You’d read the movie description and might ponder if this would be anything remotely interesting, if at all. Make no mistakes, this slow paced adaptation of the book is excellent by all accounts. Brie Larson who plays Joy, the mother, delivers an impactful performance and William Macy is excellent as usual with the short role he is at in the movie. But the star of the show is the nine-year-old actor, Jacob Tremblay (Jack). He carries more than half of the movie on his slender shoulders effortlessly and with such maturity that you forget that this is a child actor that we are talking about here!

The movie showcases some of the most powerful emotions and shades of the human nature with delicate subtlety. It discusses the adaptability of the human mind by making the audience question how “relative” is reality when you see a room as your world. And the close connection between a mother and a child- they are the two people for each other in the whole wide world- is an extension of the womb and you cannot escape the feeling that if Jack sees the world outside for the first time, the experience would be nothing short of rebirth.

I cannot discuss it any further because of the fear of sending a spoiler or two your way. This is easily one of the best movies of 2015- it is powerful, funny, realistic and absolutely incredible. Be warned, it has the capacity to dig out a tear or two as well.

Do watch!

A tale of blood, suspense and mistrust.

Tarantino has made this movie for his fans. If you aren’t acquainted with his work, start with Reservoir Dogs, do the Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds. Then jump on to his more groovy work with Death Proof, Natural Born Killers and Grindhouse. (Django was too commercial a Tarantino work for me). Now you are all set. Get ready for a three-hour long saga looking at eight people, more or less, and getting enthralled and amazed.

The suspense in the movie is genuine- you are at the edge the whole time figuring stuff out and making the connections so that you can go in the end like aaah- I knew that! But when has Tarantino been this simple, and I think it is marvelous that he has been able to create so much with so few characters. The dialogues are extremely funny- dang dark humor, the plot is thick, you cannot point out a finger to who lies, and to someone who is living on the part of the globe with snow all around, the cold conditions on which the movie has been set gives you the absolute chills.

Samuel L. Jackson steals the show along with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kurt Russel is brilliant, Micheal Madsen is surprisingly old- one always wonders how come he hasn’t appeared in more movies, and Tim Roth can be confused with Christopher Waltz for one half of the movie! This film has all the Tarantino quirks, people vomiting blood, shots to the head with brain splatters, a quiet peaceful symphony with the most intense and disturbing scene that creates a blizzare effect, extremely funny dialogues at the most unthought of circumstances (diaaaaabooolicaaal biiiiiiaatch, dialogues between Jackson and Bob the Mexican), some lovable poor characters who die for nothing, and this film has Mr. Quentin at his unrestricted, unstrained best.

One of his best movies- it was an experience to say the least. And to imagine Tarantino nearly scraped off the project because of the leaked script!

Some movies stay with you long after they have ended. And a few do it with such panache. Spotlight picks up a delicate story, and lays out the events that happened with finesse, leaving you wondering where you were when the grave misdoings happened. The movie is based on the true story of how The Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese. We have all read about this story, we have all seen Priests made fun of in comedy shows and jokes written about the molestation of little boys, this movie makes you feel the pain a child must have gone through when the violation occurred, and so much more.

“What do you do when the God asks you to do something?”, implores one of the church victims at one point. And that is when you try to comprehend the gravity of the whole situation. These were God’s men we are talking about here; these are spiritual leaders. The children they broke either went into depression, alcoholism, drugs or took their own lives. And the movie does not try to sugarcoat it, and it does not try to amplify the whole situation- it presents the way it is and leaves it to the audience to comprehend.

The people in the movie are brilliant, and you could expect nothing less of the cast of Micheal Keaton- who has carried on his amazing work after Birdman, Mark Ruffalo- thick accent, wonderful as ever, the beautiful Rachel McAdams, Liev ‘Sabertooth’ Schrieber and John ‘Madmen’ Slattery. I knew nothing about the movie before I started watching it- started it partly because of the cast, and was blown away. It tells us the importance of investigative journalism- something that is a dying breed nowadays, and the impact that it can have on the whole world. The movie does not turn the journalists into heroes, it presents them as who they are, lets them do their job, with a realism that grips the audience. It tenderly lays down tiny insights into the lives of the journalists, as well as the people who had been violated- twice- one by the priests and second by the system that did nothing to punish who wronged them.

Do watch! 10/10.