Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai Review: A Strange Fable

There is a moment in Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai when a rat is given CPR. Yeah, you read this right. Someone presses its tiny chest, desperately trying to get it to breathe again. You see its tender chest compressing, expanding… In another film, this would be a ridiculous visual, a joke perhaps. In this film,…

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Baththa Movie Review: The Boy and The Monster

Baththa, played by Vijay Sethupathi, is a frightening gangster. He is driven by ego, and no threat scares him. At home, he casually slaps his wife, throws a plate full of food, yells at his daughter. And he seems to be getting away with everything. So, you really wonder who’s gonna put him in his…

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Dorothy Movie Review: The Violence of Denying Yourself

Dorothy is almost a horror film, isn’t it? The setting of period Madurai feels like a ghost town, where anecdotes of murders and suicides are casually shared. “This is where my mother and sister’s bodies were found!” says young Subbu. Something about this young boy being so nonchalant about it broke me, just as it…

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Enna Vilai Movie Review: When the Case Becomes Bigger than the Man

You know, I really, really dug the first half of Enna Vilai. I enjoyed how lived-in everything feels, how its characters seem to have lived long before the movie began and will continue to live long after it ends. We just happen to catch them during a particular time in their lives… especially Thavasi (Karunas),…

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