Ramin Bahrani
12 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
There is a striking parallel between Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite”, which received an Oscar last year for best picture, and this year’s “The White Tiger” that opens this Friday on Netflix.
“The White Tiger” would make a very pointed double bill with 2019′s Oscar-winning “Parasite,” and its lessons apply to cultures even closer to home.
And that’s the quality that sets the film apart from something like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, which contained its commentary in a more straightforward format: on the surface, it was a genre piece, a thriller.
It’s something of “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) if infused by Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” (2019), haunting and brutal in its reveal by taking the ideal high life and status quo and turning it inside out with an uncompromising hand.
All of this is beautifully conveyed by Bahrani's fast-paced and snarkily self-aware narrative (if one has to compare it to a Danny Boyle film, it comes much closer to approximating "Trainspotting" than "Slumdog Millionaire") and the strong lead performance from Gouray, who nails all the complexities of Balram so that you are simultaneously rooting for him to succeed and appalled by the lengths that he is willing to go to get ahead.
The Florida Project (2017)
Directed by Sean Baker
influenced by 99 Homes (2015), Chop Shop (2008)
Themes Visuals
It brings to mind Larry Clark’s Kids, Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes , Patricia Cardoso’s Real Women Have Curves and Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s Quinceañera.
Many moviemakers delve into the underside of America's underclass, most recently Ramin Bahrani with the also set in Florida "99 Homes" in 2015, and Andrea Arnold with last year's "American Honey."
That’s the gritty side of “The City Beautiful” that movies have only hinted at — the fruit stands, “discount” ticket kiosks, souvenir shops, C-list attractions and seedy fifth-hand motels of “Monster” and “99 Homes.”
It’s been on the rise in the United States for about decade, with films like Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop (2007) and Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy (2008) employing a natural and semi-observational style that focuses on characters and situations rather than heavy-handed plots to tell their stories about America’s downtrodden poor.
I could not help but be reminded of “Gunga Din”, Kipling’s awful poem that was made into an even more awful film.
What you have instead is something more akin to the meteoric rise to the top seen in The Wolf of Wall Street , combined with the razor sharp political edge of Parasite .
There’s only two with a narrator that come to mind that work: Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street .
Like Stone's Wall Street movies and Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street, The White Tiger seems to enjoy the gluttonous desire for excess, and becomes intoxicated on it.
The cronyism, deception and systemic malfeasance that led up to the crisis of 2008 have been seen on screen in recent years, in the form of tense workplace dramas (Margin Call, 99 Homes ), grim documentaries ( Inside Job ), and old-fashioned gangster pictures set in the world of high finance ( The Wolf of Wall Street ).
Ramin Bahrani’s “99 Homes,” released in September, took a far less hasty look at the catastrophe in Florida, and at the families who felt the brunt.
The GFC has had no shortage of film treatments, from lacerating documentary (Inside Job) to accomplished dramas both operatic (Margin Call; Arbitrage) and gritty (99 Homes).
McKay, best known for such comedies as Anchorman and Step Brothers, wants us to root for people who would be villains or dupes in other money movies, such as 99 Homes and Inside Job.
There are no victims portrayed in the film (something this year’s “ 99 Homes ” did quite well), nor are there any true devils.
He reminded me of the African immigrant played by Souleymane Sy Savane in Ramin Bahrani's " Goodbye Solo " — a film that avoided the traps that "The Intouchables" falls into.
Lee Chang-dong’s Burning (2019), another tale of a fatal class encounter, ends on an unforgettable, overwhelming note — a tragedy that shocks us, in part, because it opts to beguile and stun where another film, a film such as The White Tiger, leans heavily on explanation and exposition, satisfying a need to neaten and explain a form of class rage that needn’t be so neat or explicable to compel or even convince us.
It’s similar to a film such as The Gift or recently Lee Chang-dong’s Burning .
Leave No Trace (2018)
Directed by Debra Granik
influenced by Goodbye Solo (2009), 99 Homes (2015)
Themes
We’ve seen stories like this in the work of Sean Baker (“Tangerine,” “The Florida Project”), Ramin Bahrani (“99 Homes,” “Goodbye Solo”), Andrew Haigh (“Lean On Pete”), and other independent filmmakers.
We’ve seen stories like this in the work of Sean Baker (“Tangerine,” “The Florida Project”), Ramin Bahrani (“99 Homes,” “Goodbye Solo”), Andrew Haigh (“Lean On Pete”), and other independent filmmakers.
He’s cut from the same cloth as Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley or Louise Bloom from Nightcrawler (2014).
Both are "eat the rich" stories, though The White Tiger shares more structural commonalities with Nightcrawler than last year’s Best Picture winner.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Directed by George Lucas
influenced Fahrenheit 451 (2018)
Plot
When we reach the point in which Beatty comes to suspect and realize that Montag is no longer working for him, it leads to a series of confrontations, not unlike the Kenobi vs. Vader battle in Revenge of the Sith .
Trade Quaid for Tom Cruise and make the tractor a little rounder and you’d almost have Oblivion.