Shoebox (2021)
TLDR: Watch it and judge it but definitely watch it.
I contemplate whether we truly are able to remember the things we experience. Or eventually they become mere connections through which we associate the memory itself. The sunlight on the day you bunked classes become as bright as the jubilation, the projector lights as vibrant as the happiness that radiated within ourselves. The cigarette you had in your balcony alone in the serene night, that train ride together, a photo of your mother smiling. Our memories and maybe even ourselves eventually become a compilation of objects, glimpses, and mere associations. The dual nature of our experiences are such that no matter how hard we want to let it go, it will forever be a part of ourselves, And no matter how hard we try to cling on to these objects/glimpses/associations they will inevitably start slipping from our fingers.
Cue Shoebox (2021) which to me is a film about the duality of holding on and letting go. And how we can't help but become a victim of both. As I began to watch the film, I associated it with Cinema Paradiso (1988), which itself is an homage to films itself. But as the minutes poured on - I realized how the film made me think of movies such as A Ghost Story (2017) and The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019). Two of my favorite films pertain to the connection we feel towards what we might call a "home". A place that we love in our heads. A place that we would like to call our own. Love is in fact often the desire to possess. Yet like people themselves, places often change too. Sometimes we are too blinded with our rose-tinted glasses to observe, sometimes we know within ourselves how the transformation is taking place, yet too adamant to acknowledge the fact. And at the end, inevitably comes a day, when we look at the place we thought we belonged to and we can't recognize it anymore.
The struggle that Mampu's father undertakes trying to keep the single screen theater alive stems from a place of love. Yet the practicality of such a decision comes with a question mark hovering over it. What I loved about the film is the dual-nature of the decisions we have to take and the duality surrounding us in life. While on one hand there is love, on the other there is the price we pay for it: the father's love for the theater eventually costs him and Mampu almost everything. His wife suffers the fatal accident the day he is devoted to his work in the theater, his emotional self suffers alone without the support of his spouse, and his physical self is inflicted with an untimely death due to landsharks eyeing the property. All due to his resolve to not sell his place of affection, his place of belonging, his home. This resolve is only one of the facets Mampu inherits from her father, the other being the tender loving spirit hidden underneath the tougher exterior. She is adamant to make her point to her father by having the cigarette in front of him despite his threats. At the same time she is the one loving enough to keep trying to bring her father to Pune to live with her. The story craftily interweaves the complexities of the father-daughter dynamic given the mother's untimely death. Both the ferocious disciplinarian in a single father, and the tender soft love he has for his daughter seem believable and pull you into the psyche of what Mampu is going through. This duality is eventually in Mampu too in her struggle to identify whether Pune is her home or whether Allahabad is. And even Allahabad can't escape the polarity of the world that encompasses us, as it undergoes a change in its name. The folk singers address how the world itself is changing too with pollution. And the world is in fact changing as we witness a guy playing a movie on his phone near the theater. An irony. A duality.
Another aspect of what fascinated me about the film is the fact Mampu, like her father, eventually learns to let go. Whether that is the highest form of love or a decision that stems from concern for all involved, or one where she is accepting the decision of her father, as he - a few days prior to his death - also accepted a compromise. It is this resignation- regardless of where it comes from that really captured me. It is not a resignation of the human spirit itself. Yet at some point in our lives we all have to let go. And we let go of our memories, objects, associations not because we have fallen out of love with it but rather we need to do so- for ourselves.
If it's not clear yet, I really loved the film. However, it is not without its shortcomings. The visuals are a treat to watch, and the acting is top-notch. Yet there are parts of the film that feel barren, that feel thin compared to the number of facets that the director tries to explore. This leaves the feeling of someone spreading sprinkles on a number of topics without delving into it to the extent that might have been possible. What we see between the brewing dynamics are often expressed very concisely, yet there are on occasions a reliance on dialogues to do the heavy-lifting to express the characters very directly. This is kind of at-odds with the film as it never feels like a dialogue-heavy film, or a film devoid of subtlety. Ah yet another duality!
I strongly urge all to at least watch the film. Despite the fact that it might feel slow to some, despite the fact that it might give off the "indie-film" vibe. You know what I dislike about the word vibe? It remains so vague- yet what do we really know about ourselves? We are bound to become a mere association or a fraction of a memory anyway.
TLDR: Watch it and judge it but definitely watch it.
I contemplate whether we truly are able to remember the things we experience. Or eventually they become mere connections through which we associate the memory itself. The sunlight on the day you bunked classes become as bright as the jubilation, the projector lights as vibrant as the happiness that radiated within ourselves. The cigarette you had in your balcony alone in the serene night, that train ride together, a photo of your mother smiling. Our memories and maybe even ourselves eventually become a compilation of objects, glimpses, and mere associations. The dual nature of our experiences are such that no matter how hard we want to let it go, it will forever be a part of ourselves, And no matter how hard we try to cling on to these objects/glimpses/associations they will inevitably start slipping from our fingers.
Cue Shoebox (2021) which to me is a film about the duality of holding on and letting go. And how we can't help but become a victim of both. As I began to watch the film, I associated it with Cinema Paradiso (1988), which itself is an homage to films itself. But as the minutes poured on - I realized how the film made me think of movies such as A Ghost Story (2017) and The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019). Two of my favorite films pertain to the connection we feel towards what we might call a "home". A place that we love in our heads. A place that we would like to call our own. Love is in fact often the desire to possess. Yet like people themselves, places often change too. Sometimes we are too blinded with our rose-tinted glasses to observe, sometimes we know within ourselves how the transformation is taking place, yet too adamant to acknowledge the fact. And at the end, inevitably comes a day, when we look at the place we thought we belonged to and we can't recognize it anymore.
The struggle that Mampu's father undertakes trying to keep the single screen theater alive stems from a place of love. Yet the practicality of such a decision comes with a question mark hovering over it. What I loved about the film is the dual-nature of the decisions we have to take and the duality surrounding us in life. While on one hand there is love, on the other there is the price we pay for it: the father's love for the theater eventually costs him and Mampu almost everything. His wife suffers the fatal accident the day he is devoted to his work in the theater, his emotional self suffers alone without the support of his spouse, and his physical self is inflicted with an untimely death due to landsharks eyeing the property. All due to his resolve to not sell his place of affection, his place of belonging, his home. This resolve is only one of the facets Mampu inherits from her father, the other being the tender loving spirit hidden underneath the tougher exterior. She is adamant to make her point to her father by having the cigarette in front of him despite his threats. At the same time she is the one loving enough to keep trying to bring her father to Pune to live with her. The story craftily interweaves the complexities of the father-daughter dynamic given the mother's untimely death. Both the ferocious disciplinarian in a single father, and the tender soft love he has for his daughter seem believable and pull you into the psyche of what Mampu is going through. This duality is eventually in Mampu too in her struggle to identify whether Pune is her home or whether Allahabad is. And even Allahabad can't escape the polarity of the world that encompasses us, as it undergoes a change in its name. The folk singers address how the world itself is changing too with pollution. And the world is in fact changing as we witness a guy playing a movie on his phone near the theater. An irony. A duality.
Another aspect of what fascinated me about the film is the fact Mampu, like her father, eventually learns to let go. Whether that is the highest form of love or a decision that stems from concern for all involved, or one where she is accepting the decision of her father, as he - a few days prior to his death - also accepted a compromise. It is this resignation- regardless of where it comes from that really captured me. It is not a resignation of the human spirit itself. Yet at some point in our lives we all have to let go. And we let go of our memories, objects, associations not because we have fallen out of love with it but rather we need to do so- for ourselves.
If it's not clear yet, I really loved the film. However, it is not without its shortcomings. The visuals are a treat to watch, and the acting is top-notch. Yet there are parts of the film that feel barren, that feel thin compared to the number of facets that the director tries to explore. This leaves the feeling of someone spreading sprinkles on a number of topics without delving into it to the extent that might have been possible. What we see between the brewing dynamics are often expressed very concisely, yet there are on occasions a reliance on dialogues to do the heavy-lifting to express the characters very directly. This is kind of at-odds with the film as it never feels like a dialogue-heavy film, or a film devoid of subtlety. Ah yet another duality!
I strongly urge all to at least watch the film. Despite the fact that it might feel slow to some, despite the fact that it might give off the "indie-film" vibe. You know what I dislike about the word vibe? It remains so vague- yet what do we really know about ourselves? We are bound to become a mere association or a fraction of a memory anyway.
