Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 17

Wonder

Cast: Jacob Tremblay (11 year old genius from the movie room), Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Mandy Patinkin

The next movie (seventeenth) is a very sweet American drama cum comedy film which is based on a novel. This movie is a sheer brilliance because of the cast and their acting specially Jacob Tremblay who had already impressed everyone in the movie Room. All other cast members have supported Jacob to their best potential and special mention needs to be given to Mandy Patinkin for his role. Although the movie was nominated for Academy in best Makeup and Hairstyling, we feel it could have easily been nominated in other categories as well.

This story starts with 10 year old boy “August” who lives in New York with his parent and older sister and has a rare face deformity due to which he has to undergo 27 surgeries since his birth. He is been home schooled by his mother who has left her job to teach him. As he approaches fifth grade, his parents decide to enrol him to a public school whose principal (Mandy Patinkin) is very supportive and arranges a tour with three other students to let August feel confident. The students reject him except one named jack who becomes close friend with August.

August starts feeling comfortable in school but during Halloween when he dresses as Ghost face into the school and no one recognizes his disguise including Jack who makes fun of him along with other of his friends. He becomes sick on coming back home and her sister convinces him to go trick-treat with him even though her day with their mom was ruined. In school, Auggie forms a new friendship with a girl name Summer who reveals her about his splitting with Jack. When Jack realizes his mistake and try to rectify by choosing Auggie as his partner in the school science fair, Julian (The bully) gets upset and gets into a fight with Jack when he calls Auggie a freak. Jack apologizes to principal who suspends him only for two days realizing he was trying to defend his friend.

There is a parallel story between Auggie’s older sister Via and her best friend Miranda going on which is as sweet as this one.

Auggie continues to be bullied by Julian and his friends which is finally discovered by one of the teacher who informs the principal. Mr Browne call Julian parents and shows the evidence to Julian Parents about his bulling Auggie to which there defend his actions by saying boys like Auggie should not be put in a regular school. This is where we leave you to decide whether Jack parents are right in their thought process that boys like Auggie are freak and should be put in special schools with other children with disabilities. Watch until the very end as Mandy Patinkin will steal the show with his speech.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 16

Megamind

Cast (Voice): Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Tina Fey, David Cross

Megamind will be our sixteenth recommended movie, an 3D animation comedy film about a super-villain who is engaged in a never-ending battle with superhero in a city which gives his life a purpose of moving forward every day. But when he defeats his foe, he loses that purpose and thus plan to create a new superhero on his own which turns out to be a super-villain. 

This 90 minutes comedy has very strong visuals which would be a selling point of this movie and with the cast chosen for voice adds extra spice to the same. The movie starts with a quick background of a Superhero and a Super-villain who invaded the earth as Infants and have been each other rivals. When Megamind creates a new plan to kidnap a reporter (Roxane Ritchie) and hold her hostage inside Copper Lined Observatory. When Megamind realizes that Metro-Man is weekend by the copper, he finally gets his sweet revenge and kills him with the death ray and takes over the city.

After taking over the city , Megamind realizes he has nothing else to achieve and his life has no purpose now. While wandering around in the city one day, he disguises himself as another person (Bernard) and starts interacting with Roxanne and immediately gets attracted to her. He gets an idea from Roxanne, where he would create a new superhero to fight him. Megamind creates a serum using Metro Man DNA and injects it to Roxanne proclaimed boyfriend Hal Jordan and convinces him to become a superhero “Titan” to fight Megamind.

Things go wrong when Titan is not able to woo Roxanne and realizes that she is on date with Bernard and leaves. Megamind also reveals her identity to Roxanne who leaves. Titan, also fights Megamind realizing he is being used for all this mess and is unaffected by the copper-lined trap which killed Metro-man becoming a new super-villain. Megamind seeks help of Roxanne who reluctantly takes him to Metro Man headquarters where they are both surprised to see Metroman healthy and alive. He faked his death to take retirement from being a superhero and declines to help Megamind.

Megamind on his own now decides to take up the fight with the super strong HAL now. And we enter in to last 30 minutes of climax fight which is truly visually stunning (The Incredibles level). But, the question lies how can Megamind defeat someone who has been created to defeat him and will he get any help from Metro-Man who has been hiding and relaxing all this time. Although this movie has received mix reviews saying this is the same old superhero vs super-villain story i.e. served in a new package we would still recommend this for its stunning visual effects and dialogues. Do watch the movie and let us know your comments.

SM Movie Geeks

Lesser Known Movies you must watch - 15

                               Edge of Seventeen

               Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Blake Jenner, Haley Richardson

The next recommended movie is a typical American drama film with a flavor of comedy in it but that’s because of the sheer acting brilliance of Woody and Hailee. Also, with a mere $9 Million budget and loads of positive reviews this movie is a must watch.

The movie begins with Nadine Franklin (Hailee) typical high school kid of west United States informs her teacher Mr. Bruner (Woody) that she is going to commit suicide. On asking her the reason for the same, she narrates her story about how her life has progressed so far. She told him about the regular fights between her brother (Since the age of 7) who is popular, about her theatrical mother who always favor her brother and its only her father whom she feels she is close to. But when he dies by heart attack she is left alone with just one friend Krista (Haley) whom she can communicate.

On one night, when Nadine and Krista are at home drunk and asleep, her brother throws a pool party. When Nadine wakes up and found Krista in bed with her brother she gets tormented about the same. Things take a U-turn when due to her sister when Darian and Krista think not to do it again but ends up becoming a couple. All this time Nadine feels all alone and turns to her classmate Ervin who has a crush on her. Even though, him being someone having great sense of humor and of kind nature, Nadine is attracted towards an older student Nick.

When Krista tries to break the ice between Nadine and her brother by inviting her to come along with them in a party, things don’t work out as Nadine is unable to talk to anyone and ends up going back home alone. She confronts with Krista to choose between her or her brother to which she refuses to which she ends their friendship.

There are lot of things happening in this teenager life where she ends up sending a sexual text to the same senior boy on whom she had a crush (Nick) and this is where her narration ends with Mr. Burner who tries to keep her calm. On receiving a text back from the senior boy, she feels excited but ends up knowing the truth behind her being invited. This is where we leave you to watch the movie and let us know if you liked it or not.

This movie is not like the thriller or a sci-fi action or fantasy movie that we usually are attracted to but a story of a teenager which feels real as it is all about coming of age where you might be able to relate some of the incidents with your life or life of someone you know.

SM Movie Geeks