arungeorge13

One could deem this "middle-class propaganda," and it wouldn't entirely be wrong. Middle-class dreams have evolved just as much as the state of inflation in this country. The film sells an "idea," but it does so at the expense of not answering a zillion questions that come with it in the present. The emotions do land thanks to convincing performances from the entire cast, and you'll remember the family as a full unit here -- each one has an arc (of eventual acceptance). Amrit Ramnath impresses with his score and songs, flowing naturally with the proceedings. For writer-director Sri Ganesh, this is a more-than-solid comeback after Kuruthi Aattam. As good as Siddharth and Sarath Kumar are in their respective roles, I must also applaud the ladies - Devayani, Meetha Raghunath, and Chaithra J Achar for making theirs just as memorable.

However, I have issues with the writing. There's an attempt to pack too much into the script, and that's also to indicate the passage of time. Prabhu (Siddharth), landing in the wrong field of study and work, is not as deftly handled as the film's central plot. Prabhu's reconciliation with Aishu (Chaithra) could also have been less "coincidental." Aarthy's (Meetha) broken marriage is barely explored, but the actor sells one particular scene so well, making us not want to know anything beyond. I wish 3BHK had more scenes of Shanthi (Devayani) and Vasudevan (Sarath Kumar) discussing their hopes and problems in private, making me connect with their simpler mindsets a lot more.

This is by no means a bad film -- there's a good chance you'll be reaching for a hanky at some point -- but I really wanted this film to hit my sensitive nerves way harder, like the "realistic" middle-class drama it aspires to be. Right now, it's still a solid collection of emotional moments, told linearly, with a splendid cast holding up their side of the bargain.

Well, this is the 4th entry in the Conversations with a Killer documentary series on Netflix, and once again, it's a pretty solid Joe Berlinger effort. Having directed the other 3, Berlinger knows how to strike a balance between handling the sensitive side of the killings and conveying the essence of the series' title, i.e., the tapes. Berkowitz was not an easy person to understand - some of his actions stemmed from deep-seated trauma, anger, and hatred (right from his unsettling childhood), while some others felt spontaneous, attention-seeking, and trying to capitalize on notoriety.

Like the rest, we get 3 episodes of roughly an hour each, told in a non-linear fashion, cutting and stitching across various timelines in Berkowitz's life. The re-enactments are pretty good, as is the case with Berlinger's earlier works, blended with real footage from those times, adding to the retro intensity. How Berkowitz held a large section of NYC in fear for over a year is something that's worthy of a larger discussion. I appreciate how Berlinger concluded the series with the friends, lovers, and acquaintances of the victims sharing why they believe the victims deserve to be remembered beyond being Berkowitz's "targets."

P. S. Parts of episode 3 felt filler-like, especially because that was extensively covered in The Sons of Sam: A Descent Into Darkness.

Too many genre (and tonal) shifts ruin what could've been a memorable 'two-character' piece, a fun road-trip movie. Vadivelu basically towers over everyone else here, and that's not because of the way the character is written. FaFa repeats mannerisms that we've seen in Carbon and Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum, but still makes for a convincing petty thief. Where the film "lost" me is in its final hour, when a crime-thriller angle got going, and the writing just becomes extremely predictable, even though things unfold in a non-linear way. The script still carries some performative weight in these portions, thanks to its hard-hitting dialogue. But the direction just goes haywire. An action block towards the end looks poorly staged; Yuvan's background score, while effective in the first half, becomes too emotionally indicative in the latter. Also, the plot doesn't have enough for 2h 30m, what with its explanatory flashbacks, et al.