MOVIE REVIEW

AMERICAN SNIPER

Director: Clint Eastwood
Writers: Jason Hall, Chris Kyle
Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner
Strength: Acting, story, character development
Weakness: One sided portrayal of the Iraq war
Runtime: 132 minutes
Rating: 3/5

Plot: Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home to his wife and kids after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind.
Review: Bradley Cooper gives a fantastic acting performance as Chris Kyle, a.k.a American Sniper. His love for his country and his precision perfect shots that saves hundreds of lives are inspiring. This role etches him on the list of "Great Actors". Simply put - he was believable, and that was not easy to accomplish, in addition to gaining 40 pounds to look like Chris, he changed his speech and body language accordingly. While Clint Eastwood didn't break any ground with direction, he made some one-sided choices to put together a very one-sided picture of the Iraq War, looking at it from only the point of view of the sniper. He told the story without putting politics on the screen, and that has been the film's main criticism. Hollywood has a way of turning serious subjects into simplistic black and white stories, and that is exactly what has happened in the American Sniper. Of course, it is not realistic to expect details about the loose connections between terrorism in the US and the Iraq war, or about the failed WMD search, Abu Ghraib, etc. But, it is also a misrepresentation of facts to call a movie a true story, talk about a killing machine with a heart of gold, but not spend even a single minute explaining the circumstances of the war itself. Rolling Stones has criticized the movie massively, saying “There's a scene of Kyle and his heartthrob wife gasping at the televised horror of the 9/11 attacks. Next thing you know, Kyle is in Iraq actually fighting al-Qaeda – as if there was some logical connection between 9/11 and Iraq. Which of course there had not been, until we [Americans] invaded and bombed the wrong country and turned its cities into a recruitment breeding ground for… you guessed it, al-Qaeda.” Despite Bradley Cooper's brilliant performance, for sticklers of facts who cannot overlook such gross oversights in the story, American Sniper is a big letdown. For others, it's a pretty good movie about war, snipers and PTSD.

Reviewed by Zakir Mushtaque

**

ROMEO VS JULIET (2015)

Director: Abdul Aziz and Ashok Pati
Story & Dialogue: Sudipto Sarkar & Pele Bhattacharya
Cast: Ankush Hazra, Mahiya Mahi, Kabila, Kharaj Mukherjee, Supriyo Dutta, Ali Raj,
Strength: Great scenes, On-screen chemistry
Weakness: Unoriginal story
Rating: 2.5/5

Plot: Village boy Romeo to get out of a marriage sets out on a journey to find his Juliet.
Review: To escape an arranged marriage with the village “sarpanch's” niece, Romeo shows them a picture of Juliet and declares her his girlfriend. However, the “Sarpanch's” wife calls on his bluff and decides to give him an ultimatum: to bring the girl to the village within a month. So Romeo goes to London and find's Juliet with help of his friend Pota's uncle. They discover that Juliet comes from a rich family in London and within a few days, she will inherit all her parent's properties.  Within a few days, Juliet is attacked but Romeo intervenes and manages to save her and ends up being her bodyguard. During a conversation with her, he discovers that she is currently involved with someone called Rahul. Utilizing the current situation, he suggests Juliet to hide out at his village until she is 21. At the village, Romeo kept up conflicting lies between the villagers and Juliet so that he could keep up the pretense, and eventually, Juliet started to fall for Romeo.
This is a typical romantic comedy. The combination of actors and actresses from Bangladesh and India was very good. Ankush and Mahi made brilliant chemistry as Romeo and Juliet, which just adds more comedic elements throughout the movie. The shooting locations were also top notch, as it includes places like UK, India and Bangladesh.
This movie might have a played out story, but the joint venture efforts made into this film guarantees a few fresh laughs and a visit to the theater.

Reviewed By Abdullah Al Amin (Rubel)

***

CLASSIC REVIEW

UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN (1987)

Director: Maurice Pialat
Writers:  Georges Bernanos, Sylvie Pialat
Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat
Runtime: 97 minutes

Plot: Based on a 1926 novel of the same name, it tells the story of a devout priest who becomes involved with a murderess
Review: Under the Sun of Satan is one of Pialat's most difficult, uncompromising works. Although it controversially won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1987, its stay in British cinemas the following year was brief, despite the presences in the cast of Dépardieu and Bonnaire. Back then, and still now, it seems a film completely out of synch with its time, theological debate not always being at home on the big screen. Much of it was visually quite austere and conducted in dialogue scenes at a time when the cinéma du look (Besson, Beineix) seemed to be dominating the French cinema we saw in Britain.
Pialat has never been a visually flamboyant director, but the first impression of this film is one of deliberate restraint: colours are on the whole muted, and while the camera does move it never feels like an end in itself. A style that keeps itself on as tight a rein as Donissan does – he's a man given to self-mortification after all. The style evokes that of Bresson, who also filmed a Bernanos novel (Diary of a Country Priest) and was known for paring down cinema to essentials. But if there's Bresson here, there's Dreyer too, with one key scene evoking the climax of Ordet. Incidentally, while Bresson was a Catholic and Dreyer a Lutheran, Pialat was an atheist.
Under the Sun of Satan is a film that needs to be taken on its own terms, but once you've done that the film becomes very compelling.

Reviewed by S.M. Intisab Shahriyar