O(h)' Russel!!!
What is your definition of a
perfect ‘feel good’ movie? I know, if we type in Google, it may offer us best
of the best movies spanning from ‘Forrest Gump’ to ‘It’s a wonderful life’ or
from ‘Amelie’ to ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’. You must have seen them all. But did
you ever try and consolidate all these feelings in one qualified name? Well I
have. And for me it is – David O’ Russel.
Do you remember how Mel Colpin’s
journey to find his biological parents turned into a complete disaster and still we loved to flirt with it? Remember how people in
small towns are so helpful [read jobless] to join Mel in the adventure and add
up to nothing but more confusions?
Remember Raymond Aibelli in Spanking the Monkey? Didn’t we love the
portrayal of how his priorities shifted in the influence of love? How the whole
universe not only reminds him about his foremost responsibility, but also makes
sure he doesn’t escape from it? If those are not ‘feel good’ then what is it? And
the cherries on the top were the small scenes of brushing the neighbour’s canine
or kissing the lady with a mouth full of chewing gums. I still do a ROTFL
watching them.
From- making a comedy out of a gold
heist by three kings in an Iraq war backdrop
[against of course Saddam J
], or creating a love out of an
unrealistic accident [a nail inside
Alice head?- Oh! come on!] to spying on somebody’s weird ‘’existential’’ issues
[Huckabees!]- David proved himself
again and again that he has varieties to serve to his audiences and has enough ‘feel
good’ substances to satisfy their appetite.
p.s.- Jason Schwartzman’s straight
face can treat itself as just an item in the whole buffet J
How do you find ‘JOY’ in a depressed, socially awkward
dysfunctional family only through your ideas and faith in yourself? – Joy is a
perfect stalwart for that. The idea of making everything work is overrated. It is
the newly found intention where you need to blend every wrong possibles and
find a relatively ‘less wrong’ one for yourself and for the others who matter.
And that’s how we also ended up loving Irving more in their ‘Hustle’ in America than Richie who belonged to the ‘so called’ positive side
of the world.
Yes, you guessed it right. I of
course did not forget the two ‘Oscar’ mentions, rather kept it at the end. There
is nothing exceptional to talk about here which nobody told us before. There’s
always a feel good factor about any story of a winner [read Fighter] and if it is a biographical
sports drama resulting into couple of academy awards, there’s nothing like it. But
the credit goes to the efforts and foresight behind- how you pick the right
story and mould the ever challenging struggle into an inspiring journey of trust,
faith and blood [read brotherhood].
David’s magical portray of Tiffany
also has won Jennifer the academy award- there is no surprise. The ‘silver linings’ of the ‘playbook’ qualifies for the most
romantic ‘feel good’ movies I have ever seen and it has got all the right mix
of ingredients, I have ever looked for in a movie- starting from the
psychological polarization to ‘love-hate relationship’ from the ‘dysfunctional
family’ to ‘making the ‘EX’ jealous’- everything was well cooked with a little
bit of garnishing with ‘the bet’ and the ‘dance moves’ J
Russel’s magic made us love
Sydney, Joy, Rosalyn, Alice, Tiffany, Nancy, Tina and all the other women out
there and embrace their virtue and vice, and find their desperation in their imperfections.
Everytime Russel touches a plot, the least we can expect from a good movie, is
always met –sometimes in the form of a smile, sometimes a memory or sometimes a
peaceful, dream-free good-night sleep. Haven’t seen them yet?



Have not watched much of his movies except silver lining playbook.
ReplyDeletethen this blog should act as a motivation for you to watch the rest...right?
Deletewould be glad if it serves the purpose