Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 278
October 6, 2020
American Murder Review – Evocative & Exploitative
The new Netflix crime documentary ‘American Murder – The Family Next Door’ is about the disappearance of a pregnant Shannan Watts and her two daughters in Frederick, Colorado. Directed by Jenny Popplewell, what makes this film stand out is the fact that all of the footage used is real – from police cameras, CCTV cameras, courtroom clips, news clips to videos shot by the Watts family, they are used throughout the narrative to shed light on Shannan’s personality.
There is no narration, no interviews, the makers use audio recordings of the witnesses to the cops, which are played over either photos or past videos of Shannan. Same goes for a lot of clinching text messages that are used in the documentary. We even get to see real interrogation footage of her husband Chris, including his polygraph test.
Shannan Watts was in a habit of putting up videos of her kids and husband Chris on social media, so the makers of this documentary were spoiled for choice when it came to archival footage. This turns out to be both a boon and a bane for the production. While Jenny Popplewell’s team didn’t have to struggle with video material at all, they give in to the temptation of making this film longer than it needed to be, making it boring in bits. Some of the archival footage used by the team, especially that of the two little girls, is clearly meant to exploit the emotions of the viewer. Like a brief clip where you can see one of the girls call Chris a ‘hero’. Or the one where the little one happily flops from her father’s arms over sea-waves during a beach outing.
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To those who see a lot of true crime films, Shannan Watts’ murder won’t come across as chilling at all. Maybe it’s the setting of the crime that makes it terrifying for some. Shannan and Chris live in an immaculate residential neighborhood, the kinds where nothing really happens, except for maybe friendly outdoor barbecues.
Given that I am from India, I have never even heard about the case, but within the first five minutes it’s crystal clear that her husband had something to do with it. A woman disappears with her two kids and the CCTV camera right outside their house shows nothing? Except for the husband moving boxes early morning into his vehicle before leaving for work. That’s your suspect right there. Unless she vaporized into thin air or could teleport. This was a pretty simple case and it took only three days for the cops to get a murder confession out of Chris, even if he doesn’t give them the whole truth at first.
At the end, the documentary does manage to stir up anger in the viewer, because it’s only towards the climax that some of the really harrowing details of the murders are revealed. However, the film leaves a lot of questions unanswered. While there is a lot of material to show how Shannan was madly in love with her husband and kids; there is not enough shown about the motivations of Chris. Looks like he just got physically fit, found himself a ‘hot’ girlfriend and decided to annihilate his entire family one night. But the murders neither come across as a crime of passion nor as an act that was pre-meditated and planned well in advance.
What “American Murder” does manage to display disturbingly well is how crimes that catch the public’s fascination can turn life into a living nightmare for the victim’s family. Chris in his first confession claims it was Shannan who smothered the kids in front of him and that he killed her in reaction to it. This leads to a lot of public shaming and social media slander of Shannan.
It’s ludicrous how anybody can believe that an obsessive gym freak like Chris could do nothing to stop his wife (who by the way was 15 weeks pregnant and even suffered from an auto-immune disease) from strangling their two little girls. It only goes on to show how women suffer from unhinged discrimination even during death. “She clearly drove him crazy”/”She was a narcissistic bitch” were the kind of things people said about Shannan after her demise. It’s pretty much like the sickening rape analogy when it comes to women, even when they are murdered – they probably “asked for it”.
This Netflix documentary is a 6/10 for me.
October 4, 2020
Love, Loss, Lockdown Review
Not only are the stories completely individual but so are the characters. One never seems to be a reflection of another, each with their own personalities that come through brilliantly. They are instantly relatable and personable; I saw something in all of them which I also see in myself.
It’s the individuality that comes with every story and every character
Dale Maplethorpe on “Love, Loss, Lockdown”
that led me to my album choice. The Party is a 2016 album by singer/
songwriter Andy Shauf, it is a beautiful album that you should listen
to immediately. The whole thing takes place at, you guessed it, a party,
where each song is about a different person there. Each track takes its
own shape around that person’s feelings, insecurities and problems.
Andy captures these different and relatable points of view in a way which is parallel to Sneha’s ability to do the same thing in her book.
A new independent UK magazine reviewed my debut fiction book ‘Love, Loss, Lockdown’ and it made my weekend. Dale the founder has this cool concept of comparing the books he reviews with a music album and it actually turned out very well.
For the full review you can download their magazine ‘This Is Empty”. It’s a quick breezy issue and the theme for the first one is ‘Lockdown’.
My book is a collection of short stories set against the Covid19 pandemic. Here are some country specific links to get the book –
If I’ve missed your country, look for it on Amazon or on your kindle store. Also, do leave a little review if you can, it helps independent writers like me.
October 2, 2020
By Night’s End Review
What would you do if an armed trespasser enters your house late in the night and then offers you 10,000 dollars when you point a gun at him in self-defense? While the right thing to do would be to call the cops, the lure of money can do funny things to your judgment.
The 2020 film ‘By Night’s End’ directed by Walker Whited is a home invasion thriller that follows the story of a couple Heather (Michelle Ross) and Mark (Kurt Yue), who have recently lost a child and their grief is exacerbated by financial troubles. A criminal breaks into their house looking for something valuable he had placed in there before the couple moved in. Heather who is a former sergeant, shoots him dead when he tries to strike a deal with them as bait and begins to pull his own gun out. Instead of reporting the incident, the unemployed Mark insists that the duo first look for the potential fortune that might be hidden within their walls.
While the trailer of the film was sharply edited and was very intriguing, the same cannot be said for the actual movie. Walker Whited who has directed several short films in the past, falters when it comes to the full length feature film format. There is a lot unnecessary banter between the lead characters that diffuses the tension of the situation at hand. As Heather and Mark bicker and hunt for a secret stash, they are being watched. A cat-mouse chase soon unfolds.
The first few minutes are slow, but a cleverly executed violent scene comes out of nowhere in the first half and takes the viewer by surprise. From there on, the pace begins to stutter again. Michelle Ross who plays the protagonist doesn’t have the acting range to emote the complex character of somebody suffering from not just PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) but also the death of a young daughter. However, it was refreshing to see a woman take charge of protecting the family and kick some ass. Kurt Yue as the husband with self-esteem issues was pretty prosaic.
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‘By Night’s End’ would have benefited greatly from a stronger antagonist. Moody (Michael Aragon Miller) the bad guy is very generic and seems more like a drunk rocker who you would meet at a bar, than a criminal leading a crew of hit-men. His character is a mere distraction as the home-invasion suspense is overshadowed by the inner turmoils and personal differences between Heather and Mark. A lot of their dialogues referring to the past should have been replaced with flashback scenes. This is a classic case of telling too much and showing very little.
The plot is very promising but its potential is weighed down by mediocre acting and inconsistent cinematography. The shaky camera-work might remind a few viewers of ‘Paranormal Activity’, while the technique worked in favor of the 2007 horror film, not so much in this 2020 thriller.
For all its flaws, there is a strong moral takeaway from ‘By Night’s End’ – greed can never lead to good things. There is another possible lesson here – listen to the wife and call the cops when there’s trouble at home.
‘By Night’s End’ premieres on October 6th (Amazon, iTunes, DirecTV, FlixFling, Google Play, Vudu and AT&T). Shout-out to Tricoast for giving me access to the preview of the film.
September 30, 2020
The Boys in the Band Review – The viewer is a stranger at this party
Have you ever been just a ‘plus one’ at an intimate gathering of close friends? A party where the pals start reminiscing about their past and despairing about the present and you begin to feel a little lost? Watching ‘The Boy in the Band’ the 2020 Netflix drama by Joe Mantello felt like that in parts.
The film starts off with the sassy 60’s number ‘Hold On, I’m Coming’ by the soul duo ‘Same & Dave’, the delicious double-entendre is not lost on anybody. I loved the opening sequence. The intro montage of all the characters going about their business in New York is colorful, witty and sets the right mood for what is supposed to be a fun party.
For those who don’t know – ‘The Boys in The Band’ is a gay play by Matt Crowley that premiered off-broadway in 1968. It’s about a small group of openly (mostly) gay men who’ve gathered for a birthday party. The host for the night is Michael (played by Jim Parsons) and things go awry when his ‘straight’ friend shows up unannounced.
The handsome Matt Bomer plays Donald, a close friend (maybe even boyfriend) of Michael who is seeing a ‘doctor’ and the two discuss the perils of their lifestyle choices. Despite being out of the closet, the men have trouble embracing their sexuality. It’s the 1960s after all. The two get into a very long conversation and while a lot of it is the kind of banter two close friends would have in real life, after a point, the monologue by Michael about how life sucks gets tiring.
A good part of the first half suffers from this problem, the dialogues are too long and the viewer may feel a little alienated from the conversations because we simply have enough background information to relate to the angst of the characters. And some of that talk is just uninteresting. For example, there is a debate on beauty between Michael and the birthday boy Harold (Zachary Quinto) which gets boring. Stale old lines like “Beauty is not everything” & “Beauty is only skin deep” is thrown in. Not sure if the makers made many changes to the original screenplay, but a few more tweaks could have helped a lot with making the pace of the film breezy.
The second half of the film however is riveting and there is a lot of tension and drama, largely because of the self-loathing Michael who decides to be a giant pain in the ass for the night. Harold wryly declares how Michael “has anti-charm”. Jim Parsons is almost brilliant in the lead role, I say ‘almost’ because his crying scenes look farcical and lack authenticity. While he is absolutely abhorrent as the host who is giving his friends a hard-time, the scenes where he is shown to be remorseful don’t seem sincere.
It is the rocky relationship of Hank (Tuc Watkins) and Larry (Andrew Rannels) that was relatable and quite cathartic. The couple can’t agree on monogamy and the actors capture their bittersweet love for each other with endearing honesty. Robin de Jesús was delightful as the exuberant Emory, who just wants to have a good time. Zachary Quinto was caricature-like as Harold and eerily similar to Michael. They are both aging insecure men, wary of their waning appearances.
It takes a little patience to watch this film. Things get uncomfortable when Micheal eggs his friends into playing an unsavory game (one must dare call the one man they truly loved), including the straight friend Alan (Brian Hutchison) who makes his displeasure of being surrounded by ‘fags’ quite clear. The game is interspersed with blurry flashbacks that leave you wanting more. Michael Benjamin Washington who plays Bernard doesn’t get a lot of screen space, but he shines in his little bits.
Despite its flaws, the 2020 reboot of ‘The Boys in the Band’ makes for an engaging watch. While some material might be dated, the movie tackles twin issues that still need more representation on the big screen – homophobia and racial discrimination. The story deftly displays how disparities simmer even within the LGBT community, over not just trivialities like physical appearance and differences in the bed, but even over race, color, social standing and financial status. The moral of the movie will always be relevant – we become our own enemies if we fail to accept ourselves for who we are. And it’s conveyed quite forcefully, even if the makers falter here and there.
It’s a 7/10 for me.
September 29, 2020
BTS Week
‘BTS week’ was trending on social media because… why not? Although it’s largely due to the fact that the Korean Pop group has been making waves with their latest single “Dynamite”, which was at the number one spot on Billboard for two weeks straight and after slipping a few spots, it was back on number one on week three. With the track making history of sorts, the boys are on every American show (sort of). NBC has gone all out with promoting their appearance on the Jimmy Fallon show.
Seriously though, NBC did a really fun GIF thread on Twitter, with all NBC shows tweeting a line each from the song dynamite, along with a GIF. It was one of the coolest things on Twitter today. Whoever thought of the promotional strategy deserves a raise, or at least some reward.
The boys sang their new hit with Fallon and The Roots. The result was another peppy version of their latest offing.
I really liked the Tiny Desk Concert that the boys did for NPR, it had a very relaxed vibe, with all of them sitting and singing with a live band playing behind them. It’s something they get to do very rarely.
“This is the first time we are performing Dynamite with a live band,” Kim Teahyung announced confidently in English as all the others nodded and smiled at the musicians. I saw the entire performance twice and even did a quick sketch of Jungkook singing with V sitting beside him.
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September 24, 2020
Death & Darker Realms #29
“One the concrete tiles of a broken house
Was the trail left by her hurt feet
She ran around in her golden blouse
Unaware of the cut from some street
Floor painted in small red streaks”
First few lines of poem number twenty-nine in ‘Death & Darker Realms’, a collection of 40 poems. This one has an open-ended conclusion, one left up to the reader’s interpretation.
I haven’t been promoting this book as much as it deserves because we already live in troubled times and dark poetry isn’t exactly the best thing to dwell upon. However, I have been reading a lot of poetry myself and seem to find solace in the sadder ones than the ones that try to thrust positivity down your throat.
For the full poem, you could get a copy on Amazon. The e-book is just Rs 49 for Indian readers. Following are some country specific links –
If you are not into poetry, then maybe you could check out my debut fiction book “Love, Loss, Lockdown“, a collection of short stories set against the Covid19 pandemic. It’s free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.
September 23, 2020
Enola Holmes Review – A Formulaic But Fun Feminist Yarn
Sherlock Holmes is one of the most popular fictional private detective in the literary universe, perhaps even more than the beloved Hercule Poirot who cracks murder cases in Agatha Christie’s mysteries. While Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned the British genius in the 1880s, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat made Holmes capture the imagination of the millennial generation through their 21st century ‘Sherlock’ played by Benedict Cumberbatch. It even led to a Japanese Manga adaptation.
I mentioned all of that to establish just how lucrative the Sherlock Holmes world is. So why did it take so long for a movie to come out on Enola Holmes? The fictional sister of Sherlock Holmes was created by writer Nancy Springer way back in 2006. While I don’t know the answer to that, I do know that the movie is a little dated for its feminist spin, and even worse – predictable.
Directed by Harry Bradbeer, “Enola Holmes” is set in the Victorian era and starts off with an adorable mother-daughter montage. The images are of an unconventional childhood for a girl – involving reading, playing games and learning combat, in an era where women were expected marry and become domestic accessories.
Things change when one day Enola’s mother disappears, making the 16-year-old the ward of her eldest brother Mycroft, who wants her to go to a finishing school and become a ‘proper lady’. But Enola aspires to be more like her detective brother Sherlock and runs away from home to crack the case of her missing mother. She is side-tracked from her mission when she meets a young viscount who is also on the run.
Actor Millie Bobby Brown is quite likable as the intelligent, free-spirited Enola and Helena Bonham Carter is just the perfect pick to be the mother of the three uncanny Holmes’ siblings. It’s the cast that makes the movie more fun that it should be, for starters – they are all good looking, so it’s easy to like them. I mean Superman (Henry Cavill) plays Sherlock Homes and does a pretty neat job. Louis Partridge who plays Viscount Lord Tewksbury makes a prettier boy than Millie when she is disguised as a boy in the film. Partidge’s character has an innocent allure to him. And despite his villain-ish beard, Sam Claflin makes for a handsome Mykroft.
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The other thing that works in favor of the film is the setting. The makers bring out the Victorian era London quite vividly, however, the it’s the lush countryside and the brief lavish appearances of the Viscount’s estate that make for delightful viewing. Enola gets a lot of action sequences and it was both empowering and comical to see her fight the bad guy in a stifling gown. Two birds killed in one shot – you get both action and comic relief.
What doesn’t work for the film is the formulaic predictability of it all; and the very text-book, almost stale feminist lines sprinkled through the plot. Also, the protagonist keeps breaking the fourth wall, which becomes quite an unnecessary distraction towards the second-half. There are also some emotional sappy scenes that weren’t needed and dragged the pace down.
Except for a very little twist in the end, ‘Enola Holmes’ is a very basic level mystery movie, with no impressive wit to it. It’s based on a book meant for children, but since the makers made the movie Enola older, they should have perhaps made some other changes to the original story to make it more compelling and clever. But since the characters are charming and the setting pleasant, it makes for a fun watch. It’s a 6/10 for me.
September 22, 2020
Calling Mr Nelson Pugh – Review
Have you ever read a book where the protagonist sounds eerily like someone you know and each page makes you feel like it’s off their personal diary? Well, reading ‘Calling Mr Nelson Pugh’ by Christopher Opyr felt like that, at least in the initial few pages.
The book is a horror novella, although psychological thriller would be a more apt genre. It centers around Nelson Pugh who suffers from crippling anxiety which is usually triggered by the excessive travelling his job entails. I have a friend who is quite like that, anxious, has panic attacks, hates work related travel and is excessively paranoid, just like Mr Pugh. But he soon has bigger problems on his hands.
I got the book on my kindle and intended on reading just a few sample pages, but it was quite interesting, so I ended up reading the entire novella in one go. It’s short, with limited characters and most of the story takes place during the course of one night. And the author describes every thing so vividly that one can imagine this being an intense indie film.
The first half is spent in intimate glimpses to Mr Pugh’s internal demons, his equations with both his wife and his therapist. The title is quite apt, since most of the action takes over long distance phones calls. In-fact, the phones serve as characters in themselves, given the fear and loathing our protagonist feels towards them.
The author first lulls you into believing that it’s a simple story about a man with severe mental health issues due to which his family life is at risk. However, there is an interesting twist towards the end. Will Pugh be able to keep his sanity and his family together? That’s the main theme of the story.
I feel like maybe there could have been more back-story to the protagonist and those in his life, but since this is a novella, there is obviously not enough space to do that. Author Christopher Opyr keeps it simple with the language and the plot, and it works in the book’s favor. There is little scope for plot-holes.
“Calling Mr Nelson Pugh” is a 4.5/5 for me and is great for a quick thriller night. Also, you get that instant gratification of finishing an entire book in one sitting.
September 20, 2020
Studio Ghibli’s Gift To Fans – 400 Free Images
Studio Ghibli is going to make its fans cry tears of joy! Earlier this year, they surprised animation enthusiasts across the world when they tied up with Netflix and released almost all their films (except one) on the streaming platform. But little did fans know that there was another surprise up their sleeve.
Our favorite animation studio has released 400 free to download images on its official site for fans to use as they like. There 400 images are from eight Ghibli films and as per their site, they will keep releasing more images in the coming months. So if stills from your favorite animated movie is not out yet, it eventually will be.
From this month, we will provide scene photos of all Studio Ghibli works in sequence. This month, we will provide 8 works, mainly new works, for a total of 400 pieces.
Feel free to use it within the bounds of common sense.
Studio Ghibli
Love the sarcastic little rider about the image usage. Guess it’s just a witty warning about not to misuse the pictures. To those who don’t know about the Japanese studio – they are known for using stunningly beautiful hand-drawn sketches/painting for most of their animated creations. Hayao Miyazaki who is one of the founders of the company, firmly believes that traditional drawing is fundamental to animation.
It just took me a few minutes to go through all the 400 pictures and I cannot wait to draw a few of them. Also, I’ll go back to older film reviews and change the bad quality YouTube screenshots I used for some of the posts.
The eight films to have their stills out include two I absolutely love – ‘The Tale of Princess Kaguya’ and ‘Ponyo’. It also includes the most iconic Ghibli film ‘Spirited Away’.
‘Ponyo’ is perhaps among the most underrated productions, it’s a modern twist to the Little Mermaid. Actually, it’s nothing like the Little Mermaid. It’s an absolutely adorable weird film with two kids as the main protagonists, one is a human boy, while the other is Ponyo, a fish that can turn human. Their unlikely friendship will tug you heart-strings.
Well, here are some of my favorite images from the ones that have been released –
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Drag Me To Hell Review – Draggy Hokum
Maybe you don’t need to read this eleven years too late review. I mean Director Sam Raimi’s horror film ‘Drag Me To Hell’ came out in 2009 and it took me all those years to finally make up my mind and watch it. Maybe I shouldn’t have.
Let’s start off with the plot – it’s about how loan officer Christine (played by a helpless looking Alison Lohman) is cursed by an old lady over the denial of a loan extension. Christine soon finds herself haunted by terrifying things and her eventual fate is to end up in hell, unless she finds a way to cancel the curse.
Sam Raimi and team rely on the usual loud music and cliched jump scares throughout to move the narrative. Some people would like to classify this film as a ‘horror comedy’ even though most agree it’s more horror and less comedy. For me, it was neither of the two. It’s neither funny, nor scary, not even gory, but kind of gross in parts.
“Yuck!” I exclaimed out loud and looked away at least thrice during the course of the film. For example, there is a scene where the old lady sort of pukes into the mouth of Christine. There is a difference in being disgusted and scared. For example, let us consider a person who is not scared of worms, they would happily stamp them to death if the buggers get too close, but give them worms on a plate to eat and they would rather starve than eat that shit. No offence to those who love eating worms. You get what I mean?
There were definitely some scenes that were so silly that it will make the viewer laugh. Some of those scene were probably not even intended to be funny. The graphics of film is very last century. The cast however does a decent job, not like it helps much. The story is just too long and boring in many bits.
‘Drag Me To Hell’ is basically draggy hokum and just not entertaining enough, although it did have a lot of potential. Anyway, I don’t want to waste more of my time by writing a detailed review. If you are a horror fan and haven’t seen this film yet, you are probably better off without it. Probably.
