The White Tiger

The lead actor, Adarsh Gourav, acted a tour de force. He acted with such grace, aggression, joy, pain.. and on and on. He showed all of the human emotions because his character was forced to live through so much.

The director, Rahman Bahrain, who’s made other great character driven films like 99 Homes and Man Push Cart, created a film that can resonate with audiences on many humanistic levels.

The film is a compelling, suspenseful drama about an Indian boy from a low caste family that is beaten down by the archaic and sinister system that forces him and his family to live like less than individuals, like untouchables if a thing could ever exist. Balram played masterfully by Gourav beats the odds by employing methods that are reminiscent of an American antihero cut from the same cloth as a Don Draper to build an empire. It’s also a rousing perspective into Indian life and culture, particularly in places like Delhi and Bangalore, the “Indian Silicon Valley” as it’s referred to. Rife with gripping scenes of the devastating class divides that India has, it’s also a powerful film about a country of billion people that many Americans know very little about.

It’s all of these things, and it doesn’t struggle from the pitfall that lesser movies fall into when juggling many competing elements. Bahrain has a steady hand and paced the film very well, a scene towards the end of the movie where Balram is asked for spare rupees by an older woman shows how much that his servanthood and the other factors in his life has brought about his volatile behavior. Scenes like these speak to more than just what the audience is directly shown. Indirectly, we see how the lower caste system is permitted to treat each other, poorly in this instance. 

Rajkummar Rao, who played Ashok, also had a fantastic performance. His character needed to be amiable enough for a climatic scene to have the teeth that Bahrain was likely intending that it would have. He was though, and his role required a lot of range to show how the son of the Stork could  be compassionate at times, while as wicked and underhanded at others. Priyanka Chopra as Pinky was another wonderful character that was important to the development of the story in how she helped Balram see what he possessed inside himself to live his destiny and be ‘the White Tiger’.

The 40-Year-Old Version

Tone in movies can be one of the toughest things to do right. Forty Year Old Version sets a tone that’s familiar and unfamiliar. Through the vision and acting of Radha Blank it delivers comedy that’ll resonate with people of all ages and backgrounds.

With familiar story tropes that examine friendship, family dynamics, loss, self-doubt, and career strife, Blank puts her own touch on a film that is funny and rife with much social commentary on gentrification, racial micro-aggressions, and navigating a murky world of political correctness.

Supporting performances from Peter Kim, as Archie, Radha’s theatrical agent and long time friend, Oswin Benjamin, as D, the mysterious and talented Brooklyn music producer, give the film more depth as it allows the protagonist to be a more full and balanced character. Making the climactic scene more impactful as the crowd is scanned and the audience is shown the different people in Radha’s life who are influential in her journey in life to that particular stage. Jacob Ming-Trent, as Lamont, a mouthy street dweller, maybe provides the films funniest scene, where he imparts wisdom to Radha on her big night. Reed Birney, as J. Whitman, plays a convincing and often frustrating figure in Radha’s career, that pushes her and is likely one of the catalysts in the creation of RadhamusPrime.

There’s a lot about this film that is just below the surface, meaning that Blank gives it a bit of time but doesn’t linger on it too much, just enough to provide the viewer with perspective. Like the challenges a Black female creative living in Harlem can have, which is evidenced by her constant verbal abuses on the street by Lamont or the bus drivers exchanges with her after she offers him condolences. Blank has truly accomplished something incredible with her first film, that is worthy of seeing.

Tenet

Tenet has received high praise from many critics and it certainly deserves credit for taking some high risk chances that paid off in terms of the screenplay, but not in terms of how the film is playing out at the box office. It’s unfortunate that this is Christopher Nolan’s most ambitious film because it was released during a year where people abandoned movie theaters due to the global coronavirus pandemic.


According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, a tenet is a principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true, especially : one held in common by members of an organization, movement, or profession. It’s also a palindrome, a word that is the same both backwards and forwards, like racecar, mom, or even detartrated, which is a chemical term meaning to remove tartrates. It's an aptly chosen word for the title of this movie as the promotional poster evinces.


This is probably one of my favorite Nolan films because it’s his first film where a non-white actor plays a central role to the film. John David Washington, who plays the aptly named role of the Protagonist, is of course Black and his character brings a different dimension to this Nolan film than Inception, Dunkirk, or Interstellar all brought. Nolan’s screenplay is wise to utilize its Protagonist’s abilities/appearance, instead of hiding from it which is something that major Hollywood blockbusters have done before. John Boyega has been critical of Disney/Star Wars brass for their double talk/action in this regard in the past. There’s a great scene as the film is developing the Protagonist character where Washington’s acting prowess and impeccable delivery coalesce with Nolan’s intuitive script and provide some laughs that split up the rapid fire action sequences.


Criticism of the film has substantially fallen on the notion that the audience is subjected to a storyline of which the film hasn't given them enough of a reason to care about. Without giving away too much, although personally I may agree, the film's innate ability to chug along at a breakneck pace and its other qualities will likely make audiences forgot about this.