Film in Cards

British Dark Comedy

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri/2017/ British

FiC Rating: 3.5/5
Dir: Martin McDonagh
Setting: Urban/Outskirts
Why FiC recommends?
1) Although the falls short of being a masterpiece by some small loopholes in the writing, the movie provides a lot of things and stands up to the expectations.
2) There was genuinely no predicting what the characters were going to do and how they would react to certain events. This unpredictability doesn’t just apply to situations, but possibly more notable in character arcs.

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  • April 25, 2020
Drama Indian Films

Aligarh/2015/Hindi

FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: Hansal Mehta
Setting: Town
Why FiC recommends?
1) I don’t know why but most of the LGBT related films are made poetic. And Aligarh is not an exception. Yet this is an important movie considering it is made in India.
2) There is this constant tenderness throughout this film and it keeps on injecting a kind of sorrow into the viewers. If this is not a win, what else is?
Trivia: Lead actor Manoj Bajpayee told in a podcast (Audible Suno): “Yes I didn’t win any award for the film, but if award functions- including national awards, don’t care about their reputations, I won’t mind if I don’t win any award in my lifetime”

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  • April 24, 2020
Drama Indian Films

Haraamkhor/2017/Hindi

FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: Shlok Sharma
Setting: Rural
Why FiC recommends?
1) Very very hard-hitting film which revolves around a secret relationship between a school teacher and his student. It’s not an easy watch as the story starts taking creepy twists as it moves forward. (and what a climax!)
2) Intense performance by both Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Shweta Tripathi.

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  • April 23, 2020
Drama Indian Films Romance

Gantumoote/2019/Kannada

FiC Rating: 3.5/5
Dir: Roopa Rao
Setting: Town/School
Why FiC recommends?
1) High-school love stories are always fascinating for the purity it holds and those curious minds of that age bracket.
2) This film is very calm, soothing and not very easy throughout. Where there is love there’s pain too!
Note: ‘Gantumoote’ means ‘Baggage’

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  • April 23, 2020
Crime Drama Fantasy Indian Films Indie Thriller

S*** Durga/2017/ Malayalam

FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Setting: Road/Moving Vehicle/Rural
Why FiC recommends?
1) This film gives a tight slap to the patriarchal society which claims to worship Goddesses.
2) The making is one of its kind and as the movie progresses it becomes hard to digest because it’s so hard-hitting in what it tries to convey!
3) The whole movie was shot in one night and without a written script.
Note: The movie isn’t released in India because the Govt has put a ban on it.

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  • April 21, 2020
Drama Indian Films

Kanasembo Kudureyaneri/2010/Kannada

FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: Girish Kasaravalli
Setting: Rural
Why FiC recommends?
1) It’s a very diligent adaptation of on one of the highly acclaimed story by Amaresh Nudgoni.
2) The story set up in a village is mysterious and revolves around a gravedigger.
3) It challenges the audience to question regarding the connection between ‘faith’ and ‘life’.
Note: ‘Kanasembo Kudureyaneri’ means ‘Riding a Stallion of a Dream’

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  • April 21, 2020
Drama

Nabat/2014/Azerbaijani

FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Elchin Musaoglu
Setting: Remote Place
Why FiC recommends?
1) A minimalist tale of an elderly woman who finds herself the last remaining resident in a village evacuated during the Nagorno-Karabakh war of two decades ago! Truly a fine piece of work with simple story and beautiful narrative that is sad and tragic
2) A war film in which war is never seen, only heard through distant thudding of canons. As soon as they die down, nature resumes its role, birds chirping, trees rustling, wolves howling in the distance.

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  • April 21, 2020
Drama Indian Films

Anjali/1990/Tamil

FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Mani Ratnam
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?
1) This film is of its own kind. Watch it for the maestro Mr. Mani Ratnam and acting performances, especially Baby Shamili who played the titular role when she was just 2! Spell bound!!
2) Every aspect of this film was perfect, acting, script, story line (minus a few unashamedly populist and occasional cringe-worthy cheesy sequence). A pleasure to watch.

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  • April 21, 2020
Drama Indian Films

Village Rockstars/2017/Assamese

FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: Rima Das
Setting: Rural
Why FiC recommends?

1) Absolutely natural!
2) Beautifully depicted without any exaggeration. The film wraps up many aspects of rural life in such a subtle aesthetic manner that too within just 87 minutes!

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  • April 21, 2020
Comedy Crime Dark Comedy Drama Indian Films Satire

Raghu Romeo/2003/Hindi

FiC Rating: 3.5/5
Dir: Rajat Kapoor
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?
1) Smart, sensible and funny. Not logical!! But it’s not always about logic. This is Vijay Raaz’s best performance ever seen. He makes Raghu feel like a person more than a character.
2) Although this is only a light hearted satirical cinema without any heavy duty message, this is the kind of film at end of which you come out as more empathetic and loving human being.

P.S. This is the first movie to be made with money of common man. The director Rajat Kapur had asked for finance from people like us through internet. He got fabulous response and therefore the film could be made.

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  • April 21, 2020
American Uncategorized

My Dinner with Andre/ 1981/American

FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: Louis Malle
Setting: Dining Table!
Why FiC recommends?

1) A film of two friends talking, just simply talking, for 110 minutes!
2) First, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for a film about a long conversation. Next thing, I found myself getting more and more interested in the conversation. Before I knew it, I was the part of the conversation and nodding in affirmation!

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  • April 21, 2020
Drama Indian Films Romance

Devdas/2002/Hindi

FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Setting: Urban/Suburban/Vintage
Why FiC recommends?
1) The film was misjudged as a commercial gimmick. But on the contrary, the emotion and passion of the story is felt just as strongly in every frame of Devdas. You can clearly see the blood and sweat they invested in every department, this is a work of art and heart!
2) Bhansali knew exactly what to do with the film, the shot execution, the sound quality, the cinematography and the direction, the entire film has an overwhelming hugeness to it that’s hard to resist.

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  • April 21, 2020
Drama Indian Films Romance

Photograph/2019/Hindi

FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: Ritesh Batra
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?
1) A love story that will remain with for a long time.
2) This movie has the ability to grow on you as it progresses. Slow, steady and poetic.
3) Extra-ordinary climax.

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  • April 21, 2020
American Comedy Drama

The Truman Show/1998/American

The Truman Show/1998/American
FiC Rating: 3.5/5
Dir: Peter Weir
Setting: Revealing it would be a spoiler
Why FiC recommends?

1) Funny, tender, thought provoking.
2) The film has its own flaws, but what they made in 1998 this is the story of 90% of us in today’s scenario.

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  • April 20, 2020
American Drama Mystery Thriller

The Conversation/1974/American

FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Francis Ford Coppola
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?

1) If you like the film especially when they explain everything and leave nothing up to your own intuition, this movie is one of the best movies you will ever see.
2) The film is made by one of the best directors in history when he was at the peak of his career, what are the odds?

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  • April 20, 2020
Comedy Documentary Drama Indian Films

Supermen of Malegaon /2008/Hindi,Marathi

FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: Faiza Ahmad Khan
Setting: Small Town
Why FiC recommends?
1) Aspirations don’t have any pre-conditions where it should arise from. A man from a small town wants to make movies and he makes it. He re-creates none other than ‘Superman’! He with his team runs a local movie industry.
2) It starts off as a funny take on the efforts by these amateur filmmakers, but slowly it starts growing on you and by the time it reaches the end you’ll be moved!

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  • April 20, 2020
Comedy Drama Indian Films

Elizabeth Ekadashi/2014/Marathi

FiC Rating: 3.5/5
Dir: Paresh Mokashi
Setting: Town
Why FiC recommends?
1) A heartwarming film about children just being children, with all their cares and carefree abandon. And adults just being adults, with all their idiosyncrasies, quirks and secret anguish.
2) The high-point are the sterling performances and in the end, it is the kids who walk away with all the laurels

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  • April 20, 2020
American Comedy Drama Horror Mystery Thriller

Creep/2014/American

FiC Rating: 3.5/5
Dir: Patrick Brice
Setting: Town
Why FiC recommends?
1) Right from the first scene to the end, “Creep” primes viewers to suspect that nothing is what it seems. We keep guessing something and then something else happens, followed by some other, far more unexpected things.
2) The film does not play by the rules of the game they chose to play.

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  • April 20, 2020
Crime Drama Indian Films Indie

Autohead/2016/Hindi

FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: Rohit Mittal
Setting: Urban/Suburban
Why FiC recommends?
1) Deepak Sampat’s performance in this flick as a ‘disturbed-mind’ is simply incomparable!
2) The trick that movie uses onto audience in it’s format & techniques is brilliant. It’s one of the rare indie masterpiece coming out of India.

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  • April 20, 2020
American Comedy Drama

Groundhog Day/1993/American

FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Harold Ramis
Setting: Town
Why FiC recommends?

1) If a person could live forever, if a person was immortal, how would they change over time? Well… watch Groundhog Day!
2) Uncommonly sweet, the perfect blend of comedy and romance, charming and intelligent humor, great lines like “I am ‘a’ God, not ‘the God’, this film is an underrated masterpiece.

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  • April 20, 2020
Drama Indian Films

Love And Shukla/2017/Hindi

FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: Siddartha Jatla
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?
1) These cities look so huge. They’re huge, but is it really capable of giving enough space to all its inhabitants to live a dignified life?
2) Stellar performance by all the actors make you feel for the characters.

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  • April 20, 2020
Drama Indian Films Romance

Aamis/2019/Assamese

FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: Bhaskar Hazarika
Setting: Town
Why FiC recommends?
1) To say this is something ‘new’ would be an understatement. Even a single hint would act as a ‘spoiler’!
2) Sometimes we know who we are, deep down. But it dies because there’s nothing for it to cling to. This movie attempts something around it!
Note: Knowingly not tagging the category ‘horror’ to it!

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  • April 20, 2020
American Comedy Drama

A Serious Man/2009/American

FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Joel and Ethan Coen
Setting: Urban/Vintage
Why FiC recommends?

1) In the way that Coen brothers can see the humor behind the tragic face of commonality, they have delivered another darkly comic, absurd and well-acted film which deals with the huge themes of alienation and nihilism.
2) You don’t see comedy mixed with such deep and heavy themes in every film, do you?

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  • April 20, 2020
Drama

Once/2007/Irish

FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: John Carney
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?
1) This is one of those rare films that only comes along once in a blue moon; no melodrama, no extra ordinary camera work, nothing too special yet a powerful ‘slice of life’ movie!
2) A sweet movie that is simple yet somehow captivating to watch, a classic example of filmmaking!
P.S. The rating is 4 stars for the movie and 1 star for the music.

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  • April 19, 2020
American Comedy Drama

Slacker/1990/American

FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: Richard Linklater
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?

1) When you don’t have budget, professional actors and script (literally!), but you have an extraordinary mind, you end up making Slacker!
2) The director himself defines slackers as ‘spending their whole lives in their own heads, paralyzed by the problem of making any difference’. That seems as good a definition as any.
3) The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”

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  • April 19, 2020
Comedy Drama Indian Films

Thodasa Roomani Ho Jaayen /1990/Hindi

FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: Amol Palekar
Setting: Remote Place
Why FiC recommends?

1) Outstandingly beautiful and charmingly poignant tale of a conman that stays with you and keeps giving you a good feeling!
2) A poetic blend of Dreams and Reality, the film is real and surreal at the same time! The story unfolds with much poetry and a dreamlike quality that is magical.

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  • April 19, 2020
Drama Indian Films

Court/2014/Marathi,Hindi

FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: Chaitanya Tamhane
Setting: Urban/Suburban
Why FiC recommends?
1) So slow and real that it makes you restless. If you like slow-phased ultra-realistic movies this is your thing!
2) A mirror to the Indian judicial system – almost the way it is, if not exactly!

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  • April 19, 2020
American Drama

Requiem for a Dream/2000/American

FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: Darren Aronofsky
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?

1) Cruel reality of drugs, but wait! What’s your definition of drugs?
Dark, disgusting, hideous and too intense! A beautiful train wreck you can’t look away from.
2) This movie can potentially scar you for life!

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  • April 19, 2020
Drama Indian Films Satire

Ee.Ma.Yau (R.I.P)/2018/Malayalam

FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: Lijo Jose Pellissery
Setting: Countryside/Village
Why FiC recommends?
1) This film is about death, and how?! Cinematic, Satirical, Dramatic and Emotional!
2) The whole act and the movie setting is so simple and realistic that you’ll become part of it.

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  • April 19, 2020
Uncategorized

Naal/2018/Marathi

FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti
Setting: Rural
Why FiC recommends?

1) Metaphoric, pure, subtle, caters both art house and commercial cinema fans.
2) The film very subtly squeezes in a quiet message even as it portrays the world purely from the gawky-eyed point of view of a child.

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  • April 19, 2020
Drama Korean

I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK / 2006 / Korean

FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Park Chan Wook
Setting: Urban
Why FiC recommends?
1) When a director is crazy enough to decide to make a film about a mentally ill young couple, a girl who believes herself to be a cyborg and a guy who frequently wears handmade rabbit masks, and manages to create a pure cinematic exuberance, the film becomes highly recommendable!
2) Extremely cute and bluntly dark at the same time!

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  • April 19, 2020