josobel

Favorite films

  • The Orange Child
  • The Most Dangerous Man in America
  • Bottoms
  • Most Dangerous Man Alive

All
  • Disco Boy

    ★★★½

  • Santosh

    ★★★★½

  • All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

    ★★★★½

  • Spartacus

    ★★★★

More
Santosh

2024

★★★★½ Liked Watched

Another independent international release from India. Excellent commentary on Indian society, performative policing, discrimination (caste, gender, religion, wealth), corruption and abuse, revealed by way of compelling police procedural. Great acting, cinematography, score, script.

ACAB
Typical day anywhere in India.
Brutal in every sense.
Alternate title: “expendable"
As in many societies, the most vulnerable, marginalised and powerless (poor, illiterate/limited education, low status/class, dark skinned, female) are the least served and most harmed by the criminal ‘justice’ system.

"There are two types of untouchables in this world
- one who nobody wants to touch
- one who no one can touch"

Bicycle Thieves

1948

★★★★★ Liked Watched

Universal. Timeless. (Sadly so.)

More
Towards Zero

2025

★★★ Liked 2

There are significant issues with structure, pacing and plot.

Yet I found it a satisfying watch due to styling, some committed performances, but mainly because I was in just the right (tired, Sunday night) mood for an unchallenging and pretty costume drama i.e. mindless, gentle, comforting trash with a hint of culture and quality.

Matthew Rhys turns in a brutal and memorable performance. There are some lovely clothes, catty exchanges and racy scenes on the main staircase of the family…

The Ascent

1977

★★★★★ 2

War, the elements, starvation, martyrdom, solidarity, survival, sacrifice, fear, acceptance, torment, mortality, comradeship, ascendency.

Who and how we are and become in the mounting face of own mortality. What is the price for conviction, conscience, survival? How do we reconcile ourselves with our choice? What is it to live and to die?

How many films and budgets and directors have launched themselves at these questions?

It took only one film, a small cast and less than two hours for a…