“No admissions in schools without money”

Gaurav is an independent filmmaker, a graduate in Film Direction & Screenplay Writing from the prestigious Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, India. His films, fiction, documentary and experimental, have been screened at various national and international film festivals. He has been a producer/member of a film collective, Lightcube, acclaimed as one of the leading resources for research and presentation of image-forms. His interests lie in audio-visual forms that intersect various folk-indigenous and modern-technological rationalities of storytelling. “Abridged” won the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger for Best National Documentary.

The film begins with the images of a construction site, while a voice from the news talks about the partial collapse of Majerhat Bridge in South Kolkata, and the disaster the event caused. Images of various parts of the city intermingle with each other, some of them somewhat artistic some of them more documentary-like, as the director seems to catch daily life in the area from the very early morning. Newspaper distributing, people sleeping on the street under bridges, trains passing under bridges and passerby all become part of the narrative.

As the film description states, “In recent years, Kolkata has witnessed the collapse of bridges Majerhat being the most recent. Set in the context of rapid urbanization, the film, titled “Abridged” examines the lives of various bridges, both over and under–how lives are organized around the bridge as a public space”. As such, the focus of the movie is on exactly that, describing everyday life in the city, and particularly the part of it that takes place under bridges.

It is impressive to watch people having set up shops under the constructions for example, as a shoe salesman highlights quite eloquently, while a number of them, seem to actually live beneath them. Schoolgirls playing with a dog, a mother combing her children’s hair, a chicken jumping in front of a motorcycle, cars parking are just some of the things that happen under bridges, in a testament on how life can take place anywhere, particularly in such crowded places as Kolkata.

The construction of bridges is also highlighted, through some very intriguing frames and close ups, with Puri and his cinematographer Sukhan Saar evidently being able to find beauty in the most surprising moments, not omitting however, to show that reality is also ugly, as the garbage and the corrosion of the constructions highlights. A man talking about how without money, people cannot even attend school adds a social comment in the narrative as does the aforementioned salesman who talks about how the government wants them to leave, but they have nowhere to go. In that same fashion, the signs on the street that state ‘buy less, built more” appear as rather ironic, also in a testament to the meaningful editing here by Pritam Mandal.

A song heard in the background as the night falls once more, while the bridge builders keep working, a couple of voyeuristic scenes, a child looking at the camera, a man setting up his “bed”, a woman who sheds light on the reasons people end up living under bridges, and a man with his goat herd passing the street, conclude the movie.

Gaurav Puri follows an observational approach, in a documentary though, that is exceptionally shot, with the documentation of reality moving hand to hand with visual beauty. This combination, and the presentation of a life that is very seldom depicted on cinema deems “Abridged” as an exquisite film, a testament to the prowess of all people involved in it.

We Grown Now, 2023.

Written and Directed by Minhal Baig.
Starring Blake Cameron James, Gian Knight Ramirez, S. Epatha Merkerson, Lil Rel Howery, Jurnee Smollett, Ora Jones, Giovani Chambers, and Avery Holliday.

SYNOPSIS:

Two young boys, best friends Malik and Eric, discover the joys and hardships of growing up in the sprawling Cabrini-Green public housing complex in 1992 Chicago.

Writer/director Minhal Baig’s We Grown Now is a moving tale of a tested childhood friendship during the ups and downs of Cabrini-Green life. Minhal Baig has pulled together various stories of what it is like to grow up and live in the Chicago housing complex, setting the story here in 1992, mostly focused on Malik (Blake Cameron James), who believes that there are no rules here and that the only thing that matters is seeing how high you can jump.

This is, obviously, a film with sincere affection for a specific place in time, but also not one that lets periods spent allowing viewers to observe the housing complex hallways and homes (whether it be from the boys here dragging mattresses down multiple floors or stairs since the elevator is busted, or gentle camera movements taking us from one floor, above to the next) to get in the way of drawing these characters and telling an authentically engaging story about the trials and tribulations of raising a family in Cabrini Green, ensuring that the children are safe, and of course, the joys of living there as an innocent child assuming that just because one young boy has been shot and murdered, they will be safe.

Malik and his best friend Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez) play outside, discuss what they want from the future, and also debate about Chicago-specific arguments, such as whether Michael Jordan needed Scottie Pippen or not to lead the Chicago Bulls to NBA championships. The film was wise enough not to overly romanticize life here, which was increasingly weighed down upon by oppressive local law enforcement insisting that due to the recent shootings, everyone (including the children) requires a keycard to enter their homes. Cinematographer Pat Scola is also fittingly instructed not to photograph these policemen’s faces during some scenes, keeping the vantage point from the low perspective of the children and often sticking with their reactions.

Meanwhile, Malik’s mother, Dolores (a winning performance from Jurnee Smollett), is a woman uncertain of how to continue making ends meet while putting up with the unfortunate failings of the housing complex. She is a family woman close to her mother (S. Epatha Merkerson) and isn’t so much still grieving the loss of her father but still paying tribute to him at dinner as a means to instill the importance of family onto Malik. On the same floor, Eric struggles with his education as his single father, Jason (a delightful dramatic turn from the reliably hysterical Lil Rel Howery), does his best to tutor the boy while managing the funds for his older daughter’s upcoming high school graduation.

Once it becomes clear that one of these families is contemplating making a drastic change to their lives, a rift emerges in the friendship between Malik and Eric, which is believably heartbreaking but threatens to become overwritten in the film’s third act. Thankfully, the script pulls away from that and returns to the initial theme of jumping and what it means to soar. Similarly, We Grown Now is a sweet and charming tale of friendship set inside a specific setting, with that combination of romanticism and honesty allowing it to fly.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com

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La Chimera, 2023.

Directed by Alice Rohrwacher.
Starring Josh O’Connor, Carol Duarte, Vincenzo Nemolato, and Isabella Rossellini.

SYNOPSIS:

Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means redemption from work and the dream of easy wealth. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. To find her, Arthur challenges the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth – in search of the door to the afterlife of which myths speak. In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of these characters unfold, all in search of the Chimera.

Italian Director Alice Rohrwacher has built an acclaimed career around films that mix reality and fantasy to perfection. Her latest film La Chimera continues this trend, depicting a lovelorn Englishman Arthur (Josh O’Connor) in 1980s Italy working with a gang to steal historical artefacts from local graves and selling them through a mystery bidder. While it may seem an odd premise, it is never less than captivating for its 2hr 10-minute runtime, balancing a world of ideas, mysterious, beguiling and distinct.

Italy here is a far cry from some of the more glamorous depictions of major Hollywood movies, this is an idyllic, rural community with a sense of poverty, perhaps at odds with the value of Arthur and Co’s finds. It is a clever juxtaposition between both the recent past and ancient history and playing with our sense of history and memory.

O’Connor gives a transformative performance speaking almost entirely in Italian and imbuing Arthur with a sense of internal turmoil that we slowly unpack, what is he running from and why does he seem so lost? We find out his love Beniamina is dead and Arthur is still processing her loss, after spending some time in prison. He gives off a cool air, chainsmoking with a white suit, which has been compared to Elliot Gould in Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye. The supporting Italian cast ably supports O’Connor with Isabella Rossellini featuring in a small but vital role as Flora, whom Arthur resides with, a mentor figure for him.

What is perhaps La Chimera’s greatest achievement is balancing its contemplative emotional beats with a commentary on the nature of history and antiquities Rohrwacher perhaps acknowledges how many museum items are stolen. There is a spiritual feel to things that adds a fantastical layer as Arthur seeks a way to reconnect with his lost love, this also makes us question what we are seeing, is everything playing out how we think, is there something else at play? It’s these questions and layers that make this such a unique and mystifying film.

Never quite going where we might expect with hidden meaning lurking behind every corner, it is easy to fall under La Chimera’s spell. It feels like a film from years gone by in the best way possible, showing a side of Italy so rarely captured in mainstream film. It is at times both a critique of the world of archaeology and a deep, meaningful glance at how losses linger, the bizarre marriage of the two miraculously in sync.

Josh O’Connor, who is of course on a hot streak with Challengers, is magnificent giving off a cool exterior while anguishing on the inside, losing himself in this dangerous yet exhilarating world. This further cements Alice Rohrwacher as a filmmaker of the highest order a singular talent.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Chris Connor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist