Nooru Sami Movie Review: The Woman in the Mirror

You know how we’ve made important films that examine who people are allowed to marry in our complex, problematic world. One of them, the unforgettable Kadhal, is even referenced in Sasi’s new film, Nooru Sami (which, fascinatingly enough, features Kadhal’s director Balaji Sakthivel as an antagonist). And yet, in our cinema, sometimes we fail entirely…

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Backrooms Movie Review: The Rooms Inside Us

Backrooms. What a strange film. What a uniquely unsettling experience. You’ll probably ask if I was satisfied? But conventional satisfaction requires a film that falls within a familiar framework. Backrooms is trying to be something else entirely. It asks whether you can surrender yourself to its distortions: in storytelling, in visuals, in sound. It aims…

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Obsession Movie Review: Love Loses Limits

Before we sink into the many layers of Obsession, let me get my superlatives out of the way first: WHAT A FILM! What an ingenious premise. What a climax. What incredible performances from the lead actors. Inde Navarrette is tremendous as Nikki, of course, but how good is Michael Johnston as Bear? Also, did I…

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Peddi Film Review: A Mishmash in Search of Meaning

Oh, Peddi. That ‘love track’ is really all kinds of terrible, isn’t it? I begin here only because, in a film full of slow-motion elevation attempts and reaction shots, it is this portion that evoked the strongest reaction from me. Peddi (Ram Charan) ogles Achiamma (Janhvi Kapoor), and this is rivalled only by the more…

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Drishyam 3 Movie Review: Georgekutty’s Greatest Adversary is…

I imagine that for quite a few people, the joy of watching the Drishyam films might be contained in the thrills and twists, in the inevitable Georgekutty win, in those slow-mo shots at the end as the eyes of his adversaries widen at being outwitted by Georgekutty’s craftiness yet again… But for those like me, there are…

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