Ra.One is a lovely, entertaining movie. I highly recommend it, especially this Diwali season. It’s not a great film per se, but it is great entertainment. Expertly packaged, playfully presented fun. With music by Akon.

I was deeply moved when I saw Avatar today. It contains many of the ideas I’ve been working through in my head and experiencing in paddy fields and on the street. I’ll expand on that further, but first there’s one idea at the foundation. That everything is founded on contradictions. That the most important things in life seem to be in two states, often warring. That rather than divide and explain, these contradictions must be accepted for anything to be understood.

Mad Men is by the Soprano’s writer. I think it’s more depraved. The casual racism, sexism and alcoholism on display is delightfully shocking. What really gets me is how much they drink at work. I’d be asleep on the couch after lunch. These ladies at Slate tried it as an experiment and it didn’t work out too well.

I was watching Less Than Zero, an old Robert Downey movie. Based on a Bret Easton Ellis book I used to like; though the Saved By The Bellesque film has little to do with the depraved novel, written in a style that culminated with American Psycho. One thing that struck me was how much time they spent driving around for what were essentially text messages. Where are you? Where is he? How are you doing? It’s striking in the first scene where Clay is like ‘why did you call?’, as if long distance from LA to NY was so absurd. It’s actually getting a bit funny watching ‘old’ movies and seeing how most of the action could now be phoned in.

Robert Downey Jr’s performance in Iron Man was very entertaining, I thought it was a thoroughly enjoyable movie. Saw it twice and both times was among the few people in the theatre, and the fewer people laughing. The best jokes were throwaway lines, like him belittling the helper robot, or demanding a cheeseburger upon release from Talibanistan. Hence, they don’t translate that well to international (non-English) audiences. I guess that’s why Spiderman, anchored by the one-note (and inadequate) Tobey McGuire can do well while be a much dumber movie. Not that Iron Man doesn’t have its share of dumb, by the end of the movie he’s used his powers to save a grand total of like 15 Afghan villagers. The movie and the character are both very self-centered, but that’s what makes it interesting beyond watching things explode.

Saw this killer movie, Perfume (download torrent). Heard mixed review but from the beginning it was solid. The first scene is a fetid 17th century fishmarket, the filth on the floor mixed with the blood of a baby just popped. And that’s the hero, until you see. The film is about smell and thus the film making is enfused with sensuality – plums, flowers, shit, the maggots stirring inside a rat. Mostly darkness and stank, cause the kid has a hard life, but his talent for smell is amazing and compelling. So I liked him, admired for him, hoped for him – until he started killing and pickling virgins in the street. And then, aghast, I still kinda liked him. So it was a good, twitchy, beautiful film.

Star Movies is showing a Bond marathon in anticipation of Casino Royale. I have been watching it because I feel like it gives some cumulative structure to my joblessness. The riffs each Bond actor has to play are very similar, and it’s an interesting template to compare them. My personal favorite might be a bit off, but it’s the one I grew up with, the rest being archival footage. I am sure of the worst bond, and the bottom two both totally suck IMHO. All in all, however, I think the Bond format is simple yet compelling and always entertaining. It’s not the modern darkness of Bourne Identity or 24, but something cleaner and lighter on the palate. It’s not inspiring film-making or anything, but it’s usually a good time.