moviegoers – The Popcorn Waltz

The Big Short: Road to an Oscar nomination in 5 steps

Adi’s TL;DR The real wolves of wall street!

Sahil’s TL;DR Financial crisis documentary gets a makeover Ocean’s Eleven style!

Inception, Interstellar, The Martian – they’ve got nothing on The Big Short. Congratulations, you’ve survived the most complicated film of all times, which is not a documentary 🙂 The one that does not deal with a dystopic universe or the math behind surviving on Mars or creating psychedelic dream sequences. It’s the one that deals with the biggest financial crisis in recent times that brought global economy to a scary point, but honestly didn’t change much post the bail-out using taxpayer’s money. It’s that point in recent human history that a lot of people allude to in smart sounding money conversations, but very few really understand! The Big Short attempts to illustrate the collapse of the US real estate market, in an interesting, innovative way, with sufficient spurts of entertaining moments to not completely overwhelm you with the inexplicable jargon.

Here’s some dope on The Big Short. Directed by Adam McKay, yes the same person who gave us Anchorman and Step Brothers, this one is based on a nonfiction book, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis. McKay co-wrote The Big Short along with screenwriter Charles Randolph. It was released towards the end of 2015 and has had a successful run at the box office, specially for a film that complex! The film has a very interesting cast, with some unlikely names coming together with Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and even a ‘cameo-ish’ performance by Brad Pitt, who also happens to be one of the producers on the film. Guess, he wanted in on the action too 😉 The Big Short’s been the critics favorite going into this awards season and has five Academy nominations to its name including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale). As far as Oscars success goes, the film has two critical things going for it – 1) It’s a true story and 2) It’s based on a book! Both of which really help in getting awards, it seems 😉

The Big Short is your Oscar nomination for sheer style. The film is an exercise in innovative filmmaking, for which it should be included in film school curriculums as prescriptive material. If you are a film student or an aspiring filmmaker, The Big Short is a must watch for you. The one most used technique in the film is ‘breaking the fourth wall’, something that happens in theatre a whole lot and even on TV, especially sitcoms from the 90s, used it a fair bit. Breaking the fourth wall, simply put, is when a performer speaks directly to the audience ignoring the fictional set up they’re in. This technique is often used to introduce the narratorial voice, to explain what’s going on or give a back story. These tiny pauses throughout The Big Short is where the film drops any pretense of being ‘real’ and reminds the viewers that it’s a fictionalised story being told by actors who are playing these parts. These are the little windows in which all pieces of this puzzle are put together, mostly by Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), who’s the narrator. McKay also brings an array of celebrities ranging from Anthony Bourdain to Margot Robbie (in a bathtub!) to Selena Gomez (at a poker table) who explain the really technical aspects of the banking and finance world by using somewhat simplified analogies. It starts feeling a bit like a day in school, where multiple teachers come and talk about different subjects. Teaching the audience something about the economic crisis of 2008 is the focus of The Big Short and not a byproduct. McKay may have gone a little far in using this technique in the film, as it begins to irritate a little by constantly breaking the flow. But hey, to each his/her own!

The Big Short is based on a nonfiction book, which takes care of most of the research, but creates an altogether different problem of turning facts to a cinematic story. McKay and Randolph do a great job of bringing this story to life through acting and dialogue, ensuring that it still remains entertaining, while also being educational. The film maintains a dramatic but humorous tone which makes it a fun watch overall. They could have chosen to talk about the economic crisis from the POV of those who lost their jobs and homes, or from the POV of the banks, but instead chose a third unexplored perspective, one of the few who benefited from the crisis. They took four independent stories, running parallel to each other, where people come to the same conclusion – that this is going to be the economic ‘armageddon’. It employs some of the tropes associated with heist films, like a group of unlikely people, profiteering in a rather shady way, taking away from those who have in abundance and being really cool along the way! We were reminded of these famous lines from Gone with the Wind, that Rhett Butler says to Scarlett O’Hara, ‘I told you once before that there were two times for making big money, one in the up-building of a country and the other in its destruction. Slow money on the up-building, fast money in the crack-up. Remember my words. Perhaps they may be of use to you some day.’ Rhett’s words were of use to a few many decades later.

The Big Short tells its story through four parallel narratives. each from the perspective of men who did something that no one else did, they ‘looked’. Dr. Michael Burry (played by Christian Bale), a neurologist turned hedge fund manager is the one to foresee the impending fall of the housing market. He is a geek, an introvert whose awkward af in all social interactions and has an obsession with heavy metal (music). If only, they would share his playlist! We never see him leave his office, where he lives and brushes and interviews new candidates in his shorts. That’s just our idea of a really cool boss! Christian Bale is phenomenal as Dr. Burry. He is eccentric, quirky and not easy to like, but a genius who knows he’s one. He is the first one to bet against the housing market, against popular opinion. Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), apart from being the narrator, is also the one to piece together other implications of ‘shorting’ (jargon) the housing market and finds the truth about CDO’s (more jargon), which in turn becomes his big opportunity to make money. He’s slick, sexy, the wall streeter we’ve all seen in The Wolf of Wall Street, who you just can’t trust.

Mark Baum (played by Steve Carell) is the third important piece of this puzzle. Mark is angry with the world. Very angry. He is a middle tier hedge fund manager whose personal loss has left him disillusioned with everyone and everything. Vennett unknowingly tips off Mark’s team, who begin their own truth finding mission to discover how deep and wide the scam of sub-prime mortgages and bonds (even more jargon) runs. Mark has some of the most hilarious scenes in the film and would be a tragi-comic character in Shakespeare’s world. He is as much a ‘character’ as Dr. Burry and has his own eccentricities and quirks, that make him just as difficult to be socially accepted. The fourth story and perhaps the weakest is that of two upcoming brokers – Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock), who seek advice from Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) an ex-banker, who becomes their mentor and trader. In a really cool scene, we see Charlie and Jamie waiting at the JP Morgan Chase office, where they find Vennett’s brochure lying around in the lobby and immediately break the fourth wall to tell us that’s not how it happened in real life and this is only for the purpose of the film! Each of these characters represent personality stereotypes from the nerd, to the vigilante, to the opportunist to the wide eyed kids and you miss seeing flawed, well rounded characters that are just as human.

Here’s the ‘one stand out moment’ for each of us. And for a change we picked just one! There are a whole bunch of punchlines and meaningful scenes in The Big Short, from Vennett exclaiming that Mark is about to have a coronary sitting in the restaurant to the stripper telling Mark about her ‘five houses and a condo’! But the one that made us laugh the hardest was another Mark Baum scene, with his ‘numbers guy’ Vinny who tells him that the risk assessors are waiting for him. Mark asks Vinny to ‘go back in and very calmly, very politely, tell the risk assessors to fuck off’. Vinny true to his character, goes in the room, politely and calmly and says ‘Mark said to fuck off’! And leaves without another word, leaving everyone looking agape.

The Big Short is an innovative, stylized film that does justice to the subject it took. It gets points for technique and experimentation with an interesting style of storytelling. McKay and Randolph manage to create a cinematic story out of a jumble of numbers and conspiracies that is entertaining. The one big challenge with the film is that there’s an overload of information. There’s just too much to wrap your head around, and while they try and simplify it to a degree in the film, for someone without a financial bent of mind, it’s still a lot. In their focus to deliver an accurate, detailed version of the events, there is a lack of human connection with the characters and the film on the whole. You just don’t feel invested in their stories, in their highs and lows and you’re not rooting for anyone and that’s where the film loses on substance. If the Academy had a category for most stylish film of the year, it would be The Big Short no questions asked, but it ain’t our pick for Best Picture!

Until next time, keep the popcorn tub handy!
Adi & Sahil
@ThePopcornWaltz

Bridge of Spies: The feel good Oscar film!

Adi’s TL;DR It has Tom Hanks. You can’t go wrong with that.

Sahil’s TL;DR Duck and cover spy movies!

Bridge of Spies is a wonderful film that we really enjoyed watching. We’d been waiting to say this unequivocally, with no riders, no ifs and buts for all of this Oscars challenge! There is no existential angst, no scientific illusions, no claims to change the world, just good cinema. The kind that entertains without CGI, with good acting, strong direction and effective storytelling. Bridge of Spies is not trying too hard to be different or edgy, it’s smart cinema which is so underrated at times.

Here’s some dope on Bridge of Spies. Directed by Steven Spielberg, Bridge of Spies happens to be his 31st directorial venture. That’s more films he’s done, than years we have :/ The screenplay of Bridge of Spies, comes from the writing mills of Joel and Ethan Coen along with Matt Charman. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have worked on classics like Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me If You Can, so his casting as James B. Donovan, the protagonist of Bridge of Spies was no surprise. The film was a box office success and has been widely appreciated for its acting and production. It has six Academy nominations to its name including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay. Tom Hanks could’ve been in the lead actor nominees, but guess that one got a little crowded this time, leaving out some fine performances, including the ones from Will Smith (Concussion) and Michael Keaton (Spotlight).

Bridge of Spies is set in the Cold War in the 1960s and is based on a historical event. It’s a gripping drama that takes us through the story of Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), an elderly Russian spy, and James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks), an insurance lawyer appointed to defend him. Rudolf Abel is the antithesis of everything you think when you hear the word spy. He ain’t no James Bond. More like James’s uncle from that place far, far away! He is an old, frail looking, denture wearing, canvas lugging spy and yes people believe he’s a monster who deserves nothing less than ‘the chair’. Is he a spy? Yes. Just because he is old, doesn’t mean he ain’t smart, observant, loyal, brave. James Donovan played by Tom Hanks is a successful, upper middle class insurance lawyer who was part of the prosecution during the Nuremberg trials. He’s good at his job, which gets him into this politically charged situation in the first place. He’s entrusted with the task of negotiating the release of an American officer, in lieu of Abel, doing all of this, in his unique, non-combative, not heroic, matter of fact way.

Bridge of Spies methodically works to deglamorize the role of the spy in the cold war, to make it as real as possible.The act of spying is hardly shown in the film. With Abel you see a muffled attempt to pick up and hide a secret message, while Francis Gary Powers, the American is just one of the ‘drivers’ as their recruiter calls them. What you see is the trial of two ‘spies’, who are doing their jobs, devoid of action, glory and overt heroism that we typically associate with a cinema spy. This realism extends to Donovan’s character as well. Just because he has been appointed by the CIA to negotiate the exchange, he doesn’t suddenly become the ‘hero’, with annoying, over the top bravado. Donovan remains true to his character, a lawyer whose job is to make it work for ‘his guy’, who operates within a moral compass and is not jaded by the cold war rhetoric to lose his humanity. The film celebrates a humble, more heartfelt version of heroism, one that’s captured in Abel’s ‘standing man’.

Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance are the highlights of the film. They are a joy to watch as they form an unlikely relationship of trust and respect. Their repartee is just a treat for the audience. The movie has some very good dialogues, going from dramatic to emotional to even humorous in parts. In every one of their conversations, Donovan asks Abel, if he is worried or scared and Abel replies ‘Would it help?’ and the earnestness of that question never fails to evoke humor and depth all at once. It’s an endearing sequence, that you want an encore of. Abel earns your trust and sympathy almost from the word go, with his mannerisms and unassuming style. In his first interaction with Donovan, Abel tells him that ‘You have men doing the same thing for your country. You’d want them to be treated well.’ Of course, all Abel wants is paper, pencils and cigarettes, but this comment stays with Donovan.

We first meet James Donovan in the middle of a negotiation and his skill as a lawyer is established right away. Donovan is respectful but firm, open but observant. Tom Hanks uses his inimitable brand of humor to make Donovan likeable and it brings some welcome reprieve to an otherwise somber film. He diffuses a high strung scene with a couple of words, a look, without appearing cocky or like he knows it all. He gives us moments of lightheartedness, anticipation, sadness, fear, tragedy and ultimately relief. He is a ‘standing man’ as Abel puts it. He finds himself out of depth as he witnesses a world of anarchy with the partition of Berlin and the building of the Berlin wall. It’s a world where people are losing their lives for a chance at freedom. Abel at one point remarks, ‘What’s the next move, when you don’t know what the game is?’ and Donovan figures out the rules of the new game. He discovers that the whole setup was to ‘feel him out’ and that the two sides have been playing him to see when he buckles under pressure. His perseverance in the face of adversity is a character building exercise and one that Tom hanks conveys with an actor’s integrity, of course an actor of his caliber.

It’s hard to miss the similarities between James Donovan and Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird (RIP, Harper Lee). They are both well respected lawyers, who want justice for all and stand up for things they believe in. They experience animosity and ostracization from the social order, they’d been a part of because of their professional decisions. And they both find themselves in the eye of the storm as they are targeted by a faceless mob, not for what they did, but for what the mob assumed their actions implied. Donovan is at the receiving end of the coldness, the hatred of those very people who respected him. At one point he says, talking about Gary Powers, ‘that he (powers) is perhaps the most hated man in America, after Abel and me’. From turning a cold shoulder to a mob led witch hunt, the situation escalates quickly for both Atticus Finch and James Donovan. Social perception is not a theme explored in detail in the film, but it’s one worthy of dialogue. In a scene at the end of the film, we’re shown the changing attitude of people commuting with Donovan as they read reports of his involvement in bringing back an American soldier, pointing to the fickle nature of public perception. As Abel says, ‘Sometimes people think wrong. People are people.’.

Bridge of Spies does a good job of bringing out the paranoia of the cold war as well as the insensitivity of the government. It shows the irrational fear that grips people, who unequivocally brand Abel as a monster and demand death penalty for him without a fair trial, as well as a child who calls the Russians ‘reds’ and wants to know why his father is defending a communist when he isn’t one! A feature presentation on safety measures in the event of a nuclear war, ‘Duck and Cover’, is seen by Donovan’s son as it was shown across schools in the US during the 1950s. You can argue that the story of ‘Bert the turtle’ was propaganda or just disaster preparedness but the fear it instilled in young minds, making them see a nuclear attack not as a probability but rather an eventuality cannot be denied. You’re also shown the insensitivity of the American government which doesn’t care for the life of Frederic Pryor, an innocent student captured by East Germany or for that matter Gary Powers’s as Donovan points out. He’s important simply because of what he knows about the US missions and defense.

Here’s the ‘one stand out moment’ for each of us. Donovan says things in threes in the film, on at least three occasions! In his introductory scene he is arguing that it’s in fact ‘one accident’ and not five as the other lawyer wants to prove and says, ‘The guy insured by my client had one accident. One, One, One.’ He uses this when stressing to make a point. It’s these subtle quirks of characters that makes this film such a fun one to watch and just tickles your interest. Our second pick is when Abel calls Donovan ‘standing man’. Abel recounts the story of his father’s friend, who never did anything ‘remarkable’ all his life, except for the one time their house was overrun by partisan border guards. This man was beaten by the guards, but stood back up each time till the beating stopped. Abel called him ‘Stoikey Muzhik’, a standing man’. ‘Standing man’ becomes an underlying theme in the film, right till the final prisoners exchange, when Abel sees Donovan for the last time. Donovan tells Abel that he is waiting for another man to be freed. The agent in charge tersely remarks that it doesn’t matter what Donovan wants and that Abel is free to go. Instead Abel turns to look at Donovan and says ‘Stoikey Muzhik… I can wait.’ That’s the nature of this relationship – they both remember their humanity and stay loyal to each other, which is more than what you can say about most.

Bridge of Spies never stops being interesting, funny, spirited, meaningful, but doesn’t fall in the trap of taking itself too seriously. This is true of the film as a whole and the protagonists Donovan and Abel. They never lose sight of the people they are, even in these extraordinary circumstances. All Abel wants is to go home and have a Vodka and all Donovan wants is to get back to his bed. There are little doses of subtle humor, in this serious drama. And this is perhaps what makes it a deserving nominee for Best Picture at the Oscars. Will it win? No, if the pundits, the predictors, the experts are to be believed. But was it a good film? Heck yes! Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Mark Rylance give you all the feels and evoke nostalgia of a good old film, something which we can all enjoy from time to time. So if you’re wondering which Oscar nominee to watch this weekend with your choice of intoxicating beverage, our recommendation is Bridge of Spies!

Until next time, keep the popcorn tub handy!
Adi & Sahil
@ThePopcornWaltz

The Portrait of a Lady: The Danish Girl

Adi’s TL;DR The curious case of Eddie Redmayne’s Oscar nominations!

Sahil’s TL;DR The path to womanhood is through silk scarves and hand gestures. I think not.

Remember Carol? We called it the ‘artsiest’ of all Oscar nominees this year. Well we hadn’t seen The Danish Girl till then, which could be a serious contender to that title! The Danish Girl is a beautifully made film about the story (somewhat) of a transgender and her struggles to become the person she always desired to be. Based in early 20th century, the film captures the life of a married couple where gender roles get complicated. So you may wonder, is it a film about transgender rights? No, not really, at least not according to us. This is a subdued, melodrama which happens to have a transgender character, but not one that forwards the narrative of transgender history and rights. Our first impression of The Danish Girl was that it’s a moving film, with top of the line performances from Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, but with an entirely simplistic, unidimensional and in many ways a stereotypical reading of gendered identities and sexual orientation.

Here’s some dope on The Danish Girl. Directed by Tom Hooper (of The King’s Speech, Les Misérables fame) with a screenplay by Lucinda Coxon, the film is based on David Ebershoff’s novel by the same name. Guess this is the year when no one wanted to waste any time with naming – aka The Martian, Steve Jobs, Spotlight, Carol, Room?! The film was first released at the Venice Film Festival and TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) and saw a limited release in the US last November before expanding to more screens. The film saw steady box office performance, on a smaller scale budget as compared to it’s Oscar nominated peers. The Danish Girl has been well received through the awards season and has landed four Academy nominations for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. Though with Mad Max: Fury Road in the race, the last two are kinda taken!

The highlight of The Danish Girl is undoubtedly the performances from Eddie Redmayne who plays Einar Wegener and Lili Elbe, and Alicia Vikander who plays Gerda Wegener. Eddie Redmayne’s transformation to Lili is incredibly convincing. From her mannerisms to her style, Redmayne captures the nuances with immaculate poise and grace. Vikander on the other hand is intensely evocative as Gerda. For some strange reason, Vikander has been nominated as a supporting actress by most award organizations, which honestly doesn’t make any sense. The Danish Girl is as much Gerda’s story as Lili’s. In fact, at the end of the film you know Gerda way more than Lili. We’re shown Gerda’s tragedy as a wife whose marriage is falling apart, her dilemma as an artist who doesn’t know if her muse is real or a figment of their fantasy, a woman who desires a man’s presence in her life but is bound by loyalty and perhaps mostly as a person whose loved someone, who may have never existed. We see the confusion, the stress, the struggle, the desire to make it right and to not know what right is anymore, in Vikander’s Gerda. In her we see the courage to love, to be loyal and the idea, that you could love someone for whoever they are and not only for who you want them to be. She doesn’t stop loving Einar and Lili through the course of the transition. Maybe to show, that gender is just one aspect of a person’s identity, it doesn’t change who you are entirely.

This very idea of gender being just one aspect of your being, is challenged in Lili’s desire to be nothing like Einar. Metaphorically speaking, she wants to ‘kill Einar’ and feels that to be her only way of becoming Lili. From giving up on her talent as an artist to giving up on the person she supposedly loves, to not being able to think beyond herself, Lili’s transformation is in many ways over-simplified in the narrative. As viewers we wanted to see a lot more of Lili, and to understand what goes on in her mind. Unfortunately, we’re not taken inside Lili’s mind, we’re not a witness to her sexual dilemma, to her confusion as a person about her identity and that in our opinion is the biggest flaw with The Danish Girl. We miss seeing the process of Lili’s transition, her struggles of losing the only identity she’s known thus far and stepping into the unknown. The conflict between Einar and Lili is presented in Gerda, while Lili is shown to glide into her character. There’s over-simplification every step of the way – gender roles, sexual identities, societal expectations. By eliminating social acceptance and familial pressures as factors, we’re shown a cocooned journey from Einar to Lili, where the only thing to deal with is within the confines of their home, within the confines of their relationship. This is hardly ever the story in real life and perhaps in this the film does not give the trials and tribulations of the transgender movement it’s due.

This brings us to the portrayal of gender roles and how Lili’s transformation appears to be mostly superficial, with the film’s entire focus on behavior and mannerisms, v/s internal dilemma and change. We see Einar’s fascination with stockings, silks, frocks, gestures, movements, body language which are a gamut of socially accepted ideas of being a woman. A woman is defined by her outer appearance; the clothes she wears, the way she does her hair, the makeup, the gestures, the looks, the way she walks and talks, but not the way she thinks. Women are shown to be nothing but creatures of vanity, the purpose of whose existence is to look pretty for the sake of men. Lili only speaks of clothes, silk scarves, bright lip colors, falling in love with a man, having kids – all things that match social expectations from a woman. In one telling scene, Gerda asks Lili if she misses art, and she is quick to say that was part of Einar’s life and not her’s. Gerda doesn’t mince words when she says, ‘People have been known to be both’. You can be a woman and a human being with talents. It’s not a binary! This is just one of the many ways in which socially defined gender roles from that era overpower any progressive thought in The Danish Girl. Why should someone forsake their skills and talents to be who they want to be? Why does she have to choose between being a woman or being an artist? It’s not a question the film asks, but it’s something that surely bothered us.

Here’s the ‘one stand out moment’ for each of us. The first one is towards the beginning of the film when Gerda is making the portrait of a man and tells him, ‘It’s hard for a man to be looked at by a woman. Women are used to it of course, but for a man to submit to a woman’s gaze. It’s unsettling although I believe there’s some pleasure to be had from it. Once you… yield!’ This is one scene where a woman’s shown to kick some serious ass! You have a man who can barely utter a word in front of this woman who doesn’t conform to any of the well known gender stereotypes and is enjoying the reversal of roles from being gazed on to being the gazer. The second one is when Einar goes to a brothel to observe a woman and tries to copy this woman’s gestures. As he starts touching himself she sees him and he immediately stops. The woman encourages him to carry on by posing like him until he’s comfortable acting out her gestures again. The scene is a powerful one where you see acceptance for Lili come from someone who also lives on the fringes of society as well as her confusion regarding her own gender. How is she supposed to behave and act when she’s really a woman inside a man’s body. It captures the dilemma of gender as assigned by society vs. gender as your biological anatomy.

Coxon apparently worked on the screenplay of The Danish Girl for ten years before she could take it to production houses and directors. It’s somewhat similar to Phyllis Nagy’s story with Carol, where again the project became one where the screenwriter was personally invested. But alas the similarity between the two ends there, while Carol is a well rounded plot, The Danish Girl does not do justice to it’s theme. It’s like a half baked cake, it had the ingredients, but not the best recipe. The film takes a lot of liberty in terms of the portrayal of the real Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener and glosses over the hardships these two tragic painters experienced in real life. The film ends on a poetic, almost cathartic note for Gerda who gets to experience the one place Einar thought fondly of and in the visual of the flying scarf you finally see Lili set free.

Until next time, keep the popcorn tub handy!
Adi & Sahil
@ThePopcornWaltz

P.S. We’d love to hear from you! Let’s talk in the comments here or on our twitter, whatever you prefer 🙂

Mad Max: Fury Road – Extended Cut

Thanks for coming to the Extended Cut! Hope you enjoyed our take on Mad Max: Fury Road here 🙂

Mad Max: Fury Road

Fury Road, although primarily an action film, touches upon a number of themes which we explore in our extended cut here. Read on to see what we found out between the sparse lines said in the film and the madness of monster cars exploding all around!

Toast: ‘What are you doing?’
The Dag: ‘Praying’
Toast: ‘To who?’
The Dag: ‘Anyone that’s listening’

Religion and faith are two interesting themes raised in the film. Immortan Joe is both a religious figurehead and an autocrat, who uses religion the same way as it’s used today – an opium for the masses. ‘Valhalla’, a piece of pagan mythology originally meant for soldiers who died in combat finds its way into the religious fabric of the film. Immortan Joe uses it as a promise of a glorious afterlife for his slave ‘war boys’ who die on the fury road. Nux, the war boy is perhaps the key to understand this dystopic world and you can see how blind the faith runs among his kind indoctrinated by Immortan Joe, who in the beginning says ‘I’m gonna die historic on the Fury Road’ and ends his half-life with ‘Witness me’. You also have the war boys screaming ‘V8, V8, V8’ with a temple-like structure built of steering wheels with cars nearly worshipped in the film. From the ‘gates of Valhalla’ to ‘you will ride eternal shiny and chrome’, an alternate discourse of religion has been created by the people in this wasteland.

In contrast, you see the faith of Furiosa in ‘The Green Place’ and ‘The Many Mothers’ of the Vuvalani to find redemption for herself and a home for the five wives. Towards the end of the movie we see, The Dag one of the wives praying to ‘anyone that’s listening’, while the concept of praying has survived, god is lost.

‘Who killed the world? We are not things’

Painted on the walls in the vault where Immortan Joe keeps his five wives/prized breeders, these comments highlight the objectification of human beings in this society. People have been reduced to things in the movie, another resource to be consumed piecemeal and in whole and then thrown into the wasteland. From blood to mother’s milk both are considered precious commodities prized more than the life of a human being. The gates to the citadel itself are operated by a horde of slaves pedaling like cattle, part of the machinery that runs it. Immortan’s war boys with their shaved heads and painted white bodies look like skeletons trained to do his bidding wiped of all humanity. Everyone in the colony is branded with Immortan Joe’s stamp, owned by him like the war rigs and pursuit vehicles they run.

The characters in the film have rather (un)characteristic names (pun intended!), another theme that brings out the dystopia and objectification in the film. From Furiosa to Rictus Erectus to Immortan Joe’s wives Splendid, Capable, Fragile, Toast, and The Dag, all names are based on some attribute the person displays. The two somewhat familiar names you hear are Joe and Max which are also transformed with an adjective in the beginning. Larry and Barry are the most benign names in the film, but alas they’re the tumors on Nux’s neck that he’s named. Funnily enough the chaperone and nursemaid Immortan Joe has is called ‘Miss Giddy’ another character named after an adjective but given the title of ‘Miss’ as you would in Victorian times!

Splendid: ‘It hurts!’
Furiosa: ‘Out here everything hurts.’

Gender is complicated in Fury Road. Gender roles are both reinforced and inverted through the course of the narrative. There is objectification of both men and women and it’s hard to say who’s representation is worse in Miller’s story. The half-life war boys and war pups, with no real names, are slaves to Immortan Joe’s (played by Hugh Keays Byrne) demands, from picking him up to dressing his ulcers and are falling over themselves for his slightest approval, because in this broken world he holds the key to Valhalla. All men are shown helplessly following orders from one tyrannical leader, weak, incapable of standing for themselves, succumbing to his irrational demands. Nux and Max are the only men to have human shades in their character and experience hope, fear, solidarity and the desire for redemption.

On the other hand, women in Fury Road are bound by ties of kinship and shared histories of oppression. They are fighting for their common goals of survival as a race and not as individuals driven by power and politics. Women are shown to have the last vestiges of humanity, who don’t kill for pleasure or play. Despite their despicable treatment at the hands of men, they are capable of love, compassion, solidarity and forgiveness and they can extend this to women and men alike. In this film women are resilient, courageous, survivors and the true heroes of the film. They are not afraid to jump right in and take charge when needed, they are not scared of rolling their sleeves and getting things done. From tallying ammunition to driving vehicles to fighting men in one on one combat – women are shown to be just as badass and that’s a great statement against any kind of stereotyping of women as the ‘weaker sex’. They are scared because they are human, but that also makes them capable of love. Women are shown to hold in them life and hope, and, birth and motherhood. In a poignant moment, towards the film’s climax we see a mother of an older generation pass on the last remaining ‘seeds’, her heirlooms, to a younger mother. In this their is hope of life and growth and rebuilding the idyll – the Green place.

Immortan Joe’s world – his citadel is free of women for most parts, no roles are assigned to women except for breeding and lactating. He keeps specially chosen women, called Breeders in his harem with chastity belts to reproduce his alpha male progeny. These women are all physically attractive and young, making them the easiest targets in this patriarchal world, with an excess of testosterone. The other set of women are much older who are being raised like cattle to produce milk for Immortan Joe, his war boys and even for trade with Gas Town and Bullet Farm. Mother’s Milk is some sort of an elevated ‘energy drink’ and is even in their chant. Did we tell you that this is the mother of all dystopic worlds you’ve ever seen? If not, you’ve now been told.

In this world where women are treated in the worst way possible, we’re introduced to Imperator Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron) who is the only female Imperator in Immortan Joe’s army. Fury Road begins with her leading a war rig (which is a big deal) to get ‘guzzoline’ and bullets. How Furiosa survived the fate of other attractive women in this world remains a mystery. Our best guess is her physical deformity – she doesn’t have a hand, which makes her ‘imperfect’ and not suited for Immortan Joe’s breeding plans. One could build an entire film on Furiosa’s back story and how she fought her way to the top of the army and became an Imperator. Fury Road is primarily her story of defiance, of her fighting the patriarchal order to make a world that’s fair to the weak and the strong, with everyone else, Max (Tom Hardy), Nux (Nicholas Hoult), Splendid, Toast, Capable, playing supporting cast. At the climax, Furiosa is the one to put an end to Immortan Joe, and not Max, further reinforcing Miller’s vision of this being her tale.

And this is the perfect segway to talk about Max and what is Tom Hardy doing in Fury Road. For one, he is in the title of the film and it’s through him that we’re taken to Immortan Joe’s world and introduced to the awesomeness of Furiosa. He is also the narratorial voice, even though sparingly used in the movie. But mainly he is seen as Furiosa’s partner in crime and by the end of Fury Road, you see a sense of partnership between them, that’s new to both loners. Thankfully at no point does this become something cheesy or overly sentimental and they both stay true to their characters – Furiosa as the leader of the oppressed and Max as the weary traveler moving from one adventure to another. Max convinces Furiosa to go back to the citadel and fix what’s broken, instead of going on a wild hunt for a better world which may or may not exist. And by doing this with her, he sees redemption for both of them. Towards the end of the film, we see Max choosing to move on instead of staying back. He appears to be scared of being tied down to anything or anyone. He values his freedom and his solitude and wants to protect that fiercely.

Of all characters in Fury Road, Nux was the most interesting and in a way he holds the key to many layers of the film. It’s through him that the war boys get a voice, a representation that makes them appear more human and not just faceless suicide warriors owned by Immortan Joe. It’s also through Nux that we are taken into the deep recesses of the ideology of this dystopic universe. We’re shown how his only desire is to go to Valhalla – his final destination and dying on the fury road is the chosen route. His blind faith in Immortan Joe, his belief that death is the only way to Valhalla, his constant doubt of being awaited, the certainty in his mind of his death – Nux lives everyday with the desire to die and in this he captures the extent of dystopia. Sitting amidst wildfires, sandstorms, gore and blood is his idea of a ‘lovely day’. So when his last bid to reach the gates of Valhalla fails, his disappointment is just as intense. He feels broken and hopeless. And in that moment he experiences compassion and empathy and care all at once with Capable’s gentle touch. Capable’s trust in Nux gets him included in Furiosa’s band of survivors and for once he experiences hope. Redemption is an important theme in Fury Road and perhaps Nux is the only one to attain it. He dies for a cause, a free agent, or at least as free as he had ever been. He dies in glory and is witnessed in that moment by the one person who cared for him, with whom he’s seen a glimmer of love and life. In Nux, we see that there is hope to switch over, to change course, to experience happiness, to take control of a life that’s seemingly uncontrollable, even if it’s for a little while.

Andy Dufresne really knew what he was talking about when he said ‘Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.’

Until next time, keep the popcorn tub handy!

Adi & Sahil

This decade’s prescription for action: Mad Max: Fury Road

Adi’s TL;DR Proposed title – Mad Max: The awesomeness of Furiosa!

Sahil’s TL;DR Don’t name your kids Rictus Erectus or Capable!

Every once in awhile (or decade) an action movie is made that you know will spark off a thousand heated debates, rip-offs, parodies, sequels, prequels, one-liners and more! Films like Enter The Dragon, Raiders of the Lost Ark, First Blood, Die Hard, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, The Matrix have gained cult following and are all classics in their own right. Is Mad Max: Fury Road on its way to this hall of fame, only time will tell! Meanwhile, here’s a review from The Popcorn Waltz, who coincidentally hadn’t been exposed to Max and his antics before and will talk about their first ride with the madness unleashed by George Miller.

Here’s some dope on Mad Max: Fury Road. Fury Road is the fourth edition in the Mad Max franchise. It’s been directed by George Miller, who also happens to be the director behind Babe and Happy Feet. We’re glad that turned out alright for our animal friends 😉 The screenplay is written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris. Miller is also amongst the producers of Fury Road, which would explain how the ginormous action sequence budgets were approved! Since we haven’t seen the earlier Mad Max films, we don’t have a comparative theory on where it falls in the Mad Max universe, which in a way ensured we enjoyed the film for itself, with no legacy concerns.

They say, you can only have one – box office success (Read: people’s money) or recognition from the Academy (Read: licence to charge producers more money). Fury Road is one of those few lucky films to have both. If we look at Academy history with action films, there haven’t been too many that got the stamp of Oscar recognition, barring The Hurt Locker (if you consider it an action flick) in the last decade and Gladiator and Raiders of the Lost Ark much earlier. Believe it or not, The Matrix did not win any of the top honours at the Academy Awards! With a staggering 10 Oscar nominations including the top ones for Best Picture and Director, Fury Road is second only to The Revenant, which has 12, making it a serious contender across the board this year. If nothing else, Fury Road has confirmed its place in the Oscar hall of fame!

Watching this movie was like dodging bullets (literally and figuratively) with high-octane action sequences crafted to perfection and very limited CGI use. It was like sitting in a car, hurtling down a mountain at breakneck speed, and yet on a trajectory which wavers not one bit! For its action alone and the way it’s orchestrated, George Miller deserves multiple awards. The film uses a very oft-repeated trope from action flicks, one of a car chase, making it the mainstay of the film with shots that’ll leave you agape with shock and awe. As a viewer, the action was overwhelming on the senses but at no time do you lose sight of what’s happening in every shot. One could possibly go on and on about the action in Fury Road, the way it’s shot, the intense camerawork, but suffice to say this movie is a milestone in technical prowess.

The plot of Fury Road is simple enough to describe; a religious cult leader who has gone off his rocker, a man on the go caught by the wrong men, a woman with anger issues who’s kicking some serious ass and then an epic chase. The movie is based in a dystopic wasteland, where fresh water and ‘guzzoline’ is the currency used to rule by Immortan Joe (played by Hugh Keays-Byrne), the tyrannical leader. Death and decay permeates all levels of this universe. Under Immortan Joe’s dictatorship there are three kinds of people – his war boys that do all his bidding, his prize breeders, the few chosen women of ‘worth’, and everyone else whose existence the tyrant ignores for most part. The dystopia creates sufficient distance to make it believable which is reinforced in the language and cultural fabric of the film. Loose, broken, half-pieced information from the world known before the thermo-nuclear war has creeped in. From ‘McFeasting in Valhalla’ to ‘Aqua Cola’ to ‘Blood Bag’, all reinforce the dystopian world they live in. The war boys use ‘Mediocre’ to highlight a great job, while Immortan Joe later uses it aptly, knowing its real meaning, withholding knowledge from the masses.

Even though the film is titled Mad Max: Fury Road, Max (played by Tom Hardy) is hardly the focus of the story. Fury Road is more Furiosa’s (played by Charlize Theron) tale of defiance and survival. In this world, where women are treated as objects to fulfill specific needs like producing milk and giving birth to the perfect progeny, Imperator Furiosa is an exception to the rule. She stands her own ground and is respected and feared by men. She undertakes the task of rescuing the women kept in captivity by Immortan Joe and she meets Max while on the run. They become an unlikely partnership and Max realizes how both of them are looking for redemption. They are both characterized as loners and working as a team doesn’t come naturally to them, but you see them fall into a rhythm of mutual respect and trust through the course of Fury Road.

Here’s the ‘one stand-out moment’ in the film for each of us. The first one is when the Buzzards start chasing Furiosa’s war rig and Morsov, one of the war boys, jumps on it in a dying moment. He picks the homemade spears, screaming ‘Witness me’ with his face painted ‘shiny and chrome’ and jumps from the war rig blowing the car up on impact. The entire sequence especially the jump captured in slow motion is what the action is all about! This happens within the first twenty minutes and you know here’s an action film you won’t forget in a hurry! The second one is when Nux (played by Nicholas Hoult) in the middle of a wild sandstorm driving his pursuit vehicle, with bodies flying all around, on a suicide mission exclaims ‘What a day! What a lovely day!’. This is literally the film in a capsule. That moment symbolizes everything crazy and scary and freaky about Mad Max: Fury Road and gave us goosebumps.

Fury Road definitely shaves off important plot points and dialogue to keep the action rolling and keep audiences at the edge of their seats. While this goes to show Miller’s incredible skill at keeping the action tight and not letting it overtake the film in a way that renders it meaningless, it’s also a critique of how he’s let go of building what could have been an intense storyline that cuts through lines of gender, politics, power and ultimately survival. One would imagine Miller didn’t want his audiences to be ‘Nolan-ized’! For it’s epic action, cinematography and visual direction, Fury Road will go into both film annals and fan history, while also giving you just enough fodder to chew on philosophical questions about religion, faith, gender and power. The cool part is that you can choose to watch Fury Road just as an epic action film or also as a socio-political commentary on our world and both make it a great film to watch.

Until next time, keep the popcorn tub handy!

Adi & Sahil

P.S. Want some more? Here’s our Extended Cut.

Not your Siskel and Ebert.

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by and welcome to The Popcorn Waltz 🙂

Whether you love going to the movies or bringing them home, the experience is like nothing else. They take you to another world, captivate your imagination for a brief but exciting period of time, and then leave you with the feeling ‘this ride could’ve gone on for just a bit longer’. Well, not all movies make you feel that way, but you get the drift. Not every performance stays with you like Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone, or Al Pacino as Lt. Col. Frank Slade and unfortunately you can never unsee Adam Sandler in ‘You don’t mess with the Zohan’! So as they say, you can love’em or hate’em, but you can hardly ignore them.

The Popcorn Waltz is our take on movies, what we love about them and what we don’t. Are we a movie review site? Perhaps not. Think of this as a conversation between friends, over coffee or beers, whichever you like, about the last movie you saw. We’re no Siskel and Ebert, because one, we don’t know as much about cinema, two, we don’t talk their language and three, we don’t hate each other! We’re no experts, just two people who love watching films and talking about them.

And of course, an ‘About Us’ section is seldom complete without a little something about the founders (we like the sound of that!) so here’s a quick flashback. We’ve been best friends for years, also happen to be a couple and we dig movies! We studied Literature together in college, so if you see Shakespeare or Jane Austen make an appearance, don’t be alarmed! Other than movies, we’re also crazy about tech (think Google, YouTube), books, music (more Metallica, less Bieber), food and traveling but that’s for another time. We believe in two things, first you can never watch a movie without a tub of popcorn, and, second it’s never too late in the day (or night) to watch another film!

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Till next time when you refill the tub and pop in the film!