parineeta

movie review: i really need to do more than write about the movies i've seen. alas, that seems to be the only thing driving me to the computer at night. anyway, saw parineeta last night. i have no idea why we've had such great luck w/ films lately. its especially odd given our process for picking films. basically we live in a mostly white-neo-hippy-dip-only-slightly-hip corner of the city, in other words, hardly a brown skinned person for miles (since the grand pop up mansions are more readily affordable elsewhere). so, we drive to this dump of a store on aurora that sells meat in little plastic baggies with protruding bones, random spices, and the occassional packet of naan. behind a broken glass counter lies a stash of semi-bootlegged dvds. i typically ask the guy in punjabi for some 'ARRRT' film. he says, "oh they're all so terrible these days - too much hip thrusting and not enough brooding. i have nothing.' then i plead w/ him to show me something, anything. he sighs, slowly bends down, reaches inside without taking his eyes off me, grabs a handful of DVDs, and throws them on the counter. he shakes his head and wanders away to cut some more meat. anyway, so... the movie. it was really good. set in 63' calcutta - my guess is the scene bares little resemblence to the real calcutta - as i've never seen a jazz club in india, let alone one as cool as that in the film. the setting, fantasy or real, is beautiful. well shot, w/ nice touches to 'date' the film in the right era. what i liked especially, is parineeta's classic bollywood, w/ the singing and dancing and love story and propensity for melodrama, but its well done. i give it 3 1/2 stars.

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and for the spiders: movie review