Lion

Sheru (Lion review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Imagine a scenario where you grew up with a loving family, and you were headed into a stable career with the love of good partner.

But then you remembered you were lost, and in fact, adopted.

 

Lion (2016)

Cast: Sunny Pawar, Abhishek Bharate, David Wenham, Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, Divian Ladwa, Rooney Mara
Director: Garth Davis
re-released on blu-ray April 11, 2017
********* 9/10

IMDB: 8.1
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%, Audience Score 92%
The Guardian: ****/*****

 

Garth Davis is an Australian director, best known for directing television before his feature film debut with Lion. It was nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, but unfortunately didn’t take anything home. Which is odd, because it’s a really good movie.

Spanning a period of over twenty five years, we learn the true story of Saroo Brierley, an Indian boy who became lost in Calcutta, lived on the streets briefly, and was taken to an orphange before being adopted by an Australian family. At once immersive and incredible, Lion is the movie I wish I’d seen in theatres instead of John Wick Chapter 2.

Just saying.

Special thanks to Claudio Carvalho, for the plot summary below.

In 1986, in Khandwa, India, the 5 year-old boy Saroo (Sunny Pawar) lives a very poor but happy life with his mother Kamla (Priyanka Bose), his older brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) and his younger sister Shekila (Khushi Solanki). Kamla works carrying stones during the night shift and Guddu also works in the night in the Central Station. One night, Saroo insists on going with Guddu to his work, who does not resist. Guddu leaves Saroo sleeping on a bank in the station and asks him to stay there until he returns. However the boy wakes up in the middle of the night and decides to seek out his brother in a train. He sleeps again and he wakes up in Calcutta, West Bengal, and 1,600 km east of Khandwa. Saroo does not speak Bengali, only Hindi, and lives on the street of the big city. One day, a young man brings Saroo to the police station and he is sent of an institution for children. In 1987, Saroo is adopted by the Australian family of John (David Wenham) and Sue Brierley (Nicole Kidman) and moves to Hobart, Tasmania. He is raised with love by his foster parents and one day, he goes to an Indian party promoted by his Indian mates from the university with his girlfriend Lucy (Rooney Mara). As he tells the story of his childhood it triggers the feeling of missing his family and awakens a search within him…

I kept hearing this movie compared to an odyssey, and while I wondered how it could possibly achieve that status, after I was done with Lion I wondered if it could be called anything less. This is a true story of an Indian boy who was able to locate his family decades later through the use of Google Maps. Combining elements of drama, thriller, and mystery to weave this biopic, first-time director Davis is able to draw us into Saroo’s journey and hold our attention easily.

Pros: Both Saroo the child and Saroo the adult are portrayed deftly and with charisma. And you never feel like you’re watching a ham-fisted nostalgia spectacle, the drama is real.

Cons: While it isn’t ham-fisted, there isn’t much there in the way to details to consider or implications to uncover. The relationship with brother Mantosh is sidelined too.

Runtime: 1 hour 58 minutes

Points of Interest: Over 80,000 Indian children go missing each year.  #LionHeart foundation was launched by this films production companies to provide financial support to the over 11 million children who live on the streets of India.

That GPS and digital technology were able to bring Saroo back to his family is an incredible thing, and it should be celebrated as an effort of persistence that he made sense of his incredible childhood misadventure. A story of a lifetime with an excellent supporting cast, led by the talented Sunny Pawar, Lion has the heart of one.

theories Summarized

Should you go see this movie? No, because it’s not in theatres anymore. But you should pick up a copy of it or find a digital download service and spend some time with Saroo, or should I say Sheru?

Tim!

On The Shoulders Of Giants (89th Annual Academy Awards)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Last year the two words whitewashing and oscars seemed to be synonymous with each other. I wrote a rather exhaustive post about it, point of fact. To be fair, I am an artist though, so it’s quite difficult not to be a lens for the big issues I find wrapped around my heart. Sigh.

Now, I have written about this theory before, but let me remind you that there is an idea out there which states that creative professional experience the highs and lows of life even more deeply than an average person. I want to posit something different from that.

We all feel things very deeply, and humans are capable of amazing things when we work together. In fact, I think it’s because we should work together that we achieve greatness.

Children start out with the same basic abilities and aptitudes, as we age, personalities come through and environments shape us into complex individuals.

 

The Full List of Nominees

I’ve always been a fan of film. Cinema. The movies. Whatever you want to call it, I’ve celebrated motion pictures in my life.

Sitting here at my desk, I’m watching the trailers for the nine films which have been nominated for Best Picture 2017. La La Land, Moonlight, Manchester By The Sea, Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, Hidden Figures, Hell or High Water, Lion, Fences. I’ve seen more than half of these movies already and I cannot wait to watch the remaining ones I’ve missed. Films make my heart ache with joy, fear, sadness, compassion, anger, excitement, achievement and a number of other emotions.

It’s because so many creative people come together to engage our sense that films mean something. And I think that this year in particular, the academy has done an excellent job listening to the public. 4 of the 9 choices are headed by minority actors, and that’s a big deal.

La La Land has the most votes by far, and while it is an excellent film, it is something of a self-congratulatory piece about Hollywood. So I really hope that this movie doesn’t take it, because we’ve been there, and done that. And Arrival is my new favourite first contact film. On the other side of the coin, Hell or High Water is a classic film on all accounts – I reviewed it late last year and I loved it. It perfectly serves as to what film making is all about. It would be an excellent dark horse entry.

But looking more closely at the nominees, I have to notice something. I’ve only seen the 5 films with white actors headlining them, and that’s an important point.

Award Winning

When you give an award you are truly GIVING something as payment, compensation or as prize. Consider that statement for a second. How many billions of people are there in the world? 30? And how many different ethnicities make up that total?

The challenge we face is that for decades the Academy Awards (like many other institutions) have focused on certain types of people, non necessarily because those people were the most deserving, but because they were singled out for compensation. As the global community expands, it makes sense that we continue to honour those who do the best job, but in instances where many are deserving, it’s those who go over and above should be awarded. By default these means minority groups which need more representation. I haven’t seen Moonlight or Fences, but could easily see them taking it.

I hope they do. Hidden Figures and Lion would be fantastic as well, but based on what I’ve read, Moonlight and Fences are better films. Guess we’ll find out in three days though.

theories Summarized

#OscarsSoWhite was a necessary rebellion against disrespectful authority. I think with it came even more artists working together this year to create films that represent life as it is, and even better, the voters now have an opportunity to choose recipients that better depict humanity. We may be standing on the shoulders of giants, but while every statue has a head of gold, the feet are always made of clay, and liable to crumble towards the end. It’s time to choose a different champion, and that’s my theory.

Tim!