RIFLE RANGE BOY

Anora (2024) Director: Sean Baker https://thefutureoftheforce.com/2024/10/31/review-anora-2024/ I was nearly knocked off my socks when I heard that 'Anora' won five Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Actress, and Best Director. However, receiving the Best Film award is beyond any rational justification.   My first impression of it when I viewed it was that it seemed like rubbish. It reminded me of the numerous B-grade films that excited teenagers in the 1980s when they gathered around their friends' VHS players to watch Koo Stark in 'Emily'. The plot is thin and predictable, and the storytelling fails to present anything new. The storyline has been told and retold in numerous other films, though it serves more as a subplot. For context, this narrative follows a pole dancer who also works as a prostitute and finds herself infatuated with the debauched son of a Russian oligarch. According to her, the correct job title is exotic dancer. They dive into a whirlwin...

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...

No Time to Die (2021) Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga In my youth, I used to think, "with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, soon these espionage movies will all be passé." How wrong I was. And here I am in the 21st century, and the Russians are still posing a threat to the Western capitalist world, so we are told. The Slavs, dressed in Red Soviet uniform then, have changed into their sharp suits, digital devices, and oligarchic money to play the same espionage and political manipulation game to portray a rosy picture of communism to the world. World domination, it seems, is high on their agenda.  But frankly, let it be vulture capitalism and Red ideology; they are merely just two sides of the same coin. Think US election, think Bashar al-Assad to usurp power, think despotic leaders trying to suppress dissidents, you will find American and Russian handiwork in action. It is all about world domination, absolute power and total control by the powers that be. So, come the 21st centur...

The Death of Stalin (2017) The difference between Capitalism in the West and Communism in the East of Europe arose because Capitalist societies retained philosophical persuasions and political pluralism as expressed in a parliamentary democracy, a free press and free trade unions. Communist societies, on the other hand, froze Marxist philosophy into a closed system of orthodoxy. This led to heresy-hunting, which in due course reduced Marxism to the status of a Semitic creed like Christianity and Islam. Bertrand Russell was not far wrong when he identified Communism as a Christian heresy. It has acquired all the characteristic features of the Christian Church such as the only saviour, the only Revelation, the only Pope, the only priesthood, the only baptism, and the only sacraments. Communist regimes could not help becoming totalitarian enemies of human freedom. The initial success of the Bolshevik Revolution is evidenced by the advancements in living conditions and headway in scienc...

The Overcoat (1959, Shinel,  ШИНЕЛЬ,  Russian) A Soviet film adaptation of N. Gogol's 'Overcoat.' Watching Mira Nair directed film 'Namesake' eventually brought me to this Russian movie. One of the iconic lines mentioned in 'Namesake' is 'we are all from Gogol's Overcoat'. The quote is attributed to Dostoevsky, who meant the whole Russian literary world owe their ideas and styles to Gogol, the pre-eminent satirist and literary realism.  Gogol's Overcoat had made it to the silver screen many times over. From the silent film production in 1916 to the 2018 animated version, some of it carries different storylines. This 1959 Soviet production stays true to the original short story. I also managed to catch up with a made-for-TV adaptation for 'Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents' starring Buster Keaton named 'Awakening'. Both of these movies are available on YouTube. Akaki Akakievich, the protagonist in Gogol's s...

Namesake (2006) We all wear coats to hide what we wear inside. Sometimes we are ashamed of what we have underneath and need to cover it all. At other times, it is chilly outside. Occasionally, what we have beneath it is inappropriate. Shame, political incorrectness or social awkwardness are all put aside; the real person under it all is the real us. The act of being someone else that we are not may come back to bite us. Additionally, wearing blinkers and staying adamant about what we have without being receptive to positive external input is self-defeating. Life is a learning experience. We are all eternal students picking up wisdom as we go. Our final destination is one that amalgamates all the wealth, baggage and tradition that we carry inside. In short, we are what we are but should not forget where we came from, but at the same time, learn to adapt and adopt our new environment. We have often heard of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, the famous Russian writer and his work s...

Brothers Karamazov (1958) Fyodor Dostoyevsky's writings during the Russian Golden Age of Literature have been referred to as a go-to place by many great icons of the world. At times of uncertainties, Einstien used to read Dostoyevsky for clarity. Nietzsche defined him as the only psychologist that he needed. Dostoyevsky inspired many writers like Hemmingway and Kafka. Akira Kurosawa made movies based on one of his stories ( The Idiot ). Osho (aka Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh) described the profound moral and philosophical messages in Dostoyevsky's 'Brother Karamozov' comparable to the Bible. This story tells the story of Fyodor Karamazov, a high spirited widowed father who enjoys the more beautiful things in life - wine, music and women, especially a lady, Grushenka, who runs a tavern. Fyodor has four adult sons, each with their own personality traits. He is very tight-fisted with his money. Dimitri, the eldest, an ex-army, has a penchant for money and also an eye on Gru...

The Mitrokhin Archive II (2005) It all sounds like a plot of an espionage paperback set in the Cold War era. The only thing that makes it interesting is that it is said to have happened in the real world - that a KGB employee, disillusioned with the direction that Communist Russia was taking, should decide to painstakingly make short notes, via his handwriting, of secret documents as the KGB headquarters was relocated and the archives, in the pre-internet days, were transferred. Vasili Mitrokhin, the low-level official, after the collapse of Soviet Union, in 1992, decided to take his 10 years worth of handwritten documents and to defect to the West. He had apparently shown up at the American Embassy in Latvia with his papers but was turned down. At the British Embassy, however, he was cordially offered a cup of tea and the rest, as they say, is history.     The papers were a damning account of the clandestine activities of Soviet Russia in many countries of the world....