amanbirsingh

This sports drama represents the peak of the American indie cinema movement of the early 21st century led by Newline Cinema but not without affecting the rhythm and tone of the film. It portrays a sociopath baseball coach (Pitt) with bigger dreams than his university skills can allow. And so he spends most of his time lobbying for a sponsorship for a pathetic team of boys and for some salvation along the way in a moneyballed league. The film then circles around to focus not on the rules of the game but more on the human side to life. It grows out of its immature shell exactly as the director wants and to the approval of the audience into serious and compelling cinema.

The film balances itself solely on the experienced shoulders of Brad Pitt. A word must be said about how impactful the acting is as he emotes his way through the crisis that he does not deserve. Moneyball is a tearful script but still a badly made film. It has ordinary lines and the scenes drag themselves with no special effort from the director and his team and it seems as if Pitt should be encouraging them instead of the players. Sadly in this case, it is just not uplifting enough.

A poignant thought arises about the two important dimensions of any game, the unbroken will of an individual and the sacrifices that are made by members of a team. Moneyball hints at these qualities as it seeks to elucidate the tenets of human adventurism. The theme of the film unaltered, it falls into the list of the stoic Clint Eastwood hero but very much for the new age in this case.

Impromptu is ambitious like its protagonist Chopin but it looks average unlike him. A classical French drama presented in a contemporary light works on a leisurely script to attract today's audience. The comedy is a biography of the musical genius Chopin depicting him as an ebullient clown replacing the prevailing notion of him being a lonely personality that's been musing in his loss. There is a lovable side to Chopin's frugal lifestyle in the blissful country outside Paris with a gifted group of close friends. But that's where the problem could lie, our hero is intimidated by a busier than thou world as he creates an artificial space around him and that is moving.

The film has dedicated under acting but uses poor language and much could be done here given that the film is still working inside France. For the dark comedy it is there is no depth understandably, but it makes the film impersonal and estranged.

All this put together ends in a scary duel scene with Chopin having to fight for his ideas but this does not go too badly as we are treated with a happy ending.

The fatalism is not missing as we witness a pure opera with all its elation and scares created by the pathbreaking composer. The film makes a connection between the ordinary world and the higher and special genius of man and is able to achieve a level of trust here that's quite rare and worth lauding.

Passage to India tries to represent colonialism to the West without much judgment. The film brings the two cultures of Britain and India together to understand the limits of knowledge and more importantly, its veracity in times of revolutionary zeal. It characters are like passing figures in a godless universe, not touching the placid waters of the civilization of the great Ganges even with its blessings of medical, technological and legal discoveries.

The film shows a gradual thawing in the tense relations between European masters and their Indian slaves as they overcome their common challenges of casteism and tribal savagery. The local protagonist is falsely accused by the government and faces a charge of rape. The humbling of an educated Bengali lawyer who does not supposedly belong to the bar draws sympathy from the more sensitive British officers. The political tension affects the rich and the poor alike, who all unite to plead his innocence, but this only ends up in rioting. This leads to a grand trial that merges into the the ongoing freedom struggle in the nation as the Ganges merges into the sea.

The film shows strict discipline by all actors who seem not to afford making any mistakes. David Lean depends on authentic sets to portray Colonial India and his direction is orthodox in style and objective in depth to create a significant achievement in British cinema.

Passage to India is not a proper depiction of history or culture, it is almost melancholic when it wants to be inspiring while breaking many rules. It however emboldens the British gift of law and strives to re-enforce belief in this method of non-violent emancipation in the darkest of times.