Natasha Ahmed

Reviews and other content aren't verified by Google

"Marriage Story," at once gives out the La La Land-ish charm, but I believe there's something similar, which weaves through every good movie. And that is where we may find a connection or two. Marriage Story is set against the contrasting backgrounds of LA and New York, and a crumbling marriage, shown through the process of its decay. The movie is long, extending a little over 2 hours and aptly so. The narrative of the story builds up in a precise tempo and the direction is marvelous, as would be expected from a veteran like Baumbach. Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver coalesce into their roles, and their chemistry, even at the failing marriage and the fight for custody over their eight year old son, is remarkable. What appeals to me the best I would say is the ending. The closing of the movie faces a very realistic treatment at the hands of the filmmaker, leaving it on a note that there's still love left. But the love wasn't enough to hold the marriage together, each polarised, intent on having their own life in their own way. Love persists, but things change. Again where I am reminded of La La Land.

Trust me, and only trust me when I tell you that Micheal Schur has created yet another of the best shows on television! "The Good Place," is that show, which you are going to start watching, either by suggestion, or by randomly scrolling through Netflix, and then, before you know, you're binging on it for the next many weeks. Watching it over and over again, not because you have had trouble understanding or peeling off the plot and the narrative, but because it is undoubtedly the show that makes you feel the most effortless to watch. The plot is "dope!" the casting is "remarkable," and Everything is just about fine about this excellent show that I am so glad I stumbled upon. Best show, awesome show. The story line is so lucid and compact, so original, so pure. There's almost nothing that lies as a fault in this show. Each character have played their role so excellently, moulded into its skin that it's impossible to tell the real from the fiction. Watch it, forking watch it!

What the film begins with, is absolutely gorgeous and captivating. The young Ronan, the beautiful Knightley and McAvoy, their extremely intense chemistry, sets the pace for a period drama, that ends up devastating the viewers. The film is beautifully made, the characters are well created, and breathed life into extraordinarily, by Ronan, who's character portrayal is one of the best, by McAvoy's humility, the man of earth, educated in Cambridge - a subversion of his working class background, the charming and undaunted Keira Knightely, and not to forget the craft of Benedict Cumberbatch's facial expressions, as that gave away his paedophilic intentions. The film movies smoothly, and subtly, until the end, where everything turns upside down. It is a characteristic of the metafiction novel that is, on which the film is based, of the same name. The death of the characters are emotional, as the brutal World War plays the template against which their destinies are destroyed. The grotesque portrayal of the real horrors of the war, what it did to the "300,000" soldiers who yearned to their death to return home, but never could; who died without having anything to drink, who were left in foreign lands, wounded, and forgotten by the Empire. The many, many who lost their lives just for the clash of pride of Imperialism, the mistakes of others' that ruined lives, and there was no going back. What's done, is done, and that is the reality. Great cinematography, great plot, great acting. Worth a watch. Give it a shot, you won't be disappointed.

When I started watching the movie, I was thoroughly surprised at the absurdities portrayed with such unflinching affirmation. The Hotel turns you into an animal if you are in-capable of finding yourself a partner, and we go through the film witnessing the overwhelming dilemma of the people stuck in there, trying to find someone to get out of the comprising machinery. The movie, at first, may seem slow, but as it advances, you realise that it was actually picking momentum throughout and happened at a regular pace to keep up the rhythm of everything dystopian about to unravel. You struggle through out to find your perfect "match," and coming at the ending, though it is highly ambiguous, and there lies a few straight asserted possibilities that could take place, I prefer to believe, the character brought to life by Colin Farrell, could not, I repeat, could not being himself to make a compromise as huge as pulling his eyes out, in order to match him with his partner. They were short sighted before, both of them, and they were drawn to each other in a forbidden romance, for which both of them were willing to transgress, but once it was she, who lost her eyes, and the only way of remaining together in a companionship could be if he'd deliberately sacrificed his vision as well, but we see, this is a compromise difficult to commit oneself to. The ending scene where Rachel Weisz sits at a diner, looking at nothing, staring inadvertent into an imagined future, first, overwhelmed as she knows he'd be with her for the rest of their lives, and growing tense, uneasy, scared, terrified, when he does not return for long. The film ends at this moment of tension, where we're not given any answers. There is no closure, and like the audience of the Post Modernist era, we are left at face value to interpret it as we can.

I have heard people call "Heathers" overrated, and I wonder which world they belong to. If Heathers is anything, it is highly underrated. The film deserved/deserves so much better. Winona and Christian Slater are high school candies, and the chemistry between them was phenomenal. The film is filled with bleak humour from the start till the end, and especially the ending is super bomb. I haven't quite seen such a smart teenage movie yet, and if it had hopes of being celebrated as a cult classic, I am sure there must be other fanatics like me who'd worship this film after decades of its release into the theatres.

"Look Back in Anger" is unlike anything I've read or watched before. The gruesome reality of the plot is so real, and unsettling, that the only position you can find yourself is that of utter psychological disturbance. Jimmy is not easy to unpack with his traumatic past and the violence he emulates, neither is Allison, who takes in every ounce of pain he inflicts on her, until the anticlimax, where she leaves. Neither is it possible to unpack Helena's character subtly, as to how she falls in love with Potter, and chooses to stay with him in his "madhouse." You do not need a horror film with ghosts, and silent apparitions, to unsettle you, and scare you for nights, but this psychological drama will cater to the responsibility of thrilling you for quite a long time.

Unpopular opinion, but I did not find "Mr Robot" very satisfying as a TV show. It has a usual, predictable plot, I think, and it is quite a drag at certain points. If we're talking about technology and it's misuse, there are other TV shows, and better. If we're talking about acting and plot, there are a plethora of others, and much, much better. Rami Malek, and Christian Slater are extraordinary, but I feel it's just them. I wouldn't agree if you'd say it was a very well acted (in an entirety) show, or a very well written, compact show. There are better.

To claim that there can be one, well-versed, well written "review," of the show Fleabag, is nothing but a colossal lie. You cannot, in no matter how many words, at one time, express what this show is about, and what this show does to the audience. Well, I would like to sit down with you, numerous times, over a cup of tea, maybe, at a little, quaint hamster-themed café, and discuss life. Or what the brilliance of PWB has named, "Fleabag." If there is one show on TV that has been able to capture human relationships as it is, and with such deft, it is none but Fleabag. To be able to portray the idiosyncrasies of the closest blood relations, who are not so close after all, the failure at romance or being understood by another person, to turning the sacred oath of friendship into the ground of profane doings, to feeling yourself disassociating when no-one around you has the moment to stop and look at you, acknowledge you, ask after you, really ask after you, what do you do? You seek the closest thing you can to feel the nerves in your body turn into live wire, or as you call it, "the performance of it." You choose sex, with anyone, with anything, to distance yourself from the reality of being unacknowledged, unloved, unappreciated to such an extent that you don't even have a name. You're an "it," rather than a her. You are a representation of everything that does not fit into the sanitized lived of those around you. You're a woman, and you're lonely. You're lonely because you're a woman. The inherent emptiness and pain that comes with being a woman, the loneliness that no-one talks about, because maybe, women around you, around the world, have accepted that it's best not to speak, because no-one would be listening anyway.

You know how when a long show ends, and you feel like you've lost the entire purpose of your life? That now there is nothing to look forward to, and the burden of everyday's routine monotony comes crashing down on you? Well, that's exactly how I feel right now. I just finished watching Manifest, and cried uncontrollably with S4E20. It was heart wrenching, warm, and full of love. That's how they get shows to tug at your heart, and generate revenue. However, that's not the point I'm trying to establish here. Manifest is a good show, but it's not great, and that seems to be my biggest problem. The plot is excellent, the execution - poor. It is a commonly observed thing to notice that many a times a show starts off with a loose introduction, poor acting and execution, but gains momentum as the seasons progress. For Manifest, this worked along the extremes. The first 3 seasons - except for a few jump scared and wow moments - are bland. Nothing really happens, yet the story moves forward, but not quite. There is a feeling that the makers almost forgot what they were doing, and just needed something to fill in the space between the prologue and the epilogue. The 50+ number of episodes are unnecessary, the show could perhaps be closed at 3, perhaps even 2.5 seasons, because most of the times, the lack of action and progression of the plot is simply annoying. The last season (S4) does have a tremendous amount of tension, and binds the beginning to the end so well that it leaves no questions unturned, but to get to the perfect execution, it took them 3 seasons, which I do not appreciate. Had the run time between shorter, the show would've turned out much, much better. It has everything, and by everything I mean the power and virtue of a strong plot, which feels wasted to quite an extent. Nevertheless, Manifest is not a show I'd watch again anytime soon, but it is definitely worth a watch sometime.