Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 275

White Bird Book Review

Took a break from all the blood, gore and undead of comics and shifted focus on R.J. Palacio’s beautiful graphic novel “White Bird”.

While the book begins with a facetime call between a boy and his grandmere, we are soon transported to 1940s, when the Germans are slowly taking over France during the war. Grandmere recalls her life as a Jewish teen Sara & how a kind classmate saves her life from Nazi guns.

The panels are illustrated simply, but bring to life the extraordinary story of Sara and her transformation from a selfish brat to a young girl who finally sees the world beyond pretty shoes, school crushes & popularity. Sara’s benefactor is a poor boy who she sat next to in school for three years, but never spoke a word to.

At the heart of it, “White Bird” is about friendship. The last few pages gave me goosebumps – in a good way. The white bird is symbolic of not just peace, but freedom too; a bird that can fly anywhere, free from hate, prejudices and racial barriers.

The Walking Dead Vol. 3 Review

It’s Friday the 13th and I am still reading issue after issue of the horror comic series “The Walking Dead” by Robert Kirkman & team. Couldn’t pick a better day to put up another review of the series.

Volume 3 “Safety Behind Bars” starts with cop Rick & his crew cleaning up a prison facility to make it their new home. It’s already guarded by sturdy walls, offering protections against the zombies, they just need to get rid of the ones inside.

A lot of fucked up shit happens in the issues contained in volume 3. Given the generous amount of ‘f’ words Kirkman sprinkles throughout, I don’t think me dropping ‘f’ bombs in my review is such a big deal either.

Every fan of the series probably admires the paradoxical brilliance of how our leads find a prison to be the safest place for settling town at a time when dead are walking over their lands. Of-course there are some lucky inmates who manage to survive in their and there is a new ‘us vs them’ dimension in this volume. It’s Rick’s pack versus jailbirds, neither group trusts the other, so everybody is on the edge.

It’s in this issue that most people learn the most valuable lesson that the reader will find in this series – there is something more sinister than the walking dead – the living.

The Walking Dead Vol 2 Review

I’ve been devouring ‘The Walking Dead’ like a maniac, it’s pretty much me sitting dead in one position on the couch and reading one issue after the others. But I will make this post just about volume two.

While the first volume follows cop Rick’s journey through Zombie infested lands to track down his family, the second volume is where things turn darker and grittier. If the first book was about family, friends & heartwarming reunions, the second one is all about survival, senility & hunt for a new home.

There’s a lot more bloodshed, zombies and crazies as a small group of survivors elect Rick to lead them through a harsh winter and establish safe living conditions. A lot of new characters are introduced in this volume, some of whom are going to last a while. Glen who used to be the scavenger of the group meets a potential love interest. Readers for the first time see a dark shade to Rick, who loses his shit when a man mistakes his son Carl for a Zombie.

While Tony Moore had done the inks for the first six issues that comprised volume one, Charlie Adlard has drawn the rest of the series. Adlard tends to use more dark tones in the panels and his style is more melancholic than Moore, which adds to the despairing mood.

To any Zombie/horror fan who has not read this series – you have got to catch up! Can’t believe I didn’t!

Laxmii Review – Very Little Laxmii & A Total Stink Bomb

Director Raghava Lawrence’s film ‘Laxmii’ had been in the news for all the wrong reasons before its release and all the publicity might have helped the Askhay Kumar starrer grab more eyeballs than it should have. Good for Lawrence. Not for us (the viewer).

Originally titled ‘Laxmi Bomb’, the makers met with backlash due to the word ‘bomb’ after a Hindu deity’s name. The film itself doesn’t justify neither the original title, nor the current. Because ‘Laxmii’ doesn’t actually appear until after a ridiculously slow one hour of the runtime! Instead we have to suffer a model-like Kiara Advani who plays Rashmi and cannot act to engage the viewer at all. What’s worse – Kiara’s acting skills (or the lack of it) seem to have rubbed off on Akshay Kumar who plays both the titular lead & Asif a Muslim businessman who is married to the Hindu Rashmi.

Asif and Rashmi visit her parents for the first time, hoping they would finally be accepted, but instead find themselves grappling with supernatural spirits that are bloodthirsty for revenge. Asif is possessed by the spirit of Laxmii, a transgender woman who was murdered. Akshay Kumar does a better job at playing a possessed woman that a regular guy. He gets certain nuances of Laxmii right and is able to tickle the viewers with his effeminate transformation. However, least 30 minutes of the entire film looks like a government ad for social causes, with Akshay Kumar delivering preachy messages on superstitions, blind beliefs and gender discrimination. Some of his dialogues are like he is breaking the fourth wall and directly talking to his audience, telling them “hey guys, this is stupid”.

Which brings me to all the non-sensical stupidity that is passed of in the name of comedy. Raghava Lawrence uses dialogues and exaggerated sequences that are typical to Tamil/Telugu comedies, but just doesn’t work in a Bollywood film. It could be that the regional actors are able to pull of the theater style better, but most of the Bollywood cast is just not able to nail it.

A lot of the blame should go on the shoddy script-writing team that has penned stuff that might have sounded okay on paper and absurd when mouthed in front of the camera. In the middle of the film, there were some funny moments that got loud laughs out of me, but that doesn’t compensate for the largely bland content. The secondary cast that comes into the film in the second half is a LOT BETTER than the primary cast. Sharad Kelkar who plays Laxmi during the flashback was un-recognizable and portrays the transgender woman with a lot of heart. It’s too bad that the real Laxmii gets very little screen-time.

The most disappointing bit about the film was that there is minimal horror and it’s not scary at all. In the entire 2 hour 21 minutes, there is not one good horror sequence. Perhaps Lawrence should’ve hired a lesser known/paid actors for some of the main roles, like he could’ve used a new face instead of Kiara Advani and then save some money that could have been used for better graphics. The CGI was so bad that ‘Laxmii’ that is briefly reminded me of the 2002 horror flick ‘Jaani Dushman’. Bollywood horror movie enthusiasts will know what I mean. One can only be glad that they have the option to press the fast-forward button with ‘Laxmii’, if you choose to watch it from home.

The Walking Dead Vol. 1 Review

Someone gifted me “The Walking Dead” volume 4 a few years ago. So I’ve finally caught up with volume 1, which follows cop Rick Grimes’ misadventures into a Zombie infested America.

Writer Robert Kirkman’s introduction to the series was befitting start to the zombie world, since it helps the viewer understand the creator’s perspective.

“To me, the best zombie movies aren’t the splatter fests of gore and violence with goofy characters and tongue in cheek antics. Good zombie movies show us how messed up we are, they make us question our station in society…”

Kirman says and delivers us just that through the series.

It all starts with Rick Grimes waking up from a coma in what looks like an abandoned hospital. Baffled that there’s nobody around, he tries to get out of the building only to be met with strange, horrifying looking creatures that cannot communicate. It doesn’t take him too long to find the truth and now his only quest is to find his wife and kid who he believes must have headed to Atlanta.

Just like Rick, the reader too eases in to the grim reality of a world that’s no longer normal. Robert Kirkman’s kick-ass story-telling combined with Tony Moore’s incredible inks, has the reader hooked to every page (obviously). The art-work is so graphic and good that it doesn’t even need a live action series to bring it to life. Although now I am definitely curious about the American TV adaptation of this series which is available on Netflix.

Once I was done reading volume one, I was just appalled at how there are so many more volumes to read and how I haven’t read them yet! On the bright side – there is a lot more to look forward to!

A fabulous five on five star from me. No complains.

The Lie Review

The 2018 film ‘The Lie’ starring Joey King, Peter Sarsgaard, Mireille Enos is a crime film that confuses itself into the horror genre. Director Veena Sud brings to us the story of teen who murders her friend and how her parents try to clean up her tracks.

Joey King as the 15-year-old Kayla is a detestable brat. Peter Sarsgaard & Mireille Enos play Jay & Rebecca & slip into the roles of Kayla’s desperate protective parents with ease. While the actors elevate their roles, a shoddy screenplay pulls the movie down. There are some unnecessary slow sequences that are meant to build-up suspense, the kind typical to the horror genre, that does nothing to build any intrigue or terror in this film. Instead, it’s just annoying.

The movie did give me the chills, but only because of all the snow laden roads and houses we get to see in the film. Just watching the ending swathes of snow can make viewers from warmer places shiver for a second. The content itself is not as gripping, since the plot is bit of a muddle. Kayla the protagonist comes across as someone you would want to give a few tight slaps to. Her behavior makes one hope that her parents would send her to prison instead of protecting her.

As a viewer, I felt like the dialogues weren’t delivered clearly, the audio was too soft and needed subtitles to follow what was happening. Some of the plot twists were ridiculous and unconvincing. Kayla’s parents makes some really bad choices and the climax is slightly surprising and tragically hilarious. Lot of the incongruous scenes in the first half finally begin to make sense.

Had director Veena Sud worked on making this movie a little more crisp and given more dimension to Kayla’s character, ‘The Lie’ could have been more enjoyable. Even though Joey King perfectly portrays her character – a selfish hellion. I would give it a 5/10 rating.

An Era of Darkness – Book Review

I was visiting grandfather for the first time this year and decided to get him a book. Knowing how busy he tends to be with his post-retirement hobbies, I thought it best to consult him on it.

“I don’t find time to read much these days, but what are you planning to get me?” he wondered.

“Have you read Era of Darkness by Tharoor?” I asked.

“Oh if it’s Tharoor, I will definitely read it,” his voice perked up, sounding enthused on the other side of the phone.

After reading a few pages, he told me to finish it while I was still in town. And that’s how I ended up reading this novel, which was partly a revision of history we’d already studied in school and partly intriguing new insights to the East India Company’s chilling exploitation of what is now one of the largest democracies in the world – India.

Right at the beginning, Tharoor lets the reader know that primary reason behind this non-fiction novel was his viral speech at Oxford on whether the British owed reparations to India. Millions of Indians were sharing the clip across the globe & even his political opponents lauded him for pointing out how the British bled India out during their tyrannical rule that spanned over 20 decades. Publishers obviously saw the potential of a full fledged historic book that expanded upon the contents of his super-hit speech.

Chapter by chapter, ‘An Era of Darkness’ explains the extent of damage caused to the Indian peninsula by the officers of East India Company and how apologists for the empire sugar-coat the true scale of its atrocities & ill-intent. Tharoor thankfully keeps his own personal observations to a minimum & cleverly quotes European/American historians who were scathing in their criticism of the British Raj. For example, he quotes an academician who comments about how there was a record drop in murder charges in Victorian London because most of its aggressive citizens were wreaking havoc overseas. There are a lot of other such intriguing observations in the book.

Since I’ve been a history enthusiast and already knew a lot of what was in this book, some bits were admittedly boring and I skipped a few paragraphs. The second half of the novel that largely talks of the Indian independence struggle in the 20th century was rather blase since I am quite familiar with the history and politics of the time. But Tharoor’s already popular writing style obviously keeps one hooked to the matter.

‘An Era of Darkness’ would make for an interesting read for anybody who ignored their history lessons and also for those who know very little of how the British ruthlessly colonised & oppressed India.

Mooncakes – Graphic Novel Review

Been wanting to read a new graphic novel for a while… so finally got my hands on Mooncakes by Wendy Xu & Suzanne Walker. It’s about witches/werewolves living a regular life and battling demons covertly.

Except for the fact that there’s some heartwarming LGBTQ representation in the book (one of the lead protagonist is gender-fluid), it has nothing fresh to offer. I felt like the lead characters were very generic and the story was oh so predictable. Even the dialogues were banal. And the humour very primary school level. Didn’t get any laughs out of me.

Towards the end, I didn’t even want to know what happens in the climax. Since this is a graphic novel, it’s only imperative that one mention how the drawing style was, and I thought they were good, nothing very impressive. Let’s just say book number 66 for the year was blah.

The Wretched Review

A teen boy taking on a thousand year old witch who eats children? That’s right up my alley – good old school horror with a modern touch. So when the family wanted to do a horror night, we just had to read the description of the 2019 film “Wretched” on Amazon Prime to settle the winning title.

Directors Brett Pierce and Drew Pierce do an interesting job with the story that’s set somewhere in the U.S, since it’s never explicitly mentioned where, which sort of works in favor of the plot. Our hero is teen boy Ben Shaw who moves with his father and notices something off about the neighbouring family – the mother seems possessed. Doesn’t take him too long to figure out she is a demon who feeds on kids.

The good thing about this film is that the pace is quite stable, neither too slow, nor too fast; but not enough happens to create dread or truly spook the viewer. However, for those who have low tolerance for gore – they’ll find themselves flinching with discomfort multiple times. A little more action would have greatly benefited the plot. Also, why do people walk super-freaking slowly or waste time in needless actions when something needs to be urgently done? WHY? Such scenes are so annoying. I am trying to keep the review spoiler free, so I won’t give examples. But if you are a horror/thriller fanatic, you know what I mean.

John-Paul Howard who plays Ben does a fantastic job as the angsty teen who is trying to deal with his parents’ divorce, but despite his issues at home, he is a caring boy who looks out for the kids’ next door. Howard delivers the duality of his role quite well.

The special effects in this film is minimal but great, at no point did anything seem laughable or fake. Even the general cinematography is pleasing to the eye, the juxtaposition of gloomy houses/haunted forests with the scenes of a beautiful blue bright marina when Ben’s father works made for an interesting clash of moods. I’ve often complained of how some directors unnecessarily makes everything dark or give every scene a red tint to kind of create a depressing effect, which is just jarring to the eye.

The real challenge for the horror genre lies in making things scary in normal surroundings. The Pierce brothers’ don’t shy away from showing the evil witch snatching children away in broad daylight. Some more sinister scenes might have elevated this film to horror greatness. “The Wretched” might not keep you up at night, it might not scare you at all, but it makes for a fun watch.

And here’s some trivia that I stumbled upon when I was reading up on the movie after I finished watching it – “The Wretched” became one of the most watched films in the U.S in 2020 earlier this year, when it played in several drive-in theaters across the nation. According to a Forbes article, this low budget film made box office history of sorts by becoming one of only five films to stay on the number 1. spot for five consecutive weeks. The pandemic obviously had a large role to play in this feat, since a lot of big budget highly anticipated films pushed their release dates, leaving smaller films with lesser competition. But it’s still a pretty cool achievement for the makers.

Sweet Taste Of Souls Review

It’s raining horror films this season and the 2020 movie ‘Sweet Taste of Souls’ blends in aspects of fantasy films, psychological thrillers and gore fests to offer you a mixed pie.

Directed by Terry Ross and co-written by F. Scott Mudgett, the film follows the story of Ellinore (Honey Lauren), who sells pies in a roadside cafe and likes capturing people with her digital camera… quite literally. She can imprison people into photo frames once she prints their picture out. So you have a cafe with multiple photos of people she has trapped over the years.

The start is very slow and it takes a while for the film to get interesting. Things shake up when four musicians find themselves trapped in her cafe and challenge Ellinore’s wicked hold over them. There is a parallel track of a detective who is close to cracking the cases of those who went missing around Ellinore’s pie shop. The story is quite intriguing, but the execution is sloppy.

Honey Lauren looks the part of the evil antagonist who seemingly suffers from mental health issues, but her acting lacks punch. Her back-story is not convincing enough either. The four musicians Nate (John Salandria), Kyle (Mark Valeriano), Wendy (Amber Gaston), Lily (Sarah J. Bartholomew) come across as a random bunch of unlikable hippies.

Director Terry Ross should have kept things simple towards the climax, because things get a little bizarre and confusing in the end. The movie could have worked well as a horror comedy, with some witty humour thrown in. It’s creepily comical in some bits and just bizarre in others.