Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 280
November 7, 2020
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.
November 6, 2020
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.
November 5, 2020
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.
November 2, 2020
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.
November 1, 2020
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.
October 31, 2020
Love, Loss, Lockdown & Loveleen
“I love the character of Loveleen, she is my role-model, I want to fight situations like her,” a member of the family told me today. She is 70+, battling cancer and it overwhelmed me to think that a short story from my book “Love, Loss, Lockdown” could bring such joy to someone.
It’s the second short story in my book and funnily, a friend of mine had something very different to say about it. “Finished reading your book, loved all of them except Lucky Loveleen!”, she had messaged me over a month ago after she was done reading it.
And that’s what I love about books and stories – each of them have a different effect of different kind of people. Some would love your story. Some would hate it. But it’s still worth telling.
If you haven’t read it yet, please grab a copy of “Love, Loss, Lockdown” and help support an independent author. It’s a collection of 10 short stories. Following are some country specific links –
If I’ve missed your country, look for it on Amazon or on your kindle store.
October 30, 2020
The Dark Room Review- Not As Dark
Finished reading book number 65 for the year – “The Dark Room” by RK Narayan. Set in the fictitious Malgudi, this is a tale of Sarita, a housewife who is treated like a glorified slave. The title is a symbolic allusion to her marriage, which is restrictive and gloomy – like living in a dark room.
A simple book laden with domesticity, it’s a cautionary story about the need for women to have financial freedom. While I enjoyed reading Narayan’s lucid storytelling, it’s easy to see how this might not appeal to many modern readers.
The characters aren’t drawn elaborately & are quite forgettable. Like Sarita’s husband Ramani, who is very one-dimensional. Except for the fact that he is moody, self-centered & thinks women are creatures that must be bossed around, we don’t know much about him.
The ending was disappointing, but probably very apt for the time the novel came out in. Sarita may live in the 1940s, but her story still holds true for several women who are married off by their families as soon as they turn 18, without getting a degree, making them unemployable for decent paying jobs. While it’s not overtly about women empowerment, the author perhaps did intend it to be a thought-provoking narrative about how the disparities between the two genders is not just unfair, but causes upon both sides. Although, it’s always the woman that suffers more.
Our protagonist laments how there is barely any difference between her kind and prostitutes – one services several men, the other services only one. At least that’s Sarita’s conclusion. “The Dark Room” is quintessentially Indian and breezy. It might not be a literary gem, but makes for a quick enjoyable read.
October 29, 2020
How I Started Harry Potter
In the year 2000, grandfather got me my first Harry Potter book from a book fair in Calcutta. The city that once was the capital of India and is now called Kolkata. The city that once was our home.
I was just a pre-teen who had never heard of J.K Rowling, much less about how this was a third book in a series. Back then I was enamored with murder mysteries and preferred a ‘Nancy Drew’ over a new writer. Needless to say, I had no interest in Harry Potter. But my mother packed the book along with my other ‘yet to be read’ fiction books for my two month summer vacation to my paternal grandmother’s village. It region had no electricity, so books were my only escape from the sweltering heat.
Within a month, I had finished reading all my books and I have never been the sorts who would re-read things. Left with no choice, I finally picked up the Harry Potter. It took me a week to read just the first 50-60, because a lot of it was confusing and even boring. So I wouldn’t devour it like a maniac. But once I began to understand what was happening, it took me only 2 days to finish the rest.
And that’s how “Prisoner of Azkaban” became the first HP book I ever read. Till date, it remains my favourite in the series, not just because it opened doors to a new world, but it’s also the one where Sirius Black makes his first appearance.
October 28, 2020
An Aberration
The wind betrayed me
It never sent any word
And so the storm came
Like a capricious bird
Nesting while I was away
Waters sweeping the land
But I remained barren
A lone grain of desert sand
October 27, 2020
Princess Review – A look into patriarchal tyranny
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I felt personally attacked as a woman when I read bits of “Princess” by Jean Sasson, who claims it’s a true tale of a Saudi royal’s life in the elusive Arab world. The novel is a jarring juxtaposition of opulence & oppression, where women in the royal family have excessive wealth at their disposition, but their freedom is limited to buying jewels & expensive clothes that’ll be hidden under their veils. They are nothing but glorified slaves, always under the thumb of their fathers, brothers, uncles and husbands; men who treat women like disposable property and rape minor girls to pass time.
The protagonist ‘Princess Sultana’ (a pseudonym) grows up being ignored by her father and resolves at a young age that she will fight for gender justice. While for the first half, the reader is lulled into believing that Sultana may champion women rights, she frustratingly does ‘jack shit’ (nothing) & settles into a lavish life of domesticity. Wouldn’t be a stretch to call her an egoistic brat who largely brags & rarely acts.
All the male characters in the book are like clones, varying in very little degrees. There is no dominant character that stands out, especially since everybody is shown to the reader through Sultana’s views. Their personalities are clouded in her judgement. Saudi Arabia is perhaps the leading figure, an overpowering presence, malevolent and maliciously prejudiced against the female populace.
The author’s writing style is quite plain and yet the book is a page turner. It’s the tragic/horrifying stories of women around Sultana that’ll keep you glued to this novel. A flashback story of how her older sister undergoes female circumcision in her teens made my skin crawl. I had to put the book away for a few seconds to chase away the graphic images bubbling in my head. The circumcision is about control – men see to it that a woman’s most sensitive region is crushed to ensure she doesn’t enjoy the act of sex to prevent infidelity. All shades of patriarchal hypocrisy is on shameful display in this novel through stories of several women, both ordinary and royal.
As a reader, at several points, I either despaired at their helplessness or was grateful for not being born in a land where women are puppeteered like pet dogs from their births till their deaths. That’s not to say all is hunky dory in my part of the world. It’s the kind of book that makes me appreciate all the strides women have made in a male-dominated society and serves a stark reminder that we as women constantly need to fight in whatever little ways we can to achieve a more equal world.
