.

As far as the protagonist Matteo is concerned, he makes for an interesting study, a young gay man in his early 20s, who fled home immediately after coming out to his father. It takes him time to reflect on his past decisions and figure out what is best for him. Matteo is definitely not the most likable protagonist, but he is a very realistic representation of young people who tend to live in their own head. The novels could’ve been slightly longer, but ends on a poignant note – there’s both death and renewed life in the climax. Overall, ‘Generations’ makes for a gripping read about reconnecting with your family and becoming empathetic.

It’s a 4/5 from me.

10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #15thEdition

We are back with another edition of ’10 Book Reviews under 10 Minutes’ for our podcast. So if you aren’t into reading long book reviews, listen to episode 80, where we quickly look at some diverse titles.

Darlings Review – Shefali-Alia Make Slow-Burn Satire Work

What could possibly turn a feisty young woman with the power to wrap her man around her fingers into a docile wife who gets beaten every day? Love. And the delusional hope that a man can ‘change’ if you give him enough time… or a baby. At least it’s what Alia Bhatt’s character Badrunissa believes in the 2022 film ‘Darlings’, despite repeated advice from her beloved mother to dump her alcoholic wife-beating husband.

Directed by Jasmmet K Reen, ‘Darlings’ is a slow burn satire about domestic abuse and two women’s very different efforts to fight it. The writers make use of a popular fable to drive the theme of their plot – Badru’s mother tells her the cautionary tale about how a scorpion seeks a frog’s help to cross the river, then stings it mid-way, dooming both of them to their deaths. She even spells out the moral – an asshole never changes. Well, not in the same words.

Shefali Shah and Alia Bhatt make a formidable mother-daughter duo, one’s the older-wiser woman who has seen it all, while Bhatt’s wide-eyed Badru is filled with a naivety of those who think ‘marriage can change men’. Their onscreen camaraderie and affection for each other shines through the story. Vijay Kumar is wickedly good as Badru’s husband Hamza, who tortures her in the night, then butters her up in the morning, blaming it all on alcohol. “If I didn’t love you, why would I hit you? If you didn’t love me, why would you endure it?” he says with a straight-face in one of the most infuriating dialogues in the movie while defending his despicable behavior. However, it’s hard not to tire of Bhatt’s character sooner than the evil Hamza for putting up with repeated abuse. The writers push their luck with the script, slipping in too many incidents, to a point that you might think the spineless Badru deserves what she gets. So when Alia Bhatt pours her heart into crying for a poignant scene, you feel more exasperated than emotional. It takes time for things to get more interesting than frustrating.

Set in a Mumbai chawl, where Hamza & Badru live in a suspiciously spacious flat (makes you wonder if the writer’s have ever seen lower middle class homes in Mumbai, or even middle-class ones for the matter), a lot of the plot unfolds indoors. The dialogue writers could’ve used extra research, instead of making the characters simply add an extra ‘s’ to every second English word they used while conversing. One can’t understand if it was a deliberate attempt to be funny, or just an earnest effort to portray those who didn’t study in English medium schools. Either way it doesn’t work, because those dialogues are neither funny nor authentic. Or should we say ” neither funny nor authentics”? (See? Not funny)

Save for the sake of a few climactic twists, the events in the story largely unfold chronologically, and the linear story-telling helps in keeping things simple and crisp. A small sub-plot about Hamza’s job and his shitty boss didn’t need the kind of screen space it gets, felt like the writers were trying to justify/explain his alcoholism and violent streak. Roshan Matthew has an amusing cameo as Zulfi, an aspiring writer and peddler of second-hand wares, who tries to help Badru and her mother in his capacity.

In the hands of a different set of actors, ‘Darlings’ would’ve perhaps descended into being a chaotic mess. In some parts, it’s a bumbling comedy of errors, in others it’s one among too many real stories of women who let themselves become unwitting victims of domestic abuse, with nothing but their own emotions binding them to their oppressors. A wittier script with a shorter runtime would’ve made this absolutely riveting, thankfully Shefali Shah and Alia Bhatt make this slowburn satire worth a one-time watch.

It’s a 7/10 from me.

Oh! Boarding House Review: Rushed and Boring

Korean series ‘Oh! Boarding House’ could’ve been a 15 minute short film and might have done a better job with its quick ‘boy meets boy’ story than it does in the 8 episode long drama. While it’s not exactly terrible, it’s nowhere close to good either.

Directed by Park Eun Joo, ‘Oh! Boarding House’ is about out of job Seol Won (Shin Yong Seok), who takes charge of a boarding house run by his mother, in return for a place to stay and earn his keep. While his mother goes off on vacation, Seol has to deal with an eclectic bunch of men living in the place, including newly arrived tenant Kim Cheol Soo (Im Sung Kyun), who due to a bizarre turn of events, ends up saving Seol’s life as soon as he arrives. To show his gratitude, Seol practically stalks Cheol Soo, and what starts off as an awkward tenant-caretaker equations, grows into something more.

The pace of the series is absolutely nuts, while the first episode takes thing slow, some plot points escalate too quickly, at a rate that’s neither funny nor entertaining. If it weren’t for the good-looking leads and some cute supporting actors (but then again, does any Korean drama NOT have gorgeous looking protagonists?), the show would’ve been quite UN-watchable. The actors actually do a pretty good job, they follow the script and display the kind of emotions expected of them, too bad the story is stupid.

It’s a 4/10 from me.

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Listen To – Five Graphic Novel Adaptations Worth Checking Out

The Entitled Review – Should’ve Been Untitled & Scrapped

If it weren’t for the crisp 1h 30m runtime that screamed “watch me, I won’t take much of your time”, I would’ve never streamed the 2022 comedy ‘The Entitled’ on Netflix.

Directed by Theodore Boborol, the film follows Belinda (Alex Gonzaga), a poor young woman who finds out her estranged father is super-rich and wants her to move in with his family in his swanky property and learn about his business. What follows is a trashy comedy about how the ‘uncultured’ Belinda tries to learn the ways of the rich.

Alex Gonzaga the lead actor is like the Philippines version of Awkwafina, but thanks to the terrible script, it’s hard to like her at all. The writers’ idea of comedy is Belinda scratching her crotch in public. Or of having one of the maid’s in Belinda’s new mansion inapproproately flirt with the family lawyer. “Would you like tea, coffee, or me?” she asks.

So you have either old reused jokes, or new ones that are just cheap, ridiculous and unfunny. There’s a 2000 Bollywood flop film called ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hain’ with a similar plotline that was far more engaging than this. It’s about a poor adopted village man reuniting with his family and trying to cope with the new high-flying big city lifestyle. Much like the 22 year old film, even in ‘The Entitled’, Belinda struggles with her new life and gets accused of something she didn’t do. The less said about her cheesy stale romantic sub-plot the better.

Far from being a quick entertainer, ‘The Entitled’ is insufferable. I had downloaded the film on my Netflix account to watch it on an overnight train journey, and even though I didn’t have anything else to watch or do, I chose to sleep at 8 pm (from someone you rarely sleeps before 1 am) and stopped this film half-way.

It’s a 2/10 from me.

Fireheart Movie Review – Cute Kids Film

Inspired by the real life stories of the world’s first women firefighters, the 2022 animated film ‘Fireheart’ is about a young girl who dreams of battling blazes in the 1930s, when it was considered a ‘men only’ job.

Directed by Theodore Ty and Laurent Zeitoun, the animation has been done by a Canadian studio called L’Atelier and might remind viewers of a bunch of Cartoon Network shows, which is a good thing. The artwork and character design isn’t exactly Pixar, Disney or Ghibli league, it’s still pretty bright, colorful, cute and quite delightful to watch. Lead character Georgia is introduced to viewers as a little girl with a dog, who aspires to become a firefighter like her father, but is discouraged when he tells her about how women aren’t allowed in the field. As she grows up, Georgia barely remembers her childhood dream, but when firefighters begin to disappear in mysterious fires around New York, she disguises herself as a man to assist her father in the investigations.

The story is pretty formulaic, taking notes from a lot of films already out there, so it’s somewhere between the goofy silly comedy ‘She’s The Man’ and the more serious heartwarming ‘Mulan’… minus the romance. Georgia is an adorable lead, and kids would probably love watching her antics as a young fireman trying to solve the mystery along with a bunch of misfits. It’s pretty easy to guess who the villain is and their motivations fit well with the overall theme of the story.

At its core, ‘Fireheart’ is a children’s film with a message about achieving your dreams, no matter how impossible they seem. There is an unexpected emotional revelation at the end, which could’ve been avoided, but on the bright side – it probably makes the viewers like the main characters a little more. There is a wildly exaggerated climax in the end, which will have cynical adults wondering “seriously?! that’s not possible”, while the younger ones might be cheering for the heroes.

Overall, “Fireheart” might not leave a lasting impact, but is a fun cute movie for a one time watch. It’s a 6/10 from me. Steam it on Amazon Prime Video.

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Listen TO – Five Graphic Novel Adaptations Worth Checking Out

‘Nowhere To Be Found’ – Book Review

‘Nowhere To Be Found’ by Bae Suah is a fleetingly quick book narrated by a nameless protagonist, who meanders through her life, yet barely acquaints herself with the reader. Set in the 1980s, the narrator talks about having to work more than one job, starving half the time, and forming an abstract relationship with a young man who is two years older than her.

The blurb for the book goes – “A nameless narrator passes through her life, searching for meaning and connection in experiences she barely feels. For her, time and identity blur, and all action is reaction.”. But it doesn’t feel like the she is searching for any sort of meaning in anything, instead, she just passively goes through the motions of life, hoping perhaps for a quick burning death. Her father is in jail, mother an unemployed alcoholic, older brother looking for a new job, younger sister a school student. These relationships are barely scratched, although, there isn’t much to explore because the protagonist doesn’t share a deep bond with anybody in her life. There isn’t enough time for that.

While on one hand, it’s easy to read this book, some parts of it are quite poetic, while others feel too random. There is no cohesive flow to the events or narration, and it really becomes difficult to understand what exactly the point of the story is… probably nothing? For some reason, I was expecting a violent mysterious twist in the end, but the climax was just overwhelmingly bland. Maybe some of us are just not philosophical or ruminative enough to understand author Bae Suah’s intention with this work.

“Nowhere To Be Found” did nothing for me and is not something I would recommend anybody. It’s a 2/5 from me.

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Listen TO – Five Graphic Novel Adaptations Worth Checking Out

Uncoupled Review – Fun For A Weekend Binge

By Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

I woke up earlier than usual on a Saturday morning for a dentist appointment and had over an hour to kill before leaving. So, there was enough time to stream two and a half episodes of the 2022 Netflix series “Uncoupled” starring Neil Patrick Harris. Created by Jeffrey Richman and Darren Start, the story follows 40-something Michael, a real estate broker who gets dumped by his partner of seventeen years without a reason. Blindsided, heartbroken, angry…. newly single Michael tries to navigate the gay dating scene in New York with the help of some friends.

Neil Patrick Harris might not be as young and smooth like Barney Stinson from his ‘How I Met Your Mother’ days, but his sassy, snarky, supportive pack of friends keep you hooked to the show. A painful break-up is the crux of the plot, but the script keeps things witty and breezy, instead of spiraling into a long pity party where being 40s and single seems like the end of life. Michael hops on the Grindr (smelling sponsorship there) train to hedonism and shakes off the 17-year-old monogamous dust on his bed. There are enough cringe-y moments, along with some genuinely hilarious encounters, that keep things entertaining.

All the secondary characters fit in with the main storyline well, even the rich snooty divorcee Claire (Marcia Gay Harden), who plays a supercilious client being wooed by Michael and colleague/best-friend Suzanne (Tisha Campbell) for her fancy house up for sale. Marcia Gay Harden does the bitter new divorcee act with perfection and develops an uncanny friendship with Michael after finding out both off them have been unscrupulously dumped by their partners. Tisha Campbell is endearing as the ‘fun friend + colleague’, the only one isn’t as self-centred as Michael and everybody else in his social circle. Other friends include – Emerson Brooks as playboy weatherman Billy; Brooks Ashmanskas plays Stanley, an art dealer who is too ‘old school’ for dating apps; Colin Hanlon and Jai Rodriguez play long-time partners referred to as ‘the Jonathans’. While most of the characters have a narcissistic streak, their friendships are warm and it’s nice to see how they make time for each other despite successful careers and a long list of personal problems.

The series is eight episodes long, but Tu Watson who plays Michael’s long-time partner Colin is only seen in 4 of them. Because of his limited screen-time, it’s easy to root for the new men the protagonist meets through the show. With each new encounter, Michael has a new lesson for mid-life dating in the era of Grindr. Like going to a club full of hot prospective dates, yet looking up an app to see who is immediately available for what, instead of walking up to them with a pickup line. Brace yourself for some dick pics, steamy scenes and a big gay skiing getaway holiday.

Sure, Neil Patrick Harrison does a fantastic job with his whiny but sexy character, but it’s all the other elements of the show that make ‘Uncoupled’ entertaining. Marcia Gay Harden is only a side-show, but her cold character thaws slowly and begins to grow on the viewer and it makes you want to see some more of her in the episodes. The climactic episode was rather emotional in tone, unlike the light tone of the rest of the show, and surprisingly ends in a predictable cliff-hanger. After all the excitement and upheaval in his life, Michael has a shot at the comfort of domesticity again, will he take it? Jeffrey Richman and Darren Start leave that question hanging in the air for a possible season two.

It’s a 7.5/10 from me.

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