Tag Archives: Life

Mundane History (Anocha Suwichakornpong) Review

Posted on June 18, 2017 by Kamran Ahmed

Though rather unassuming, Mundane History conveys this dreamy energy whose effects are felt for days to come. As the title commits, the narrative events are monotonous. Yet paired with a non-linear timeline, the blatant monotony becomes the driving force of … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged aocha suwichakornpong, birth, cinema, Consciousness, Death, energy, History, Life, Malick, masterpiece, Meditation, Memory, monotony, mundane history, relationships, stars, Thai Cinema, Thai Film, Time, universe | Leave a comment

Voyage of Time (IMAX, Terrence Malick)

Posted on December 19, 2016 by Kamran Ahmed

A spectacular audio-visual experience lensed through a catholic-agnostic viewpoint with Brad Pitt’s voice over assuming humanity’s deepest yearnings, wonderment, and faithful ignorance. The words, like thoughts, shift from observation to rumination to curiosity, with each subject placed on screen given … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews (capsule) | Tagged agnostic, brad pitt, dinosaurs, exposition, faith, imax, Life, Malick, narration, religious, Soul, Subjectivity, Terrence Malick, universe, voice-over, voyage of time, wonder | Leave a comment

Distant Voices, Still Lives (Davies, 1988)

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Kamran Ahmed

This is a different sort of review. I never meant to write a formal piece, but I ended up watching the film an unprecedented three times in three days, and I want to share the experience by posting various informal … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged 100/100, aesthetics, Art, artistry, best of, blues, cinema, Cinematography, Davies, Death, distant voices, distant voices still lives, english film, epiphany, family, film form, film theory, funeral, gospel, home video, letterboxd, Life, Liverpool, man going around taking names, masterful, masterpiece, Memory, mirror, music, orchestra, pauline kael, perfect film, photography, repeat viewing, resonance, Soul, still lives, sunset song, terrence davies, tracking, transcendent, tree of life, werckmeister harmonies | Leave a comment

Poison (Haynes, 1991)

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Kamran Ahmed

A triptych of abstract queer cinema with narratives connected through themes of alienation, disgrace, and shame. Each allegory calls towards the experience of being queer; Haynes likens the alienation of a young boy, the restraint of a victimized male, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews (capsule) | Tagged 3part, abuse, Alienation, angels, disgrace, gay, haynes, hero, homo, homosexual, homosexuality, horror, judgement, lgbtq, Life, monster, poison, queer, queer cinema, Religion, sex, shame, social malaise, todd haynes, triptych | Leave a comment

It’s Such a Beautiful Day (Hertzfeldt, 2012)

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Kamran Ahmed

Such candid observation and comprehensive inquiry into the bittersweet truths of existence never so potently realized as in this most sophisticated of simple elegies. An animated spiritual equal to the likes of Tarkovsky’s Mirror, Malick’s Tree of Life, and Sokurov’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews (capsule) | Tagged animated, Animation, award winner, bittersweet, candid humour, comedy, Death, don hertzfeldt, Drama, dry humour, elegiac, elegy, existence, hertzfeldt, it's a beautiful day, Life, live-action animation, masterpiece, melancholy, Memory, movie, mundanity, spiritual, stick figure, Time | Leave a comment

Ordet (Dreyer, 1955)

Posted on December 26, 2015 by Kamran Ahmed

Such perfect mastery of time and rhythm perhaps unequaled in cinema. A chamber drama with few scenes, each austerely captured by the observing and detached gaze of a languid camera, which carefully tracks the actors deeply nuanced performances in long … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged agnostic, Art, best movies of all time, black and white, carl theodor dreyer, christ, christian, Cinematography, clock, Contemplation, cross, danish, denmark, destiny, dreyer, eternity, faith, farm, fate, Foreign Film, fundamentalist, ghost, God, gods, jesus christ, kingdom of heaven, Life, long take, lord, madness, Meditation, mental disease, mental illness, mindfulness, Mise-en-scene, Movies, ordet, prayer, presence, psychosis, Religion, resurrection, revelation, revival, Spirit, Spirituality, sweden, ticking clock, Transformation, word, yin and yang | Leave a comment

Ken Park (Clark, 2002)

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Kamran Ahmed

Ken Park is Larry Clark’s most offensive and unnecessary film. It is provocative for the sake of being so, with little urgency in its quad-story structure. Unlike Kids and Bully, the film has no sense of responsibility in truth telling, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews (capsule) | Tagged abortion, anal, asphyxiation, awe, banned, Banned films, bully, child, children, controversial, controversy, Death, drugs, Harmony Korine, homocide, Incest, intercourse, ken park, kids, larry clark, Life, masturbation, morality, murder, pedophilia, Politics, rape, Religion, restricted, sex, sex and drug culture, sex drugs, sexual frustration, shock, shocking films, social norms, society, Spectacle, Suicide, teens, threesome | Leave a comment

Tangerine (Baker, 2015)

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Kamran Ahmed

I don’t really understand the unwavering critical praise. Along with Son of Saul, this is the biggest disappointment of the year vis-a-vis acclaimed cinema. I was a bit skeptical when I heard that it was shot with an I-Phone, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged 2015 film, Best Actress, black women, cinema, Cinematography, drugs, films of 2015, friendship, hooker, iphone, Life, Love, movie, pimp, prostitute, relationships, sean baker, sex, shot with an iphone, Tangerine, trans, transgender, whore | Leave a comment

The Long Take and Mindfulness

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Kamran Ahmed

Branching from my recent post on the film cut and mental anxiety, I’d like to now put into context the opposite phenomenon, the link between long takes and mindfulness, a notion that often leads to theories on the therapeutic value … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged andre bazin, anxiety, attention, awareness, buddhism, cinema, Cinematography, conscientiousness, conscious, Consciousness, Contemplation, dharma, eternity, harmony, kracauer, Life, long take, Malick, Meditation, meditativeness, metaphysics, mindfulness, Mise-en-scene, moment, nirvana, peace, philosophy, physical reality, presence, psychology, pure cinema, pure experience, Samadhi, self-aware, self-help, Sokurov, stress, tranquility, vedanta | Leave a comment

Junun (Anderson, 2015)

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Kamran Ahmed

Anderson’s direction is singular and subtly thematic in what seems to be a significant moment in contemporary music and culture. At times, the dynamic hand-camera makes one feel present; at other times, it loses perspective and displays amateur control, ridding … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews (capsule) | Tagged 2015, caste, cinema, collaboration, culture, Documentary, electronic music, film, greenwood, india, innovation, jonny greenwood, junun, Life, Mubi, music, new york film festival, paul thomas anderson, pta, radiohead, rajasthan, relaxation, Shye Ben Tzur, world music | Leave a comment