RIFLE RANGE BOY

CODA (2021) Director: Sian Heder Now we know they are two meanings to the word 'coda'. As we have come to know it, the first word refers in music to the closing passage in a music piece. As the root word in Latin suggests, Coda is Italian refers to the tail (e.g. cauda equina is the sack of nerve fibres that fan out like a horsetail at the posterior end). The word's second meaning is actually an abbreviation for 'Child of Deaf Adult'. In essence, it refers to the child who grew up with non-hearing parents. This film is about a CODA, a high school girl, Ruby, who grows up with both mute parents and an elder brother who is also mute. This tightly-knitted family of four live by the coast. Father is a fisherman helped by his son, who dropped out of school early due to disability. Ruby juggles between school and helping her father on a fishing boat. The understanding is that Ruby is to help out in the family business after high school. By chance, after joining the scho...

The Kingmaker (2019) Director: Lauren Greenfield An eerie resemblance exists between the Marcuses' story and that of Najib Razak's. Ferdinand Marcos was democratically elected as the President of the Philippines in 1965. The beginning of his tenure saw massive development and prosperity aided by foreign funds. By his second term, the economy was in the doldrums, prompting citizen uprising. In 1972, martial law was introduced. The opposition and media were silenced. True, in the early stage, progress was apparent, and everyone was happy. Slowly, sycophants and rent-seekers moved in. The Marcoses soon became megalomaniacs. Beyond their collection of handbags, shoes and paintings, the symbol of their opulence is the Safari Park in Calauit Island. Imelda Marcus had had exotic animals uprooted from their natural habitats in Kenya to create a wildlife sanctuary in their own backyard. To make place for these wild animals from the other side of the world, the Government had to displace...

I'll meet you there (2021) Story, Direction: Iram Parveen Bilal The movie's title has its origin from one of Rumi's sayings. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.  It sounds about right. It is easy for a third person to look at our every action and pass judgement, just as easy for us to judge others. There must be a justification for everyone's actions. He must have given a lot of thought before embarking on its execution. If the measures are just by their intentions, pure at heart and are sure to accept the consequences, who are we to pass comments? This movie created a buzz on my antenna when it was reported to be banned in Pakistan. Its Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) found the film unsuitable for public exhibition as it did not reflect true Pakistani culture, portrayed a negative image of Muslims, and was against Pakistan's social and cultural values. All the film did was depict brown people and Muslims in...

Donbass (Russian/Ukrainian; 2018) Written/Direction: Sergei Loznitsa The other day, a day after Putin's army invaded Ukraine, posts on many Malaysians' social media posts read, 'Pray for Ukraine'. One should not have sleepless nights thinking of 'writings on the walls' like this, as it has become almost like a knee-jerk reaction to any world event. Nobody wants to ask why should we pray to an omnipotent God who was in a position not to let it happen at all in the first place. But yet, they convince themselves by alleging that great things are willed by Him, but the follies are only ours. His Grace will save us. Hey, don't the Malaysians have a bone to pick with the Ukrainians? After all, it is above their airspace that our national carrier MH17 went down in 2014? Ukrainian pro-Russian freedom fighters allegedly shot the MAS plane with Russian firepower as determined by the multinational Joint Investigative Tribunal. So Ukrainians are not all at fault but Put...

Anantaram (Monologue, Thereafter, 1987) Written and Directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan Adoor Gopalakrishnan is said to be a director of such standing only comparable to doyens of the new wave cinema like the Great Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. His works are a joy to watch. Still, they may appear a tad too slow for some people's liking. This one is a story of a teenager who slowly evolves to be psychologically disturbed. It showcases, rather clearly, how a bubbly, bright child who seems to excel in everything transforms gradually into a mesh of a confused young adult. It stars Mammothy, Shobana and the protagonist, Asokan. Children are all born beautiful, with a chest full of hope, just bursting with ambitions to change the world. The world is their oyster, and the sky is the limit of what they can achieve. To seal their confidence, their parents jump at every milestone of his achievement. They think they have with them a genius who is going to go places and make them proud one day. Th...

Drive My Car (Japanese; 2021) Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi Based on Short Story by Haruki Murakami I have not read any of Murakami's works; I guess I should. His body of work is said to reflect the deep, dark corners of human consciousness. After watching this highly engaging movie, I think I should engage time to appreciate his writings. As in all good movies, the viewers are clueless for a good one hour into the film. I was wondering where the story was going. Why was the protagonist, Kafuku, a theatre actor, who was acting in 'Waiting for Godot', keeps driving around? Why did he not react when he caught his wife, Oto, sleeping with another man? What is this about Oto and telling stories? Then there is the history of a dead child. And then the wife dies too. Two years on, Kafuku is on a directing stint in Hiroshima. The company insists that they hire a chauffeur for him to drive his 1987 Saab Turbo. The chauffeur, Misaki, a young 20 something woman, seems to carry a massiv...

Downfall: The Case Against Boeing (2022) Netflix documentary Whenever I see the tagline at a particular private medical centre that reads "We Care", I cringe. I tell myself that it should be reading "We Care, right! - Only for your money!" Somehow when a business entity says such a thing, it sounds ingenuine. More and more, we notice these foolhardy manoeuvres hiding behind informed consent and pages of indecipherable agreement terms. Multinational companies move in with their big budgets and high-rolling executives to portray an image of purity and magnanimity, teaching smaller firms how to practise fair trade. In reality, they are no more than fly-by-night snake oil salesmen who would disappear at the crack of dawn. Over the past few years, the shenanigans of Boeing, the mega-conglomerate which made more than half of the world's planes, has come to light. First, in late 2018, a brand new Boeing 737 Max belonging to Lion Air of Indonesia went plunging down into...

Nightmare Alley (2021) Nightmare Alley (1947) Based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham (1946) In the spring of youth, we all think we are invincible. We believe we were sent to change the world. We go on a crusade to achieve these desires. Somewhere along with our lives and we should realise who we really are. We should know our capability, what role we play in the world. Only then can we set camp and grow laterally instead of reaching for the unattainable. The trouble is that this realisation may come early in some, at 20, 30 or some so much later in life. Some just roll down the cascade of their entire length of existence without realising it, ending it without collecting any moss. The original offering in 1947. Carl Jung is quoted to have said that until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate. Or karma. "Know thyself" - like it is inscribed at the courts of Temple of Apollo at Delphi. In 'The Art of War', Sun Tz...