S.K. Chishty
2021's Best in Review: Azor
A film of menacing subtlety. "We are at a purification phase... parasites must be eradicated" Private banker Ivan De Wiel (Fabrizio...
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ONLYWHATiWATCH
Opinionated Film Reviews
S.K. Chishty
- Dec 6, 2021
- 2 min
Film Review: Demonic (2021)
Blomkamp's newfound 'neatness' is even worse than his messiness. Listless and dull, Demonic is a purported change of pace for the...
9 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Dec 6, 2021
- 3 min
Film Review: Old (2021)
Interesting, but oddly uninvolving. During a tropical vacation, a family discovers themselves trapped on an 'exclusive' island where time...
11 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Sep 13, 2021
- 3 min
Malignant (2021)
Visually uninspired wanna-be Giallo. Malignant is being touted by some as the film James Wan would have made much earlier in his career...
160 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jun 25, 2021
- 3 min
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
Zahler's film wears its blood-splattered grindhouse influences on its sleeves. Broken teeth, smashed-up faces, shattered limbs, and...
33 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jun 18, 2021
- 2 min
Pervyy uchitel (The First Teacher, 1965)
Konchalovskiy's film admirably prefers nuance over propaganda. In 1924, a former Red Army soldier is sent to the remote village of...
181 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jun 12, 2021
- 2 min
Infinite
Fuqua goes for 'The Matrix' but delivers 'Jupiter Ascending'. Infinite's casually tossed flimsy opening exposition tells us that the...
26 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- May 31, 2021
- 3 min
Cruella (2021)
Entertaining, yes. But also a cop-out. Agreed that Cruella DeVil is not exactly one of the great villains of children's fiction. But the...
254 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- May 31, 2021
- 3 min
Seance (2021)
Atmospheric and involving, yet oddly unsatisfying. After a prank that involves reconjuring the ghost of a girl who had killed herself on...
14 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- May 17, 2021
- 5 min
The Woman in the Window (2021)
Joe Wright's foray into the noirish world is thin, unsatisfying, and very Netflix. Plot: An agoraphobic woman Anna Fox (Amy Adams)...
23 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- May 13, 2021
- 2 min
Oxygene (French, 2021)
Mostly, a softening of Aja's chops as a genre director. Currently, for Indians, the word oxygen is loaded with heartbreak and anger. As I...
13 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- May 13, 2021
- 2 min
Beast from Haunted Cave (1959)
Thankfully, the film's economy is not confined to its budget. Released as a double-bill along with Roger Corman's The Wasp Woman, Beast...
36 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- May 13, 2021
- 3 min
The Father (2021)
The film effectively plumbs down the depth of a mind losing its grip on reality. French playwright and novelist Florian Zeller makes his...
47 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- May 13, 2021
- 1 min
Film Review: Witness to Murder (1954)
The unrealized subtext is more powerful than the film. Just like My Name is Julia Ross squanders its potential for commenting on class...
8 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- May 12, 2021
- 2 min
Film Reviews: My Name is Julia Ross (1945)
An underseen & intriguing attempt at a Gothic thriller misses its mark. A down-on-her-luck Julia Ross (Nina Foch) recovering from an...
6 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Apr 3, 2021
- 3 min
Film Review: A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)
A heady mix of trashy exploitation and undeniable artistry. Body horror fans expecting any gross out transformation scenes are bound to...
22 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Apr 1, 2021
- 1 min
Mini-Review: Green Dolphin Street (1947)
Handsome soap-opera! Two sisters, Marriane and Marguirette (Lana Turner and Donna Reed, respectively) compete for the attention of the...
24 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Apr 1, 2021
- 3 min
Film Review: Ucho (The Ear) (1970)
Chilling satire of state's invasion into the personal. In the late '60s, Czechoslovakia enjoyed a brief period of Liberalisation, known...
19 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Mar 1, 2021
- 4 min
Film Review: Shin Godzilla (2016)
The Japanese still know how to do this right. Shin Godzilla is Toho Studio's 30th incarnation of Godzilla, making it the longest-running...
3 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Feb 28, 2021
- 3 min
Film Review: Kajillionaire (2020)
Miranda July's movement towards more expansive pastures parallel her protagonist's. It is wonderfully bracing to see women directors...
9 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jan 31, 2021
- 2 min
Film Review: Palmer (2021)
Palmer struggles against two sets of clichés - of its story and of its location. In the trailer review of Palmer, that Abha Dhyani wrote...
3 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jan 28, 2021
- 2 min
Film Review: Kris (Crisis, 1946)
The great Ingmar Bergman's debut is an uninteresting melodrama. Part of Early Bergman, #1 of Criterion Collection's Eclipse Series, a...
28 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jan 26, 2021
- 4 min
Film Review: PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (2020)
A powerful, stylish takedown of toxic masculinity. Set to throbbing all-women, pop soundtrack, Promising Young Woman is a powerful and...
15 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Dec 30, 2020
- 3 min
Film Review: Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
A rare courtroom drama that puts the audience into the position of a jury. What do you think when you think of courtroom dramas? Blazing...
205 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Dec 6, 2020
- 4 min
Film Review: The Devils (1971)
Ken Russell's one-of-a-kind attack on conformity still has the power to shock. In "De Palma", a documentary on Brian DePalma, the...
115 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Nov 30, 2020
- 4 min
La Vérité (The Truth) (France, 1960)
Criterion's blu-ray does justice with late-career Clouzot triumph starring a great Brigette Bardot. Sometimes while watching a film the...
14 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Nov 19, 2020
- 2 min
Film Review: The Dark and the Wicked (2020),
Bleak and atmospheric, Bertino knows what he's aiming for. The family has been an important component of horror cinema. Most horror...
92 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Oct 24, 2020
- 5 min
Halloween Month Review: Antebellum (2020)
I propose that Veronica/Eden is actually a white person who happens to be Black.
5 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Oct 21, 2020
- 4 min
Bed and Sofa (1927, Russia)
Tretya meshchanskaya is a mysteriously lesser-known masterpiece of silent cinema. Made allegedly in support of the state-sponsored...
32 views0 comments
Aabha Dhyaani
- Oct 20, 2020
- 2 min
Halloween Month Review: Hubie Halloween (2020)
Adam Sandler reprises his man-child act for the umpteenth time with surprising results. If you have taken time out to watch an Adam...
7 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Oct 19, 2020
- 2 min
Halloween Month Review: The Wretched (2020)
This is homage without feeling... but you can do a lot worse with your night. A troubled teenager Ben (John-Paul Howard) comes to stay...
2 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Oct 16, 2020
- 3 min
Halloween Month Review: The Lodge (2020)
The film's style has more heft than the content. One of the main problems I had with 2018's critical darling Hereditary was that its...
4 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Oct 16, 2020
- 3 min
Halloween Month Review: La Llorona (2019)
For better or for worse, this is one of the most overtly political horror films you'll see. Also known as "The Weeping Woman", this film...
13 views0 comments
Aabha Dhyaani
- Oct 14, 2020
- 3 min
Halloween Month Review: The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
Disney's scariest film? The horror scene changed considerably since the release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). It brought forth...
9 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Sep 20, 2020
- 4 min
Film Review: A film called 'Film' by Samuel Beckett
Today, Beckett's film can be deciphered as a warning against Social Media excesses and surveillance. Samuel Beckett wrote only one...
29 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Sep 13, 2020
- 5 min
Film Review: i'm thinking of ending things
Kaufman's literal mindedness is at odds with his 'Lynchian' dream logic. The work of Charlie Kaufman has been nothing if not cerebral....
24 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Sep 11, 2020
- 2 min
Film Review: Chess Fever (1925)
Proof that silent Russian cinema is not only required viewing for serious film appreciation students. Thanks to their lofty presence in...
36 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Sep 1, 2020
- 2 min
Film Review: La Cigarette (1919)
Germaine Dulac's psychological drama pre-dates what came to be called 'Hitchcockian'. One of the first women director's working in the...
159 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Aug 24, 2020
- 3 min
Film Review: Las niñas bien (The Good Girls) (Spanish, 2018)
Writer & Director Alejandra Márquez Abella skewers the Mexican high society against the backdrop of '82 financial crisis. In the '80's...
63 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Aug 23, 2020
- 2 min
Film Review: Paris (French, 2008)
A love letter to the iconic city goes nowhere. If interlocking multiple story lines a la Amores Perros or Love, Actually is not your...
9 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Aug 3, 2020
- 2 min
Trailer Review: Rogue (2020)
Megan Fox's attempt for an image change looks destined to meet the same fate as G.I.Jane.
25 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Aug 2, 2020
- 4 min
Feature: Upcoming Blockbusters You Should Be Excited About!
The time when families used to plan going out for an 'event' summer flick seems to be a thing of the past. The best they can do currently...
14 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jul 31, 2020
- 1 min
Your wait for 'Tenet' just increased...
The new Christopher Nolan film has been in news since its teaser arrived. Last year, Christopher Nolan fans got something to be really...
7 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jul 27, 2020
- 3 min
Review: In the Tall Grass (2020)
Indistinct chanting. It is widely believed that there are two kinds of fiction writers: Plotters and Pantsers. Plotters, as the name...
30 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jul 19, 2020
- 3 min
Review: Godzilla: The King of Monsters (2019)
Spectacle without fun. Hollywood has always enjoyed and entertained its audiences by bringing humanity to the brink of destruction....
6 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jul 17, 2020
- 2 min
Review: 'Becky' (2020) is more 'Die Hard' than 'Home Alone'.
“Home Alone on steroids”. You can almost hear the elevator pitch for this film. And no doubt, the producers will have a good reason to...
2 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jul 2, 2020
- 3 min
Review: Sátántangó (1994): A Rare Experience
A muddy field. Slowly, some cattle arrive and start to explore it. Most try to graze at the slim picking the ground has to offer, some...
12 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jul 2, 2020
- 2 min
Review: 'The Personal History of David Copperfield' is a Delightful Update
Despite its popularity, David Copperfield has been mostly ignored by filmmakers comparatively. As Armando Iannucci, the director of the...
8 views0 comments
S.K. Chishty
- Jul 2, 2020
- 3 min
Review: 'Meanstreets' plays like a Scorcese manifesto
Though it was his teaming up with Thelma Schoonmaker that helped him hone his style to perfection, Martin Scorcese’s debut feature plays...
1 view0 comments
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