Sucker Punch: A fantastic tragedy

IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism

A sucker with no punch

It’s only once in a while that a person comes across a love-it or hate-it film. And when one does face the inevitable, the choice is pitifully simple – you only have two poles to choose from. Predictably so, in most of these precarious cases, one pole dominates the other. Like in this case for instance, the film personifies the first word of its title, while clearly lacking the later.

You would be forgiven if you presume Zack Snyder (Director) refers to his teenage journals before conceiving a script. Sucker Punch makes too much noise without a hint of tune. The characters he builds and the world around them are from his teen-hood imagination too. Take for instance Baby Doll, a 20-year-old girl who is unjustly institutionalised by her evil father.

Baby Doll (Emily Browning) quite literally has every facet of imagination. She retreats to a fantasy world where her virginity is going to be sold in five days. The trauma opens a new chapter in her mind, which takes her to Japan where she meets a wise man who puts her on a treasure hunt quest. The film is full of such tragedies.

Crystal balls are being stolen from a dragon’s throat, knives, lighters and what not. Baby Doll and her band of hookers even time-travel to a robot-filled city to disarm a bomb!!

Or maybe Snyder knows exactly what he is doing. High-graphic wannabe action-fantasy films may just make you some money.

After all 300 made half a billion!

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Barney’s version: Funny, romantic & thoughtful with some brilliant acting

IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism

Cigars, booze and heartbreaks…

To show a person’s entire life story and not allow it to become boring, takes some effort. Roping in Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman makes the effort
considerably less.

Based on Mordecai Richler’s novel of the same name, Barney’s Version is a delightfully amusing film, which shows the life story of Barney Panofsky, who is arguably the chirpier, politically incorrect, and infinitely funnier version of each one of us.

Throughout the beautifully directed film, we see Barney’s bluntness getting him into quite some trouble, and when a man has to marry thrice and fall in love with another woman on one of his wedding nights; one can begin to see the extent of it.

However, the many heart-tugging moments in the film such as his second wife committing suicide, and his best friend Boogie falling into the lake during a drunken scuffle, brings a different perspective to the film: one of introspection. It makes one think that whatever decisions we take today, there will come a time, when we will look back at them and the best we will be able to do is smile.

The final half of the film is bittersweet as Miriam, Barney’s third wife leaves him over his infidelity, just as Barney starts showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease. The film becomes more sensitive as we feel for Barney and see him trying to make his marriages and his life work. When the film ends, one cannot help but think that even though Barney had many flaws and blemishes, he was in the end trying his level best to be a good man. Isn’t that something we are all trying to do?

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