The Naked City

Life is full of baffling surprises and one came this morning when I opened the New York Times (no, not that one) but a small obituary to Malvin Wald, the screenwriter of the gritty 1948 police drama "The Naked City." Well, I just completed the film (in four sittings) last night and this morning I should read about the death of its pioneering writer. Malvin Wald won an Oscar for screen-writing this film and is credited for creating the "police procedural" genre that has led to many successful shows and films including Law and Order and even the super-famous CSI series.

The Naked City is a New York film about a hard-working aging police detective and it was the first of its kind in those days. It lays out an elaborate and painstaking process of police investigation in the murder of a young woman desperately trying to seek a place in the upper crust of New York society even if that meant parting ways with morality and the law.

The film starts with -- "There are 8 million people in The Naked City..." and ends with the famous rejoinder -- "There are 8 million stories in The Naked City..."

When would that statement ring truer than today when we suddenly have realized how naive we are in and around The Real, Really Naked City.

The Darjeeling Limited

Wes Anderson's films are like those of Coen brothers but without fangs. He is up there in quirkiness and creating unforgettable characters but while the Coens drive home their point with a thump (or an air gun, if you will), Anderson's films are a gentle nudge. They goad but do say with a feather while the Coens leave you bloody and reeling. Coens seem to obsess over the insertion of crime into everyday life and everyday characters and Anderson seems to be all about the insertion of quirkiness into everyday life and everyday characters.

"The Darjeeling Limited" is the story of 3 brothers from an average broken American family that must seek resolution via an exotic train trip in the old spiritual guard: India. Anderson generally plays by the rules of the sub-genre (yes, going to another country to seek resolve is at least a sub-genre) and shows us little tidbits of India, its people and its quirkiness that all fit his plot well. However, Anderson also breaks the rules a bit by making this mostly a film between the brothers and their inability to communicate or connect. The story mostly works as a device to get their characters out in the open and lets him (Anderson) play with them in their full effect. There are some astonishing gems like Adrien Brody's character says -- 'I couldn't save mine' -- after the brothers try to save, and the two others succeed, the lives of 3 drowning village boys; or the Owen Wilson character's strange presumed leadership of the outfit or Angelica Houston's role as the estranged mother who left her charmed life in mid-west (presumably) to become a nun in a sleepy Indian town.

The film features an extraordinary soundtrack including an unbelievably brilliant collection of title songs from various Satyajit Ray films (Charu's theme from Joi Baba Felunath being my favorite) and old Merchant-Ivory films that play throughout the film as background music. This among other brilliant songs (This Time Tomorrow and Powerman by the Kinks, an amazing French Song and so much more) helps complete a well-rounded package of neatly tied brilliance.

No Reservation

Once again our collective disdain for a serious woman, serious character even, is exposed in this Valentine film starring two of the more pretty specimen of our kind. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a celebrated chef who takes her job, her life seriously, a bit too much, her shrink tells her and the fact that she has no man in her life is mostly because of that. Today's Hollywood hero, embodied by Owen Wilson at best and Will Ferrel at worst isn't going to tolerate seriousness of any kind. However, Aaron Eckhart is able to 'fix' her by inserting joy and laughter among other things in her life. It wouldn't quite be a Valentine movie of the 21st century without a cute little kid somehow adding the 'aaaawwww' factor. Abigail Breslin is here to add that icing on a rather limp cake.