movie reviews!!

When I first watched the trailer/ read the synopsis I was hooked. I wanted to know why and I wanted to know how they would end up.

I think the story left me with more questions than answers. For the first time, I learned to accept ambiguity. 

This story is about a lesbian Rei, who is in love with a woman Nanae. A woman who is being physically and sexually abused by her husband. A woman who has been abused most of her life. A woman who is straight. After seeing what Nanae’s husband did to her, Rei decides to seduce him and then kill him. The story begins from there as they run away together to escape the charges. 

This isn’t a typical story where two people are in love with each other and want to be together. Rather, it depicts a very confusing, complex relationship between a woman who is a lesbian and a woman who is straight. 

While it may seem that Rei freed Nanae from her terrible life, somewhere in there it feels like Nanae isn’t going to be happy with Rei either. The relationship between the two women is confusing for them and for us. However, that is what I liked about this story. 

When Rei’s brother and sister-in-law questioned the women’s relationship neither of them were able to answer. More often than not we love to label things and put everything into a definitive box. But sometimes, you just can’t. 

Rei was crazy enough to do anything for Nanae. Even have sex with a random taxi driver if it means she could protect Nanae. Nanae had no choice but to obey what Rei said. She’s so used to abuse that even though she felt suffocated by Rei at times, Nanae felt that it was far better than her previous life. 

After Rei achieved what she wanted - to have sex with Nanae, it seemed like she started to see the bigger picture. They couldn’t be happy together. In fact, Rei could never be happy in general. And the only way they could start over was if they faced the consequences in place and that is exactly what Rei did. 

It maybe wasn’t until that point that Nanae actually started to like Rei. Rei wanted to start over with a clean slate and be there for the woman she loved. 

Ride or die is not a story where you learn a life lesson or try to relate. It is simply a piece of art. You don’t even need to understand it. It shows how reckless people can be for love. It shows how men try to manipulate women and take advantage of them when they are vulnerable. It gives a different meaning to love. 

It most definitely wasn’t the best movie I’ve ever watched. Rather it was far from it. However, it made me see films as a piece of art for the first time. And it made me feel okay that I didn’t understand something. That not everything is meant to be understood.

This is the first Filipino movie I’ve ever watched and from what I could infer, NNLY is not a typical local style movie. I recently got to learn about JaDine and their works after stumbling upon the On The Wings of Love (OTWOL) series and I will review that soon as well. 

 I think what I loved the most about this movie was how close it was to reality. It is not about cheating or a disruption or a responsibility that keeps the two main characters apart. It’s rather their maturity and their need for independence that changes their love. I felt that Jadaone, the director, tried to portray this idea in OTOWOL as well with the whole Simon situation. There were many parallels to those episodes in this movie. However the way Gio deals with the situation makes the audience fall in love with him. I think what I am trying to say is that this movie focuses on true love. True love is letting a person follow their heart even if it means you can’t be with them. True love is realizing things are changing and addressing the situation. True love is wanting the best for the person even if it means that you can’t be part of it.

Nadine’s acting in the last few scenes, before the movie comes to an end, was truly amazing. As an audience we feel the discomfort that she is feeling. There is love but there is also a sense of doubt. A sense of confusion. There is pain. 

The ending is open. As the audience we can feel the tension. The “spark” that we felt in the beginning of the movie seems to have faded away. Jason at the tattoo shop also mentions how “finger tattoos fade easily”. However, Gio and Joanne both decide to get the ring tattoo again. They both give up their work related responsibilities to do so as well. And I guess that it shows that they are both willing to give it another try. They are willing to make that sacrifice. 

I think one of the most beautiful parts of this movie was the way information was presented to the audience. The screenplay played a key role in making this movie extremely entertaining as the concept of the movie is one that everyone can relate to. The director tackled the contradiction between the lives of the rich and the poor. The term “parasite” refers to many things. It refers to the poor family that is leeching off of the rich family. But it also refers to the ex-housekeeper’s husband living in their basement who is leeching off of the family. What I liked about the movie was how real it was. There was no happy ending per se, nor were the rich people painted as “villains”. The movie was raw. It showed the situation as it is. The rich people were too preoccupied to learn about the poor people around them. The poor people learned overtime to do whatever they can to reach the “top”. 

Each and every scene was extremely important to the movie. There weren’t nonsensical characters just for comedy or unnecessary scenes that diverted from the main point of the movie. In fact, there were hidden metaphors and foreshadowing throughout the movie that makes you think about the movie even after it was long over. It might be the paintings made by the little kid of the man in the basement or how that painting was positioned a few meters below the family portrait showing that he too was living there, but underneath them. 

Ok first of all I feel like the reason I gave this movie such a low review is because the movie didn’t live up to the high expectations I had after watching the promotions. The story line was quite generic and many of the main points were confusing. Babies switched at birth is a staple plot in Telugu cinema so that means that the rest of the plot was definitely predictable. There were also many renowned actors (Vennela Kishore, Sunil, etc.) in the film who appeared only for a scene or two and it almost seems like they were only in the film for the “commercial” aspect that we often mention. There didn’t seem to be a true purpose for most of the characters. 

Specifically, two things that I really didn’t like in the film were:

1. The red-coat board meeting scene where they tried to replace Bantu with one of the people in the boarding meeting. It is ironic that the whole reason Amulya was involved in the meeting was because of how skilled she was in business. However, they ask her to leave the meeting? So her employee can take over instead? The other main dude just sat there the whole time not doing anything? It is also ironic how the director, Trivikram’s, last film was about female empowerment and he basically gave no scope to the one female character that actually had the potential to shine in the scene. 

2. Tabu, his actual mother, never even knows that he is her actual son and they basically just let the movie end that way. More than half of the time, the main character is confused as to why he wants to be involved in his birth family’s life. This made the ending even more generic and boring. Even almost rushed. 

With all this being said, there were some incredible scenes in the movie. The fight scene that was choreographed according to the song was absolutely amazing! Usually fight scenes are directed in a way where scenes move really quick and the audience can barely keep up with the (already non logical) fights. However, making this fight almost like a dance added a new element to the movie and definitely made it unique and very interesting to watch. I also loved the comedy parts of the red-coat board meeting scene and I know that this scene stood out for most people. It was a unique style of comedy and I liked it. Most of the movie’s main source of comedy was that one scene, to be honest.