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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Karuppu Movie Review: The Problem with Gods

Whenever god takes on anyone, the battle is usually, almost unfairly skewed. That’s why the coolest idea in Karuppu is when god is challenged not to exercise his super-powers in enforcing justice. The question Baby Kannan (RJ Balaji) seems to pose is this: if Karuppu (Suriya) can use his superpowers, an unfair advantage over humans, why should…

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