Upper Ground Production
  • Home
  • About
  • Professional
  • Links
    • Film East
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LetterBoxd
  • Home
  • About
  • Professional
  • Links
    • Film East
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LetterBoxd
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

DONATE

26/7/2017 0 Comments

What I'm Watching... Lion

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Lion
Directed by Garth Davis
Based on true events, Lion follows the journey of a 5-year-old Indian boy, Saroo, when he gets stuck on a train and travels thousands of miles away from his home. The lost boy eventually finds himself in an orphanage where he is adopted by a family in Australia. Twenty years later, Saroo begins to search for the home he left behind in India, hoping to be reunited with the family he lost all those years ago. 

​I have been eagerly wanting to see Lion since I first heard about it at last year's London Film Festival. The film was gaining a lot of buzz for its inspiring story and fantastic cast. I had high expectations for Davis's film, yet, in some ways, the film actually left me underwhelmed... But just a little. 

There is no denying that Lion's greatest asset is its story. The true and tragic story of Saroo's lost home will tug at the heart strings of even those with the coldest of souls. It's a beautiful story of how a lost boy found his way home. But, for me at least, the film didn't do Saroo's story justice. The biggest problem I had with the screenplay was the pacing. There was a disconnect, for me, between Saroo's past and his present. There was no solid link that brought the two time periods together, which made it difficult to associate the young child with his older self. I had a hard time connecting Patel's Saroo with the innocent little boy lost in Bengali. The two performance work brilliant on their own but not 

Perhaps it was the linear and straight forward telling of the story that caused the disconnect. Maybe telling the story nonlinearly would have created a better association between the Saroo of the present and the Saroo of the past. It would have better acclimatized Patel's Saroo to the audience, rather than having a massive jump in time and causing disassociation between the actors and the character. When it came to the emotional climax of the time, I was completely unresponsive because of the overwhelming disconnect, which is sad because that was what I was most looking forward to. 

​Yet Davis succeeded with the cast of his film. Every actor in this film gave memorable, emotional, and powerful performances. Nicole Kidman, despite having little screen time, was memorizing as Saroo's adoptive mother Sue. She glowed with affection and love for her adoptive son. Dev Patel and Rooney Mara were equally as enchanting on screen. Their chemistry was infectious, and they each gave a powerful and provocative performance. But the real standout of the film was the incredible Sunny Pawar as young Saroo. At a such a young age, Pawar was able to give a beautiful, moving, and soul performance, which is more than you can say for a lot of Hollywood actors. He was the star of Lion and truly made the story come to life. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Click the images below to read each article

    Features

    Representing Oslovian Women, starring ‘The Worst Person in the World’
    Culinary Temptations: Italian Cuisine in Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Desire Trilogy’
    David Bowie is... The Englishman Who Fell to Earth
    Kris Marshall | Love, Actually
    ‘Choose a name; something simple’: Names and Identities in ‘Money Heist’
    The Sad Eyes of Punk: Subverting the Rock Star in Anton Corbijn's Control
    The Ghost of David Bowie: Capturing Bowie's Cultural Legacy in Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine
    Re-assimilating the Other: Zombies, Mental Illness and Homosexuality in BBC Three’s In the Flesh
    Global Strangers: Existing Between Borders Film Collection
    Animation Artistry in Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers
    Riz Ahmed’s Goodbye to Britain: Confronting Identity and Self in ‘The Long Goodbye’
    Young Film Programmers and the Pandemic
    The Hugh Grant Archetype: Stereotyping British Identity
    “America’s Sweetheart”: White Female Privilege In ‘Gone Girl’
    Why a David Bowie biopic will always be doomed to fail
    Film Oddity: David Bowie and the Screen
    "Did you feel emotional the first time you drove in Sacramento?" Driving with Emotion in Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird
    A [Not-so-Distant] Dystopian Future... The Dystopian Landscape of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner
    Politics, Class and the British Home: British Class Represented in High-Rise and Brazil
    The New New Wave of British Cinema: Joanna Hogg and the Middle-Class Social Realist Film
    “I’m Irish.” – Paul Mescal Vs The British Empire
    "Karen, are you crazy?" The Women of Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas
    Crafting Insanity: Experiencing madness in Sherlock: The Lying Detective
    The Modern Greek Tragedy: Examining Yorgos Lanthimos's The Killing of a Sacred Deer through Aristotle's Poetics
    "But Wales is Britain. And Britain is Wales." Exploring British national identity in Netflix's The Crown
    David Bowie is the Englishman from Mars: An Examination of Englishness through Stardom
    Supporting the Black Lives Matters movement through cinematic education
    “Maybe That’s Normal”: The Normality of Mental Illness in Normal People
    Dance, Woman, Dance: Revisiting Jim Henson's Labyrinth
    How Social Realism Contributes to the Fetishisation of Britain’s Working Class
    Slut! The Sexual Liberation of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Women
    Time, Illness And Melancholia
    Patrick Melrose And The Trauma Of The Aristocracy
    Is A Most Popular Film Category Good For The Oscars?

    Reviews

    Drive My Car | London Film Festival 2021
    The Worst Person in the World | London Film Festival 2021 Review
    BFI London Film Festival 2021 | Reviews
    BFI Flare Festival 2021 | Reviews
    ‘Poppy Field’ — Censoring Queerness In Romania: BFI Flare Review
    ‘Dramarama’ Is Nostalgic, But Misses The Mark: BFI Flare Review
    My First Summer — Reimagining the Queer Coming-of-Age Summer Film | BFI Flare Review
    Jump, Darling is the drag film for our generation | BFI Flare Review
    Norwich Film Festival 2020 | Reviews
    Raindance Film Festival 2021 | Reviews
    London Film Festival 2020 | Reviews
    ‘If It Were Love’ — Performance art makes its way to cinema in this beautifully sensual film | LFF Review
    ‘Never Gonna Snow Again’ — Desperate Housewives meet Matilda in this wonderfully strange portrait of Poland | LFF Review
    ‘Eyimofe’- A Touching Tale Of Life And Love: LFF Review
    Willem Dafoe Gets Philosophical In ‘Siberia: LFF Review
    Exploring Humanity In ‘The Painter And The Thief’: LFF Review
    Lie Low | Review
    Review: Macbeth At The Norwich Theatre Royal
    Review: La Traviata At The Norwich Theatre Royal
    A Feminist Day Out At The BFI | Woman With A Movie Camera Summit 2018

    Interviews

    Interview with Bassam Tarqi
    ​London Film Festival 2020
    Picture
    Interview with Jonathan Blagrove
    Norwich Film Festival 2020
    Interview with Jamie Weston
    Norwich Film Festival 2020
    Picture
    Interview with Stuart Laws
    Grave New World Premiere 2021

    Film East Chats Podcast on BBC Radio Norfolk

    This is a small section of episodes from the Film East podcast. Click here to listen to all episodes. 

      Contact Me! 

    Submit
    DONATE
    Do you like what I'm doing? Consider donating to help me continue doing it! Buy me a coffee or lunch, a new paint kit or Photoshop! Click the button to be taken to my PayPal, where just $5 or $10  would go a long way to helping me continue to follow my creative passions! ​
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.