Glengarry Glen Ross

I am sure that every one of us have their own gaps in their cinema viewings. So do I, though for a film blogger, they are much more wider. Since I started mingling in the blogosphere, these gaps have become even wider. However, some times there are some titles that are thrown around so often in the mix and garner such a hyperbolic praise from almost everyone who talks about them, you almost feel guilty for not having seen them. At least I do. One such name is Glengarry Glen Ross(1992). I know a bunch of people you kinda worship this movie, every single thing about this movie - screenplay, acting, dialogue, direction, pretty much everything. I have been meaning to watch for quite a while for all these reasons and I finally got to see this, thanks to Netflix. Going into a film that you have heard such a praise about can result in only two things, you either love this film just as much as everyone else seems to or it falls completely flat on its face making you wonder what do people really see in it. That's what happened with Citizen Kane(1950) for me. Thankfully, Glengarry Glen Ross falls into the former category and not later.

Based on a Pulitzer prize winning play by David Mamet himself, it is set in a Chicago real-estate office where four salesmen - Ricky Roma, Shelley Levene, David Moss and George Aaronow are fighting for their lives. In a world of cut-throat competition, their firm is putting an added pressure on them to do better. In probably one of the best, certainly the most explosive scenes in film, Blake, an executive officer of Mitch and Marshall, their parent company, announces a sales game where winner will win a Cadillac El Dorado, second prize is Stake knives and third prize is the guy will be fired. Blake is a kind of a guy who does not believing in cajoling his employees to make them work better. He will rather fire your ass up and watch you go up into the sky. If you come up with flying colors, you win and if you go and blast yourself to pieces, well tough luck. Roma is on the streak lately. So, this so called contest doesn't bother him much. But for the other three, it spells impending doom on the horizon. To make the matters worse, they are not getting better leads until they close their deals because Leads are for CLOSERS. I have no idea about the sales business and hence I do not know what leads are. But if you look at any one of them, flipping like fish out of water for good leads, I got pretty good idea that it is something very important. But it is a classic catch-22 - if you don't close the deals, you can't have the good leads and if you don't have the good leads, you are just beating the dead horse. Insulted by Blake and dejected by the inferior leads they have, Levine, Moss and Aaronow are in a rather precarious position. In this condition with their backs pressed against the wall, Moss comes up with an idea of stealing the new Glengarry leads from their boss Williamson's office and selling them to their competitor across the street, Jerry Graff, who will not only pay them for these leads but will also give them a job and then they can make more money selling with those leads.

Next morning, it turns out that someone actually did rob their office and among other things, stole the leads they all wanted so much. However, the question is Who did ? When everyone arrives next day, they are greeted by Police investigating the robbery. Roma is the one most irritated since he believes that this robbery will cost him an El Dorado that he worked very hard for. When Levine enters with a news of big sale he closed last night that would put him right into the contention for the big prize, we are set for yet another long and explosive scene right till the end. Long scenes like this is the real test of Mamet's screenplay. But he packs them to the brim with amazing dialogues, keeps moving the story forward and is backed up superbly by the actors that makes you feel like you are missing something even if you miss a single dialogue. He hardly covers 24 hours in time spanned over couple of days but he successfully establishes that every single one of these salesman is ready to do anything - legal or illegal - to make that sale of even an undesirable piece of land to an unwilling customer including lying, flattery, bribing, threats, intimidation and even burglary. Mamet also pulls something that Hitchcock made famous with Psycho(1960) called McGuffin where a whole plot is built around something that doesn't really play much big role in plot. $40,000 that Marion steals was McGuffin in Psycho, here it is the threat of being fired because of slump in your performance. To tell you the truth, this is through and through Actor's movie and with such a great screenplay by Mamet, director James Foley seems to be taking a little back seat here but there is no denying that he does his job well despite there being nothing peculiarly flashy about it.

I always used to go to The Departed(2006) whenever someone would ask me about an ensemble cast. There is no denying that with the likes of Jack Nicholson, Leonardo Di Caprio, Matt Demon, Mark Wahlberg and even Martin Sheen with Alec Baldwin The Departed makes up for an amazing ensemble with an equally explosive screenplay. But it might just have met his equal in Glengarry Glen Ross, if not better. There are so many great actors doing equally great job here that I swear I would not have cared even if they kept on talking absolute garbage. Starting with Jack Lemmon as Shelley Levene who just might have got role of his career towards the very end of his career. As an aging salesman he is past his glory days but he never misses a chance to brag about it. There are more shades to his character than any other and Jack Lemmon owns every single one of them. Al Pacino plays Ricky Roma - the latest sensation, the top dog, the man with a streak. Except for the very first scene, he is almost absent for the first half but boy, does he return with a vengeance in second. The way he tries to handle his client James Lingsk trying to cancel out the deal they finalized last night is real piece of work. Dave moss has big mouth and even bigger dreams and plans. He is the one who complains the most, resents his executives the most and most importantly comes up with the plan to steal those leads - Ed Harris in yet another notable performance. There is really nothing much that stands out for Aaronow. In contrast to others, he has very little fire in him, he lacks confidence and hope and self-esteem and all he does for most of the times is half heartedly agrees with everything but Alan Arkin makes it worth it. Kevin Spacey is their boss John Williamson. He is much more of a villain who wouldn't give them the leads they so badly need and more often than not ends up on the receiving end. But even then, he gets to throw that last punch on Levene and pack his bags for him. Even Alec Baldwin comes in for a single scene but that is easily the best scene of the whole movie and leaves us with some of the brilliant lines.

I haven't seen much of Mamet's work. If i remember correctly, I have not seen a single movie he directed but I have seen a couple of movie he wrote - The Verdict(1982), which I loved for Sidney Lumet's Direction and Paul Newman and The Untouchables(1987), which I did not care for for the same reasons, Director - He always goes a bit too over the top for me and I can never get over that and Kevin Costner - I can never stand this man outside of JFK(1991). But I would be lying if I don't acknowledge that both this movies have solid screenplays. If Glengarry Glen Ross is any indication, I will certainly look forward to more of his work.

Rating(out of 5):

Happy Birthday U, Me and Films !!

About 13 months ago from today, I saw an article in now extinct IMDb Hitlist on Hitchcock and his movies that took me to a blog Riku Writes (now Streams of Unconsciousness). At that time, I was completely oblivious to the concept of a movie blog even though by then, I was already turned into a film buff for quite some time. My friends were referring me as a 'movie guy', they had stopped asking me 'Hey dude, what are you doing ?', it turned into 'So, what are you watching now ?', they were asking me for movie recommendations and my opinion on whether should they watch certain movie or not. But, personally this particular habit of mine was kinda stagnant, going nowhere. So, I was looking for something different to do with it. On personal front, I was done with all the course work for my masters with 3 months of summer just around the corner. Even when the semester would start in the Fall, only thing I had to worry about was my Master's Project which meant that I can pretty much have my own time-table for the whole week except one weekly meeting on Friday. 

With all this in mind, me stumbling onto this blog was quite serendipitous. Wheels started to turn inside my head, contemplating the idea of starting my own blog. I spent some time going through contents of that blog. In the matter of few days, I discovered that there is a whole world of movie bloggers out there which was encouraging. However, not only that I did not have any prior experience of writing anything, much less of writing it in English, I didn't have any formal film education neither to help me. For those who do not know, English is not my second but third language. Up until I was 10 years old, only thing I knew about English was A-Z. My 4 year old niece knows more nursery rhymes than me as no one read them to me when I was kid. So, I took my time not only to decide whether to go ahead or not but also to try and see if I can really write something worth putting out there. I spent a little over a month deliberating, practicing before I finally published my first article exactly year ago from today on 13 June 2011. And that is how U, Me and Films came into existence !!

Journey in this year has been fulfilling to say the least. I would like to believe that my writing has evolved over this year, but to tell you the truth I have no way of judging this. What I do know is my movie tastes have evolved a lot, what I do know is my knowledge, my horizons have widened for certain. I still don't get a lot of pop culture references but even then I at least know what people are talking about. I know that I have written only around 60 posts, but with me being a master procrastinator and with an extremely limited vocabulary that I have, it still takes quite some time for me to write it. I also took it little slow till I graduated at the end of January. I have doubled my speed since then but even then it comes to around 6-7 posts/month. I am still doing my best. However, the most fulfilling experience has been how welcoming and friendly this whole blogging community has been and that has been true especially since I joined LAMB in March. Anywhere you go, first blogging advice you will receive is always blog for yourself, not for anyone else and even though I agree with it completely, it is always great to know few people around you that you can look up to, that can inspire you, that can set example for you. Over this one year, I have been lucky enough to get acquainted with quite a few bloggers through different channels. So, let me take this chance to raise my glass to some of these phenomenal film bloggers that I have come across in last year who have done exactly this to me...

Richard Hourula@Stream of Unconsciousness: Unfortunately, I haven't had any communication with him over the year. But, as I previously stated, his blog has played an instrumental part in conception of this blog and he deserves due credit for it.

Alex@And So It Begins: For being an inspiration to almost half of the posts on this blog with his encyclopedic knowledge of movies, and more than that for being such a great patron with a lot of encouragement. We are eagerly waiting for your film, Earrings !!

Ruth@...Let's be Splendid about This...:  For our mutual Ghibli love and for all the lovely comments over the time and 7x7 Link award which ungratefully I didn't reply to. So, maybe she will forgive me for that.

Scott@Front Room Cinema: For his persistence of commenting on almost every single post. He is being missed in this part of blogosphere but since he is enjoying a rare family time(or that's what he told me), I can't really complain.

Stevee@Cinematic Paradox: For giving U, Me and Films it's 1st ever Blogging award and for maintaining an awesome blog and for her rating system and for her running features. I am sure she will win quite a few Lammies this time around.

Tyler@Southern Vision: For being a great point of reference as far as foreign or art house movies are considered - I have always been in awe of his passion for it and For being go-to guy to find movies on YouTube :D

Nikhat@Being Norma Jeane: A fellow Indian movie blogger, who also writes about English movies in English(unfortunately, I haven't found many of us) and who also has a colorful and beautiful blog.

Sati@Cinematic Corner: For...Have you seen her blog ? You wouldn't ask why if you have. She has Best Design Lammy in her pocket and then she writes something stunning like this as well.

Chris@moviesandsongs365: Even though he hasn't done them in last couple of months due to the health reasons, I loved his eclectic reviews with much more information than just a normal review and his song suggestions are always awesome.

Mette@Lime Reviews and Strawberry Confessions: For being passionate about Indian movies more than lot of us, Indians are. If you look at her site, you will notice she has a lot more Bollywood stuff than me.

Never Too Early for Movie Predictions: He was one of those people who were extremely supportive and welcoming immediately after I joined LAMB and off course, all of us are in awe of his round the year Oscar predictions. You can count on my vote for this !! 

CS@Big Thoughts from a Small Mind: For all the blogging love shared.

Murtaza@A Potpurri of Vestiges: Another fellow Indian movie-blogger who writes a great blog with very detailed reviews.

Some of my favorite pod-casters Reel Insight, Matineecast, French Toast Sunday and off course LAMBCast and they all have phenomenal blogs that I am in constant awe of.

LAMB: Last but probably the most important, for giving the platform to come and talk with fellow movie geeks without feeling like the only person on the earth who cares about something like this.

And in the end, let me raise it to anyone and everyone, who has ever visited this blog or commented on it or who has ever tweeted with me sharing their opinions about movies, please come and join me on this festive occasion. There is a lot of room for you all !! I really do not know how long will I keep blogging. But with such an encouragement, I can only hope I will go on and on !!

HERE IS TO FIRST COMPLETE YEAR AND HOPEFULLY MORE TO COME !!

Notorious and use of Camera in it

Disclaimer: I have discussed almost every single aspect of this movie I think worth discussing in detail, including most of plot and its ending. If you haven't seen this movie(WHAT ??), maybe you want to see it first.

Last month was a little peculiar in the sense that I know at least half a dozen people who saw Notorious(1946) for the first time. I felt like I was talking about it with many different people for almost all the month. It might just be coincidence that I also read quite a few articles on it too and all this from completely different people who to the best of my knowledge did not influence each other to either watch it or write about it. Notorious(1946) is not only my favorite Hitchcock but one of my all time favorite movies, #5 in my Favorite 100 list. However, neither have I written anything about it, nor have I seen it since I saw it for the first time and fell in love instantly with it. So, with it being in the back of my mind for almost whole month, I decided to take this chance to make up for both this anomalies. Incidentally, I have never written anything about most of my favorite movies. So, maybe I can even make this a recurring feature like Profile of a Director and talk about few of them. Let us see where it goes from here because I am not really good at following plans.

There are 3 main reasons why I love Notorious. First Hitchcock's impeccable direction which throughout this movie keeps the tension palpable, secondly almost perfect pairing of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in an unconventional romance but they are so amazing in their respective roles that it almost hurts to see them together in single frame. There are quite a few exceptional pairings in Hitchcock's films itself, I for one can make a strong case for Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo(1958) or Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window(1950). But, none of them has ever come closer to this unfortunate couple. But, most of all, it's the Camerawork in this movie that impresses me. Now, I am not the person who understands much about the technical aspect of the movie-making. I have never learned anything in school or college about it nor have I attended any lectures on it. So, it takes something special for someone like me to notice anything beyond what you see on surface. If you have seen The Wire, this is almost as surprising as D'angelo Barksdale summarizing The Great Gatsby in most perfect sense ever. But Hitchcock's camera is such an integral part of this story that it feels more like another character in the movie. And I also love the fact that these 3 aspects are so well blended together that they compliment each other perfectly to take it on completely another level. The fact that neither Hitchcock nor any of the leads or at least this exemplary work behind the camera was even nominated to the Oscars that year has failed to make any sense to me.

Hitchcock uses a lot of techniques with his camera to impress us. Right from using close-ups all the time to give it much personal, much closer look to using point of view shots like rolling the camera around as Alicia rolls on to her bed while looking at Devlin or 'That's your hair in your eyes' shot, he keeps on pulling different techniques out of his sleeve. Hitchcock opens his shop very early in the movie. After the very first shot in the courtroom where we see Alicia i.e. Ingrid Bergman's father get convicted, we go to her house where she is seen with some friends and a stranger she doesn't know. This stranger is Cary Grant but we are not privy to this information right away as most part of this conversation takes place with camera behind Grant, just showing the back of his head casting shadow on the whole frame, kind of suggestive of some kind of sinister motive of the person but then after everyone leaves, we see him to be Grant i.e. Devlin. It is really interesting to me that Devlin, Cary Grant's characters keeps on making this good to bad and back again transition throughout the movie. I have always said that Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant in Notorious is my favorite pairing. Funny thing is they spend most of this movie away from each other, trying not to fall for each other, even hating each other. There are hardly couple of scenes in the beginning to link them romantically - Alicia flirting with Devlin initially, Devlin trying to keep it business and then Devlin giving it up and embracing her with all the passion he can muster. But the beauty of Hitchcock's direction is these mere couple of scenes are more than enough to keep us wanting to bring them back together, making their whole journey as painful to the viewer as to characters themselves. Once Devlin is been detailed about Alicia's assignment and he returns to romantic rendezvous Alicia is planning at home, there is a deliberate attempt he makes to push her away, to make her hate him so that the whole thing can be easy for her. He even takes initiative to set her up with their Alex Sebastian, their target - Claude Rains in another exquisite supporting role.

Story moves ahead swiftly with every scene where two leads are in frame together is like clashing of two knights ready to cut each others throats, only difference here is there only weapon is their words. Bergman and Grant both work wonders portraying almost suffocating air of personal deception with an amazing control of their body language. Hitchcock plays one more stroke of genius by adding a scene with Devlin's bosses questioning Alicia's past after she has practically put her hand in Lion's mouth for them. Devlin apparently troubled by it tries to put meager defense of it but backs out at the slightest notion to give this already troubled relationship much required depth. Alex soon asks Alicia to marry her despite his mother's disinterest. By this time, there has been a kind of role reversal in the movie. With all his apparent passiveness to defend Alicia and completely closing out to her, Devlin has temporarily assumed the role of a villain whereas standing against the will of his own mother and openly portraying his desire for Alicia, Alex is in hero's chair. This again is perfectly planned out so as to achieve little more impact with apparent climax. Here, however, Hitchcock plays one more of his tricks with the camera now as a matter of key to the wine cellar is at hand - that of a tracking shot, probably the best I have seen. Alicia has arranged for Devlin to come home in party so that he can have a look at something suspicious in their wine cellar. She has also sneaked that key from Alex's bunch. Shot opens with camera completely zoomed out and little out of focus, seemingly trying to find something to focus at. It follows the spiral of the staircase, with some guests on it, until it finds Alex and Alicia standing at the foot of the staircase. It starts to zoom-in on them but seems little skewed and it keeps zooming-in until comes into focus with a close-up shot of Alicia hand holding the key in it. There is also one more short tracking shot of a Coffee cup in the end as well after she is been found of spying, poisoned to get rid of her, slowly but surely.

Hitchcock was Master of Thrillers. Almost all the movies he did dealt with it in some kind. However, thing with Notorious that makes it worth for me personally is thriller aspect of the story takes a backseat to the romance narrated in the most unconventional fashion or character study of it's two leads. Probably, also the reason why Vertigo(1958) works much better for me. This is also evident in the final minutes of the movie as Devlin worried that Alicia lied to him about falling back to her drinking ways goes to see her and finds out she is being poisoned. These last minutes concentrate on Alicia and Devlin finally getting together and making their way out safely than her blowing the cover of the Nazi leaders gathered in the room downstairs. However, Hitchcock not only concentrates on the two leads but also makes the side characters interesting and rich. Claude Rains as Alex is the third corner of this love triangle, visibly older than the other two leads but I have seen far too Audrey Hepburn movies to be troubled by this. More importantly, Hitchcock plays his card very carefully, not trying to force this difference on us. Another character that leaves an impression in even a smaller role is Leopoldine Constantine is role of Alex's Mother, as evil and calculating as you can get. Visibily unhappy with her son's increasing proximity with Alicia from start, she almost seems elated after heartbroken Alex goes to tell her the truth about Alicia. Quick to point out the fact that 'They are being saved by the enormity of her son's stupidity', she even concocts plan to get rid of her almost immediately, as if she is been waiting for the moment for quite some time.

Notorious isn't the only movie that Hitchcock has played with his camera in. Psycho(1960) is one more example of equally masterful, if not better, display of his technique. Even his direction is usually the most notable aspect in the movie. However, there is something delicate, right from those beautifully constrained performances from the leading pair, in the way this whole movie is presented that touches somewhere deep inside me. I have seen close to dozen movies that Hitchcock did and I like almost every single one of them. All the movies I mentioned in this post are definitely some of my all-time favorites. However, Notorious has always occupied a place close to my heart and with the recent re-viewing I can assure you that it still does.

Rating(out of 5):

Grizzly Man's The Great Escape from The Trip on Rope aka Mini Reviews

Don't let the title throw you off track. It is little stupid but makes me feel creative(for no apparent reason), So I am sticking with it. Basically, these are mini-reviews of few films that I wanted to write about but could not think of enough material to warrant a full post, maybe because I did not care too much about that movie or because I am not educated or informed enough to write about them. Not that I am doing this for the first time, I did write similar post few months ago on Vertigo(1958), Sunset Blvd(1950), Fanny and Alexander(1982) and Almost Famous(2000)(here, if you are interested). Come to think of it now, I think I can write a whole lot more on any of these films(I like to think of this as the proof of I am getting better at this, evolving and such !!). But, this time I doubt if that would be a fate of any of the movies I will write about today. You will know why.

Grizzly Man(2005): My First encounter with Werner Herzog in any format. I went pretty much blind into it, just because subject looked interesting - Animal lover who devoted his life to protect Grizzly bears who dies being eaten by one and even though I hadn't seen anything, I had heard enough about him to warrant an interest. But, I wasn't impressed much and it wasn't Herzog's fault at all. If at all he did something wrong, that was making a documentary on Timothy Treadwell. Timothy Treadwell was an animal lover, grizzly bear activist who used to go to Alaskan jungles in the summer and stay there to observe them and study them and he recorded every single trip on camera. Something which probably started as a hobby, went on to become an obsession over the years. He studied them, he befriended them - or at least he thought he did, he even named most of them and then he started to think of himself as probably a messiah, sole hope of saving them from poachers and hunters. In one of the incidents, we see his sole encounters with these poachers. He talks a lot about how much he hates them because they are harming these animals and he is going to stop this etc etc. However, when he actually encounters them, interestingly he hides somewhere far away in the bushes, because he does not want to reveal his identity. It becomes kinda difficult to feel for you if your money isn't where your mouth is. From the numerous stunts he pulled on camera over the course of his recordings, it's very clear that Treadwell was messed up. As one of the interviewers says that he wanted to be a bear and you never do that, you do not invade their territory - Treadwell never realized it and he blamed everyone else for for messing up with animals and their life when actually he was doing same thing himself. In my opinion and it goes in hand with the same interviewer saying that he probably harmed them more than helped. As far as Herzog is concerned, it was well shot, well edited and even well paced documentary. Herzog was completely impartial, he did not try and glorify him by telling only one side of the story. He gives Treadwell credit when it is due and blames him squarely for his mistakes and shortcomings. So, problem never was Herzog, it was Treadwell who I thought to be impossible to have a favorable opinion of - to tell you the truth, I pitied him. In the very beginning on documentary, one of the pilots who went on clean-up after his death says on-camera that Treadwell got what he deserved and at that time it seemed to be kind of an extreme opinion. But, after watching whole film, I can't help but agree with him.

Rating(out of 5):

The Great Escape(1963): I recently realized that for some reason, I have seen more 50's movies than 60's in 1001 movies list. For some unexplained reason, that was surprising to me as I do not have anything against them. I always thought that I would have seen more movies as we go up chronologically just because you have more exposure to them. But of course, I was wrong ! So, off I go looking for more 60's stuff. It just happened that The Great Escape has been in my queue for a long time and for this reason at least, I got an opportunity to dig it up and watch it. To tell you the truth, I do not have much to say about it basically for it being a true story - the story of bunch of allied forces' POW's captured by German forces. They are brought into a special camp built specifically for them since this bunch has a notorious reputation of planning and attempting multiple escapes. What we see is an elaborate account of one such attempt. It is a perfectly fine movie with good cast and good story. Albeit little longish, account of all the preparations for their escape are certainly interesting. If I have a complaint against it, I would have liked it to be a little happier at the end but as they say all the aspects of the escape were exactly as they happened, so we do not get a say here. Though one thing I learned from this movie was why Steve McQueen was Steve McQueen ? It isn't his first movie I saw, I have seen The Thomas Crown Affair(1968) before, but he was something else here, something that will totally fit into his ultra-cool, hip image.

Rating(out of 5):

The Trip(2011): Michael Winterbottom is turning out to be kinda interesting sort of director. I have heard a lot of extreme opinions, good and bad but definitely extreme, about his films. I have seen a couple before - 9 songs(2004) which I outright hated and A Mighty Heart(2007) which I thought had a great potential with a fine storyline but failed to impress me at all. And of course, he has had his fair share of controversies with The Killer Inside Me(2010), A Mighty Heart and such. 2 more movies he did, which I intend to see but sometimes wonder if they are any worth are Jude(1996) and Trishna(2011) mostly because from what I have heard about both is people either love them for being daring and tackling things that we usually don't see or they hate them for the exact same reason. My interest in Jude is purely based on Kate Winslet but that part with incestuous relationship has kept me away thus far. Similarly, Trishna has a setting(he certainly has some affiliation to India as well. Quite a few of his movies are either shot in or based on Indian grounds) that interests me but it is either in the lists of one of the best movies of last year or worst movie made ever. About film at hand, I perfectly enjoyed this light-hearted, comic road movie. Their back and forth exchanges, imitations, trying to look down to the other kept me entertained the whole time. I am sure you can sense a but coming here. BUT, it was enjoyable as long as you don't think about it which is like up to 5 minutes after movie ends. However, once you start, there are so many thing that come to mind that are never answered. Most important of which is What exactly was director trying to say or was he trying to say anything at all ? It kind of scratches a surface of lot of questions and just leaves it there, which to tell you the truth did not really bother me but left me unsatisfied in the end like Steve Coogan is an actor then why was he sent on Restaurant Tour ? Also, why did he ask Rob Brydon to come along ? I mean if I have 2 Free Passes to a movie, I will either ask very close friend or someone who is interested in watching that movie. Rob Brydon did not look like either of them. But hey, I told you that none of this bothered me much while watching it and I perfectly enjoyed it. So, if you don't think too much about it, it still is a pretty decent film to pass some of your time when you don't have much else to do.

Rating(out of 5):

Rope(1948): One movie out of this lot, which I can say I liked wholeheartedly without any qualms. It was great from every conceivable aspect and on top of that, it was just 74 minutes - extra points for being short and concise. I will try not to ruin it for you, but excuse me if I get a little too excited. Brandon and Philip, two longtime friends, share an apartment. They plan a perfect murder based on a story one of their teachers told them once. Victim of this murder is David Kentley, their schoolfriend and they choose him because they consider him to be an inferior human being to them. They execute their plan to perfection, they have achieved their target. But, Brandon is not the one to be contend with this. He wants someone to appreciate the fact that he has just pulled a perfect murder and in this excitement he goes a little over board and plans a party in their own house, where David's body is still kept hidden in a chest and moreover guests invited are David's own Parents and his Fiancee. Rupert, their schoolteacher who told them a story of this crime is also among invitees and as one thing leads to another, Rupert starts to smell something is fishy. There are couple of things I love about Rope. First of all, it's only 74 minutes long and it uses every single second of it perfectly. Very first scene you see is Murder happening and last scene of the movie is revelation and Hitchcock masterfully keeps it entertaining and suspenseful. And it is not just suspense of murder, but their conversations are fascinating too like their theory of 'A Crime for most, privilege for some'. Rope was suppose to be an experiment Hitchcock wanted to make to shoot in such a fashion that it will feel like a single long take. Though I wasn't fooled by this, I loved the fact that whole movie takes place in one single room, without leaving it for a single second. I usually love movies that take place in single room like 12 Angry Men(1957) and this one wasn't an exception. One more thing I love about Rope is Jimmy Stewart. Peculiar thing about Jimmy Stewart is, almost every movie I have seen him in, I don't only like Jimmy Stewart playing that character but I usually end up loving his characters as well. Rope may not be recognized as much as his other masterpieces like Vertigo(1958), Rebecca(1940) and Rear Window(1950) but in my books it is no less than any of them.

Rating(out of 5):