Sister Midnight

I have watched plenty of offbeat and experimental films, but this one stands out for all the wrong reasons. It's so poorly made that even if someone tried to make a bad movie on purpose, they'd struggle to reach this level of disaster. The direction is baffling, the writing is nonsensical, and the execution is just plain awful. I genuinely can't understand how this got greenlit, let alone completed. Even more perplexing are the overwhelmingly positive reviews scattered across the internet-I can't help but suspect they're paid endorsements or promotional fluff, because nothing about this film warrants genuine praise...

"Sister Midnight" is fundamentally a social satire that employs elements of dark comedy to critique the redundant rituals and traditions which are often masqueraded or rather endorsed as societal "norms", that everybody has to adhere to.

The messages are delivered with both ingenuity and wit, addressing a wide range of topics; from age old arranged marriages, lack of empathy among community members to pollution, and deeply rooted superstitions.

People who generally appreciate such writings are likely to find it pleasant.

However, it is important to note that some may still perceive the humor as unnecessarily crass, overly stoic, or simply unfunny.

Moreover, the pacing has its problems as it dips randomly, which could lead to growing frustration.

One this is certain, this would not be everyone's cup of tea!

Sister Midnight is one of those rare films that starts off feeling raw and real, and then slowly descends into something completely unexpected. What begins as a story about a woman trapped in a dull, affectionless marriage turns into a surreal, psychological journey filled with dark humor and horror. Radhika Apte is absolutely brilliant-her performance is both haunting and deeply emotional. The film's second half is wild, unsettling, and hard to look away from. It won't be for everyone, but if you're into bold, strange cinema that pushes boundaries and makes you think, this one is worth watching. It stays with you.

Where to begin with this movie? Well first a heads up; the trailer gives away nothing about where this movie ends up going. I'm not going to spoil it here although in all honesty it's not particularly interesting.

The movie opens promisingly by introducing our main characters Uma and Gopal, an unhappily (recently) married couple living in Mumbai. Uma has been uprooted from her home and moved to a place she doesn't understand.

The first 45 minutes or so are her trying and failing to get to grips with her new life with her unsatisfactory husband. The first 15 minutes are fine with nice world building, artistic cinematography somewhat reminiscent of Wes Anderson. There are some comedic elements within quite a dialogue sparse set of scenes that are essentially a series of vignettes. But then this just goes on... and on... and on. By 45 minutes in this plodding plot becomes stale and boring.

Then there is the "twist". Uma comes down with an odd sickness. It's not really apparent that this is a plot point until it is repeated multiple times and the audience eventually get the idea of what is happening by brute force.

Then things just get bizarre. I won't say any more to avoid spoiling what little novelty the film has. But it's just all so weird... and this means it's a real struggle to figure out what the movie is supposed to be about.

Such slim pickings of themes and a barren plot will be fertile ground for some (i.e critics) to come up with a plethora of interpretations that somehow rescue the movie from the yawnfest I felt it was. There has to be some reason critical reception for this movie is good right?

Unless the movie is supposed to be a modern retelling of some Indian folklore story I am ignorant of, I am really struggling to understand what it is supposed to be about. This would be less of a problem if the rest of the film has good pacing, funny dialogue or some thrills but it has none of these. It would be a difficult watch even if it was a 20 minute short, let alone a 110 minute feature.

3/10.

The movie is exactly what its title suggests - Nothing. If the purpose of the movie is to portray the mundane, uneventful life of the protagonist, there are many ways to showcase that than to make the movie itself dreary and mundane. The first exchange of dialogue is after 8 minutes which should put things into perspective.

The newly weds struggle to settle as the wife quickly become disillusioned with the challenges of marital throes. She takes up a janitors job that requires her to work nights, sleeping during the day. She starts growing increasingly sensitive toward sound and unable to keep food down. Thus beginning her transformation which most viewers will miss noticing till they reach the end, those brave souls that do that is. At no point in the movie does the storytelling get any better. The first ten minutes is all that's required to know the pace of the movie which is excruciatingly slow. Even documentaries have more thrill in them than this.