The Oscars Week- Part III

The list of Oscar awardees is out and so is out last review!

1. Phantom Thread 

-Reviewed by Mitali Khachi

 

Phantom thread is a dark love story about a high-end fashion designer, Reynolds Woodcock and his muse Alma. Set in the 1950’s Britain, Woodcock played by Daniel Day Lewis is a workaholic who has no time for romantic hang-ups. He is a cynic when it comes to marriage and any kind of romantic commitment because according to him, marriage brings with it, expectations and assumptions that cause heartaches. His one true love is fashion, so much so, that he personifies the garments! (“ Let’s take her for a walk” , “ She looks beautiful” are some of the things that he says about his clothes). Anybody who comes between him and his work is considered a distraction, and is immediately removed from his life.

In walks Alma, played by Vicky Krieps, a foreign waitress who immediately becomes Woodcock’s muse. She, like any other young girl, is charmed by his good looks, mannerisms, his passion for fashion, and attention to detail. Her initial attraction towards him soon turns to love, but sadly for her, it is one-sided. In the beginning she accepts all of his quirks, his rude and curt behaviour, she even changes herself to fit in his life the way he wants. Despite all this, neither is she able to hold his attention for too long, nor get two kind words of appreciation for her, for all that she does for him. Any viewer is bound to feel sorry for her, and a little disdain for Woodcock at this stage in the movie. Then comes the climax. All that sorrow and pity gives way to shock, leading to a total reversal of emotions for the main characters. I can’t elaborate on this further without revealing the plot of the movie, so I’ll just quote a dialogue from my favourite scene-

“ I want you flat on your back, helpless, tender, with only me to help, and then strong again. You are not going to die, you may wish so, but you are not going to die. You need to settle down.”

One realizes just how dark and twister, almost toxic, a love story can be and the extent to which lovers can go just to be able to hold onto their partners.
While Phantom Thread slows down a bit in the middle, it makes up for that with an exciting climax; the last fifteen minutes of the movie are particularly scintillating, multi-layered characters and gorgeous costumes. It encompasses ‘power imbalance’ and ‘male chauvinism’, two very widely spoken and trending topics of these days. Also, barring Daniel Day Lewis, the rest of the cast is entirely female, which is another plus point for this movie!

2. Get Out

-Reviewed by Manasvi Neyol

I was hesitant about watching this one because the trailer seemed kinda scary (and I’m a wuss who doesn’t watch horror movies). But, it was nothing like that! Sure, it was creepy, but it wasn’t ‘keep you up at night’ scary.

Get out is the story of Chris- A 26 year old African-American boy who’s girlfriend (Rose Armitage) is white. He is nervous to visit her parents’ for the weekend (for obvious reasons). On reaching their place he finds that something is off about the whole Armitage family, especially their black servants who behave in the most unusual manner. He later uncovers a horrendous secret about the Armitages.

The story was brilliant and executed beautifully. The suspense in the movie is next level! I was not able to make out what the suspense was until the very last moment. When it was finally disclosed my jaw dropped! It was amazing, totally worth the wait.

Daniel Kaluuya was convincing as Chris Washington. He displays the variety of emotions felt by the character perfectly. Allison Williams (played Rose Armitage) was my favorite performer in the movie!

Overall, I would rate this movie ⅘

3. The Darkest Hour

-Reviewed by Mitali Khachi

I love biopics, and this one was no exception. This movie is about one of the most dramatic periods in the life of Sir Winston Churchill, when he became Prime Minister in 1940. After the British cabinet had lost its confidence in Neville Chamberlain, Churchill was appointed as Prime Minister. He faced the impossible task of leading a coalition government, during a time when World War II had just begun; unwelcoming colleagues, a skeptical King, a scared public, advancing enemies and unhelpful friends - these were some of the challenges that Churchill had to face after his appointment. To paraphrase a dialogue from the movie, the Prime minister ship was not a gift, it was a revenge.

Churchill faced a lot of opposition when he took two decisions, one was regarding the dynamics of the rescue plan ‘Operation Dynamo’ of 300,000 soldiers stuck in Dunkirk (Here is a link for our movie review), and the second was changing the strategy of  negotiating a peace treaty with the fascist regime, instead he decided to retaliate against the Nazi army with all their might instead. Despite being advised against the same, he decided to fight on with full strength. (His strategy proved to be correct as it eventually saved the lives of may troops which were stranded in Dunkirk)

Everybody knows of Churchill as the popular and successful statesman, but The Darkest Hour also shows another part of his life, where he is ‘Bertie’, a loving husband and father with a great sense of humour. There is a scene in the movie, where his typist points out that he’s been doing the V-Victory sign incorrectly. The way he has been posing with the sign actually means ‘Up your bum’. One would expect a Prime Minister to get angry and embarrassed in such a situation, but he cracks up and has a good laugh about it!

Since Churchill was an excellent orator and a wonderful writer, this movie is full of exceptional dialogues, many being the actual speeches given by him. Here is an excerpt from one of his speeches to the public-

‘Victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terror. Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival'

After watching The Darkest Hour, I bow my head to Gary Oldman for a spellbinding performance. He has managed to duplicate the mannerisms of Churchill so well that in my opinion he brought the man back to life, at least for my generation. Here I would also like to mention that his makeup team is a bunch of magicians. Only after talking to a friend of mine did I get to know that the actor who played the lead was in fact the same person who played Sirius Black in Harry Potter. That is how good the makeup was!

So this is the end of our Oscar movie review series. We hope you enjoyed because being movie-buffs, we most certainly did!