oscars 2016 – Page 2 – The Popcorn Waltz

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.

The Martian: Thanks for not killing anyone, not even Sean Bean!

Adi’s TL;DR We’ll have to write the shit out of this!

Sahil’s TL;DR Don’t forget duct tape when you go to space.

When you think of sci-fi films, let me be more specific ‘outer space’ sci-fi films, what comes to mind? Aliens, alien worlds, most obviously, space exploration (all Star Trek fans say Yay!), and everything in the middle from philosophy (think Interstellar) to outlandish drama (think Armageddon) to horror (you thought we wouldn’t remember Event Horizon!). Among these our celestial neighbor (not the moon, the other one) has a special place with 29 films to its name, if you go by this Wiki article. Some worthwhile and some better in space than on your hard drive!

The Martian is somewhat of a formula ‘outer space’ sci-fi movie, giving sci-fi buffs a healthy dose of all things they dig, but with a twist. A first for this genre, The Martian practices reckless optimism, way more positive than any other space movies made before. There are no crazed aliens out to get you, or robots cut loose, or scientists with dark ulterior motives and even the planet is not out to kill you, at least for most sols! So you may wonder what’s in the movie when all these rich plots of the past have been dropped? Well don’t go losing all hope so soon! The Martian is the story of an astronaut beating all odds with his unconventional survival tactics, peppered with a healthy dose of wit and humour.

Here’s some basic dope on The Martian. The movie is based on a book by Andrew Weir, that was never supposed to be a book in the first place. The Martian was a hobby project, where regular episodes were posted on a blog. Andrew Weir put together the book on public demand and published it as a PDF on Amazon at an attractive price of 99c. Within a couple of weeks, Andrew Weir had a publisher and a movie deal with Ridley Scott! If that’s not an american fairy tale, what is?! The Martian is another one of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi fantasies, backed by bigger, brighter visuals than ever before. The long spanning shots of Mars’s surface (Wadi Rum in Jordan) are absolutely fabulous and for that the credit goes to the cinematographer, Dariusz Wolski.

The Martian’s won a bunch of awards already this season, including the Best Actor in a comedy or musical for Matt Damon and Best Picture comedy or musical at the Golden Globes. Whether it’s really a comedy or not can be debated – but the film has undeniable humor and some seriously funny one liners, that we’re sure will enter the ‘movie quoters’ lexicon. After all, who can resist the urge to say – ‘In your face, Neil Armstrong’! Drew Goddard can take a bow for this and many such brainwaves through the film. The Martian has 7 Academy nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay – all of which points at it’s fantastic reception with the Academy. Interestingly it did not change Ridley Scott’s luck with the Academy, who did not win a nomination for Best Director. Clearly, Ridley Scott is to directing what Leonardo Di Caprio is to acting, if you go by the Oscars!

‘Mainly starring’ Matt Damon and one helluva ensemble cast, Jessica Chastain, who should be named Murph forever, Jeff Daniels (Harry for life), Sean Bean (Boromir – appearing to be shady, but ultimately good guy), Chiwetel Ejiofor (stoic Solomon), The Martian should have won all outstanding cast awards this year. But that wasn’t to be, because all the screen time and Ridley Scott’s off screen time was spent on building Matt Damon’s character. This is evident with nearly all good lines going to – you guessed it – Matt Damon! Way to go, Scott & Goddard. And this is perhaps the biggest problem with The Martian. It’s funny, it’s got great lines, Matt Damon really holds your attention, but the supporting cast is literally the wallpaper in the room that no one’s paid any attention to and that kinda sucks, given how awesome it could have been.

The movie begins with a not-so-novel plot, with a space mission gone awry (like Gravity, Apollo 13, Sunshine) and an astronaut left behind in space. Just when you’re thinking, ‘I’ve seen this before’, Matt Damon makes you sit up by performing an intestinal surgery and kicks off things with a round of laughs. And suddenly this seemingly tragic film turns into the tale of a character who is talking to cameras, trying to grow potatoes, romping around a planet all by himself and cracking one liners like ‘I’ll have to science the shit out of this’ and ‘Mars will come to fear my botany powers’! The movie isn’t a laugh riot but it definitely has it’s funny moments sprinkled rather generously.

The science in the movie, although dubious in places, like flying ‘Iron Man’ style in space, or crazy storms on Mars or having gyms in impractically large and luxurious space ships, is pretty tight for the rest of it, making it fairly plausible. Counting and rationing food supply, hacking plant growth, making water, are all reasonably realistic and thought through. But honestly, the science isn’t as important as the attitude in The Martian, which is summed up by what Mark Whatney says towards the end of the movie to a batch of students, ‘You do the math, you solve one problem…Then you solve the next one. And then the next. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home’.

NASA was consulted every step of the way in the making of the film and it’s featured prominently throughout, with The Martian’s release date closely coinciding with NASA’s announcement of water on Mars (no coincidence according to us). Interestingly, reputation management is a noticeable theme in the movie, where the PR head (played by Kristen Wiig) of NASA is shown in most discussions surrounding the ‘retrieval’ of Mark Whatney. Not what you’d expect in sci-fi films, but suggestive of how everyone needs strong image management in today’s world and a rather amusing injection of realism in the movie.

Abba, David Bowie (RIP), Donna Summers, Thelma Houston – all make an appearance in The Martian. Considering this film is based in 2035, all this music is pretty darn old and no wonder Mark Whatney feels the way he does about it! Watching him dance along to Donna Summer’s ‘Hot Stuff’, right after he figures how to keep himself warm in the truck is one fun scene. The film ends with Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I will survive’, which should have been Matt Damon’s mantra in the film! It totally sums up his survival tale and the song captures the euphoria of the film, leaving you with a sense of elation.

Here’s our ‘one standout moment’ from The Martian. It wasn’t easy to pick one for both of us, so we picked two instead. First for the love of LOTR, the Elrond scene is pretty damn cool, especially making Boromir/Sean Bean explain what it was to the ‘non-nerdy PR girl’, and losing his cool like he did in the actual ‘council of elrond’! Our second pick is perhaps the closest the film gets to sentimentality when Mark Whatney is finally rescued by Murph and the first thing he says to her is ‘It’s good to see you…You have terrible taste in music’. The Martian ain’t a hyperbolic tale of heroic survival but a practical, scientific and witty one.

Our final take on the film

Let us know what were your favorite moments in The Martian, in comments below or tweet us @ThePopcornWaltz.

Until next time, keep the popcorn tub handy.

Adi & Sahil

P.S.Interested in more science in The Martian, watch this amazing Screen Junkies video and subscribe to them for more awesome movie magic!

Carol: Extended Cut

Hey, thanks for reading our take on Carol and coming over to the extended cut! Read on for our individual takes on the movie. We’d love to hear your thoughts – you can comment on this post or tweet us at @ThePopcornWaltz. Happy Reading!

Adi’s Take

To be or not be, a conformist

Conforming to social norms or not is an underlying tension in Carol’s narrative, where we see both characters dealing in equal parts with the desire to belong and to break away. Right at the beginning we’re shown Therese’s non-conformist self, when she doesn’t put on the ‘santa hat’ unlike everyone else at the toy store. Then she goes on to say that she preferred train sets to dolls as a child, again moving away from the ‘girls love dolls’ stereotype, but without any over-dramatization or being labeled a ‘tomboy’. When Carol inquires does she know a lot about train sets, Therese self-consciously answers ‘yes’ and attributes her knowledge to reading and immediately remarks that she ‘reads too much probably’. Another societal construct about women and their ability to read. We’re shown Therese wants to be a photographer which was a largely male dominated profession at the time. She is also the only one to mention same sex love in the film and actually has a conversation with her boyfriend to hear what he thinks, which does appear rather daring for the time the movie is based in. Her unique non-conformism is pointed out by Carol many times when she says that Therese has been ‘flung out of space’ or ‘what a strange one’ she is or how ‘she is full of surprises’. Against this you see Carol as a struggling conformist – mourning over the burnt turkey, trying to fit in the moulds of the perfect wife and mother, trapped within social and familial norms of class, upbringing and gender. When she picks up a job, decides to live life on her own terms – she moves away from her conformist self, but doesn’t break away from all socio-economic norms.

The journey

The metaphor of a journey is used all through in Carol – there’s the trip Carol and Therese go on and then there’s the larger journey they undertake that shapes them through their shared experiences, as the story of ‘Carol’ unfolds. Therese’s journey is definitely the more linear one, as she goes from adolescent like self doubt, to exploring her sexuality, discovering her inner strength and finding her place in relation to her world. Carol’s journey on the other hand is a lot more complex, as it goes back and forth. We meet Carol as a middle aged woman, whose ten year old marriage is ending and her daughter is the center of her universe. Losing all that had defined her identity thus far – her marriage, the construct of a ‘normal’ life and most importantly her daughter, Rindy, who is the fulcrum of her being, truly puts her out of her comfort zone.

Thus Carol becomes a story that’s not just about the struggles of two lesbian women in the 1950s, but the story of women who choose to not conform to social expectations and give themselves a real shot at a fuller life. We see Carol move from being the seductress at the beginning of the film, to a broken woman seeking companionship on a journey with no clear destination in mind to giving up her desire to be herself to salvage what she loves most. And eventually going back to the strength within to stand up for her happiness, and not being miserable ‘living against her grain’. She is the one to start from scratch and rediscover her place in the world again, as she moves houses, cities and roles becoming a single, working woman and for the first time really, being her own master. Carol’s story is rife with emotion and you can’t help but stand beside her as Cate Blanchett takes you on this journey with incredible beauty and grace.

Expression of love

To me, Carol’s a love story. And the delicacy with which the expression of love is handled is fascinating. There are no long declarations of undying love, of staying faithful and committed, there is no use of any known cliches to tell us how they feel for each other and yet you cannot miss the intensity of their feelings. If I were to romanticize them falling in love, I’d tell you that it felt like a slow, long walk in central park on a fall morning with nothing but beauty of the changing colors around you. Cate Blanchett is this mysterious woman with an air of surreal around her, that you can’t help but gawk at. You simply cannot take your eyes off her and neither can Rooney Mara! But if I had to pick a moment, the moment when Therese falls in love with Carol, that would be when she captures Carol being Carol, oblivious of how captivating she is to Therese who is completely smitten by her. Therese takes her first picture of a person instead of the inanimate world she’s been fascinated with so far and all this is told through their eyes and the wonderful soundtrack by Carter Burwell. What makes it even more poignant is that perhaps, Therese herself doesn’t know the name of this feeling yet. And there isn’t a point in the film, where we’re shown her struggle with these feelings – Therese just flows with it, to love or not to love Carol is not a question for her.

As with most other things in the film, this is not an easy path for Carol, whose ‘moment’ is a lot harder to pick. She is the one who gets to say the magic words, only to be rudely interrupted by reality. What could have been a cathartic moment for the characters and the audience, is sharply taken away as Carol leaves, without getting an answer. A sparseness of dialogue runs through the film, which is eloquently replaced by the background score. And such is the case with the ending of the film, where you see Carol and Therese look at each other and their eyes emote everything from surprise to anguish and the essence of the film is locked in Cate Blanchett’s smile, that says nothing, but says it all.

Abby & Carol

One could really write an entire post on Abby and Carol’s relationship and it’s handling by Todd Haynes. Sarah Paulson, plays Carol’s childhood friend, Rindy’s godmother and her first lesbian lover. But really we are shown Abby as Carol’s alter ego. Abby is wise for her years, strong through her experiences and capable of being practical and rational and emotional when required. She is the one with no regrets, who knows what she is doing, who’s comfortable with her sexuality and is living the life she wants, not answerable to anyone but herself. She is shown as Carol’s support system, her voice of reason. Abby is the only person she speaks to about the ridiculous ‘morality clause’ (trust us it’s as crazy as it sounds.) Abby is also the only character Carol trusts enough to speak about Therese. When Carol’s world slips under her feet, she calls Abby to seek advice and solace, even though she is with Therese at that moment. And Abby knows this, but there is no judgement, no bitterness, just unconditional love and loyalty.

There’s a scene where you see Carol and Abby walk down the staircase, with their faces away from the camera, their arms interlocked – there is more solidarity, more support, more kindred spirit in those few steps, than anywhere else in the film. Abby is Carol’s confidant, her agony aunt, her one supporter that she couldn’t take calls without. In a scene early on, Abby asks Carol to tell her she knows what she is doing and Carol just says ‘No I don’t. I never did’. This exchange is a summary of their bond – candid, brutally honest, without fear of judgement or isolation. In some ways, I feel I know a lot more about the dynamics of the Abby – Carol relationship, than I do of Therese and Carol’s, and that’s something to say about it.

Sahil’s Take

The Gaze

Carol’s camerawork is intricately woven into the storytelling and perhaps a theme that stood out the most for me. The movie opens to a zoomed-in shot of the subway/sidewalk grate which appears like a gate, an interesting view on how perspectives and understanding can differ with relativity or your vantage point.

The film uses the camerawork to highlight two different ‘gazes’, so to speak, where on one hand you see how others around Carol and Therese view them, and how when they’re together, they look at each other. The movie is so focused on the two characters that the camera is literally eavesdropping into their world. The film starts with an unknown man who walks in on a conversation between Carol and Therese, where his interruption is literally how you’re introduced to the two protagonists, establishing the gaze of the world upon them and how that’s a constant intrusion.

Then there are scenes where you see Carol and Therese together, like their car journey, where the camera shows you sides of each as if it was the gaze of one following the other, like Therese following Carol’s hand as she drives or Carol looking at Therese through the corner of her eyes, while driving. There is this intense sense of intimacy that the cinematography is building without being intrusive at all. Interestingly, a scene in the movie is repeated twice when Carol and Therese meet at The Ritz Tower Hotel, where in the first instance we are shown Therese’s gaze and Carol’s the second time. Another highlight of the movie is how it begins with Therese and ends with Carol, the object and subject of Therese’s desire.

The motif of journey

Carol covers both a literal and a metaphorical journey for both its characters. You see a real journey, a sexual journey and a life journey, especially for Therese whose part in the film can be divided in three acts. The first where she can barely ‘decide her own meal’ and does mostly what she’s told to, the second one where she develops a relationship with Carol and can coyly suggest they take the presidential suite ‘if the price is attractive’ to Carol to the final act, where she comes out shaken and begins her life anew, taking a slew of decisions from painting her house to moving out of a relationship with her boyfriend, Richard (played by Jake Lacy), to realizing her dream as a photographer and working at the Times, her evolution is clearly marked throughout the film.

A gentle seduction

You can’t miss how Carol’s literally drawing Therese out, gently seducing her, with each meeting the two have. For Therese, Carol captures her imagination the first time she sees her in the toy store, and is enraptured by this woman who’s languidity and charm are at odds with her own lack of both! You can’t miss Cate Blanchett’s evocative eyes in the movie, that would have everyone falling for her.

Of course, Carol finds Rooney a very intriguing girl, allured by her unworldly innocence and caged desire, a girl ‘full of surprises’. The intimacy the two share increases as their journey west progresses, with Therese suggesting they stay together rather than taking two rooms and Carol teaching her the ’ways of women’, from makeup to perfumes. By then, you know the question is not if, but rather when.

Their intimacy rises like a crescendo, the sexual tension palpable, and though Therese’s desire is visible, she doesn’t really know how to express it until Carol breaks the barrier and unties her robe. Interestingly, it’s Therese who tells Carol to take her to bed but it’s Carol the experienced woman who you see on top. The lovemaking scene, nearly two and a half minutes long, is shot very artistically and captures the intensity between Carol and Therese, not making one awkward which happens a number of times when you see a sloppy sex scene.

I am quite sure there was a wave of disappointment at not being able to see Cate Blanchett naked after you see Rooney Mara! Perhaps Todd Haynes just couldn’t get Cate Blanchett to agree and had to make do with showing just her back 😉

You don’t need weak men

The movie features four noticeable male characters, Harge Aird (Carol’s husband), Richard Semco (Therese’s boyfriend), Dannie McElroy (Therese’s friend) and Fred Haymes (Carol’s lawyer) none of who measure up to the women. It almost feels like the absence of strong male characters is by design to show the strength of the women. I believe you don’t need weak men in the background to show strong women and wish the film had taken that stand too.

Harge is shown raging in almost every scene where all he wants is to take Carol away with him. He loves Carol in his own weird way but his desire to possess her and preserve a false sense of ‘that happily married couple hosting parties and dining among friends’ is so important that he can’t take Carol not wanting the same. He’s like a whining, cranky child who doesn’t want to let go of his toy, while Carol is shown to be at another plane of understanding altogether who can admit that she didn’t make Harge as happy but ultimately wants the best for their child. Richard on the other hand is another petulant kid, fixated with the idea of possessing Therese, marrying her and taking her to Europe, almost as unexciting as a cardboard cutout.

Characters as strong as Carol and Therese don’t need a handicap and I wish Todd Haynes had taken some creative liberty with the story and shown at least one strong male in the mix. It feels like the male characters weren’t really fleshed out. Harge comes close but fades in comparison to Abby, Carol’s friend who has an extremely impressive role in the movie.

Until next time, keep the popcorn tub handy!

Adi & Sahil

To be or not to be, Carol.

Carol is perhaps the ‘artsiest’ (we know it’s not a word!) of all Oscar nominations this year. It isn’t the most riveting film you’d come across, but one crafted with incredible finesse, showcasing the gaze of two lovers on each other, and an enchanting performance by Cate Blanchett. It’s a slow film, that takes it’s own sweet time to build, but the intensity is what keeps you hooked.

Here’s some basic dope on Carol. The screenplay, written by Phyllis Nagy over 11 years (heck yes!) is an adaptation from a novel called ‘The Price of Salt’ by Patricia Highsmith. If that doesn’t get you a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, then what does?! Todd Haynes directed Carol beautifully to cinema screens and into the hearts of critics and has had a fabulous award season with many directorial accolades coming his way. Carol was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where interestingly Rooney Mara shared the Best Actress award.

Well, the Academy didn’t seem as taken with Carol, and it missed out on both Best Picture and Best Director nominations and that’s a shame. We watched The Martian recently and thought, if that’s a Best Picture nominee, there’s no way Carol didn’t make the cut! But we gotta say, this is true to the history of Academy awards, where there is little celebration for women lead films (think The Iron Lady, Erin Brockovich, Julie & Julia) or movies that explore homosexuality (think Philadelphia, Milk). And Carol is both, so guess that ain’t really a winning combination. These films mostly find recognition through the stellar work done by actors, that convinces a largely conservative, male led Academy to acknowledge their work (think Natalie Portman for Black Swan, Sean Penn for Milk, Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, Tom Hanks in Philadelphia). In similar fashion, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara have both been nominated for Best Actor in a leading and supporting role, respectively. Most such films are either ignored or at best get a nomination for the coveted – Best Picture and Director awards.

We’ve seen Carol twice and the standout parts both times have been fairly consistent. The film revolves around the two protagonists – Carol Aird (played by Cate Blanchett) and Therese Belivet (played by Rooney Mara). It’s a tale of these two different women, in age, experience, social class, sexual awareness, sense of self and their twin journeys through the course of the film. We’re shown the world primarily from their vantage points and the cinematography creates this illusion of intimacy throughout the film. Carol’s set in the 1950’s and the sense of a period is reinforced in everything from the artwork to the costumes to the muted colors. This dullness of backdrop is wonderfully contrasted by Cate Blanchett’s bright reds and oranges.

Carol is full of moments, accentuated by its beautiful background score given by Carter Burwell, with a sparseness of dialogue that’s refreshing. When we thought of one standout moment in the film, we both instantly went back to Therese’s first meeting with Carol. Carol is the affluent, meticulously dressed woman, who walks into the toy store with an air of mystery around her. She is instantly the object of desire and we see that in Therese’s gaze. Carol is leaving after the transaction, when she turns and points at Therese’s santa hat and says in stage whisper ‘I like the hat’. In that moment, we were just as smitten as Therese and said out loud ‘Cate Blanchett is frickin’ awesome!’.

Where’s the climax in Carol – is a question we’ve thought a whole lot about and it’s hard to say which moment in the last 15 minutes of the film holds it. Is it the scene at the lawyer’s, which is really the only scene where Carol pours her heart out in as many words or is it when she tells Therese she loves her or is it in Therese’s slow dazed walk towards Carol, who truly looks like a dream? We could not agree on one and maybe that’s how hard it will be for you too 🙂

To us, Carol’s a love story. It’s not talking of activism or rebellion for rebellion’s sake or celebrating the desire to be different – it’s really just showing us how two people met and the turn their lives take. In the choices they make, both forced and otherwise, is a commentary on their lives and times and perhaps by extension our lives and times today. It’s like reading a book, that makes you think and ponder and start a conversation, but not something that enrages you and we really appreciated that. We wonder how different Carol would be, if it was set in the present. It’s really the story of two women choosing happiness, which makes Carol, almost unexpectedly, a triumph of love, of the freedom to be true to your grain.

Adi & Sahil

P.S. We had a lot to say about Carol and so we did! If you’d like to read our individual takes, check out our ‘extended cut’. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the movie and what you loved and what you didn’t. Send us your comments or tweet us at @ThePopcornWaltz. Until next time, keep the popcorn tub handy!

The Oscars Challenge!

As we’ve already established, we love watching films. Which also means that we have a love/hate relationship with the big ‘awards season’. Whether it’s the BAFTA or the Golden Globes, the SAG or the Oscars – each one has been known to have it’s moments when they seem to have completely lost the plot! But that doesn’t stop us from following them year after year. ‘Tis the season to root for our favorites and then feel intense although short lived, spurts of happiness or disappointment depending on the outcome. Whether the awards are fair game or just celebrate the inner circle is a historical debate, we’re definitely not getting into here – but they are surely a source of entertainment, excitement and exuberance.

The other thing these awards always end up doing is giving us an end of year movie watching list, the lesser heard, lesser advertised, outside of Marvel’s superheroes, fast and furious gang films (think Carol, Whiplash, The Pianist). And for the last many many years we’ve tried (unsuccessfully) to watch all films that emerge as contenders before the awards, just so we can say ‘I told you so’ when some of them win and some of them don’t 😉 So this year when we decided to start The Popcorn Waltz – it was only right to begin by undoing the wrong of years past. And we’re gonna do that by playing what we’re calling ‘The Oscars Challenge’, a name born at the lowest pits of our creative thinking :/

This is how it works. We’ve shortlisted 12 of the 20 odd Oscar nominated movies this year, primarily based on whether their trailers looked intriguing, but also how many categories they were nominated in and other logistical details. We have 5 weeks till Feb 28th to watch all 12 of these films, write about them and come up with our predictions. And what’s even better is you can play along! Watch any/all of these films and tell us what you think and when we open the poll for our predictions – please, please vote. It’s a super tight schedule, so let’s get started.

Here’s our list of films, if we’re missing something that’s a must watch let us know and we’ll try our best to incorporate:

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!

The Popcorn Waltz is a two way street, so join the conversation and tell us what you think. Thoughts, ideas, opinions and rants are all welcome. Thanks for adding us to the list of things you do to procrastinate on things that need to get done 😉

If you like what you read, please share it with your friends, family and social circles. You can follow us on Twitter @ThePopcornWaltz for updates and more movie fun! You can also reach us through our ‘Contact Us’ page or email us at thepopcornwaltz@gmail.com.

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