#Telugu Movies 2022

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

Rules (short version: imagine this is the actual UFC):

No weapons

No outside help

No special powers

Let me emphasize this…COMPLETELY DEPOWERED

This is not a fight to the death

There are rules in place, so fighters can’t just go crazy and try to kill their opponent

[indianmovielinks]

A tale of two legendary revolutionaries and their journey far away from home.

[severetravelerhologram-blog]

Full Video: Ee Raathale Song | Radhe Shyam | #Prabhas #PoojaHegde | Justin Prabhakaran | Krishna K

T-Series Telugu presents Ee Raathale full video Song from Telugu #RadheShyam Movie starring Prabhas,Pooja Hegde …

[thrillsheals]

Moviesda 2023 Tamil, Telugu, Hollywood Dubbed, 300 MB Movies, Dual Audio Download

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[neengareadynaaready]

This scene was perfection. Ultimate entry scene. Mindblowing.

the tiger

he destroyed his cage

yes

YES

the tiger is out

(his name is Bheem and he is going to fuck you up)

[eowyntheavenger]

What is RRR?? (Please, it looks so good)

Oh my god YES, YEEEESSSSSS, I am so ready to answer this, thank you anon, I feel like I’ve been CHOSEN!!!!!!! Let me tell you about the best movie ever!!!!!!!!!!! it IS so good!

RRR (which stands for Roudram Ranam Rudhiram or Rise Roar Revolt) is an Indian Telugu-language film that came out in 2022 and became India’s third highest grossing film ever because it is THAT amazing.

This movie has EVERYTHING YOU COULD EVER WANT. Unbelievable, over-the-top action! British colonizers getting what they deserve! Stunning cinematography, sets and costumes! A soundtrack so incredible you’ll never be able to stop listening to it! Tigers! (They’re CGI, no animals were harmed in the making of the film.)

And, most importantly, it has one of the most compelling and beautiful onscreen romances relationships between two men that I have ever seen!!!!!!!!!!! This movie is SO gay I can’t even begin to tell you. Like not officially gay, but GAY. I love it so much. Listen. LISTEN TO ME. The entire cast is great, but in particular the two leads are AMAZING and their chemistry is INSANE. They are magic together.

RRR is set in the 1920s and it’s about two revolutionaries named Komaram Bheem (played by Jr. NTR) and Alluri Sitarama Raju (played by Ram Charan) who never met in real life, but the movie says, what if they did? It explores themes of friendship, betrayal, colonization, racism, revolution, religion, trauma, and… what if two men fell in love while fighting the British? AND FALL IN LOVE THEY DO

I don’t want to spoil anything but like. WATCH IT. It’s three hours long and worth EVERY SECOND. You might wonder, in a three hour movie, are there parts that feel slow? NO. This movie is incapable of dragging, and so much is packed into three hours it’s actually kind of crazy. The story is so good the themes are so good the acting is so good IT MAKES ME FERAL!!! DID I MENTION THE SOUNDTRACK???

I CRY AND SCREAM ABOUT RRR EVERY DAY. This movie is unhinged, and it made me unhinged, and hopefully you will watch it and become unhinged as well <3 thank you and goodnight!

[pariaritzia]

Queerness in Indian Media

↳Film: RRR (2022, Telugu), dir. S.S. RAJAMOULI

RRR is a historical fantasy action drama that follows Bheem (NTR Jr), a Gond warrior who is in search of a Gond girl who was taken away from their home, and Ram (Ram Charan), the British Army officer assigned to catch him. Ram and Bheem meet under false identities and quickly grow closer, but everything is thrown into chaos once the truth is revealed and Ram is forced to choose between his ambitions and his attachment to Bheem.

Long before any white person had ever heard of RRR, queer Indians were cautiously optimistic that there would be something for us in this movie. There was the song Dosti, which felt more romantic than the average song about friendship; Bheem's intense declaration toward Ram in the trailer; Rajamouli explaining that there is no boy-girl romantic song (a staple of masala Indian cinema in any language) because "the romance angle is between these two guys only...bromance...they are the heroes, they are the hero and heroine, and they are the hero and villain"; the lead actors repeatedly questioning interviewers who referred to Jenny and Seetha as Bheem and Ram's love interests; and the writer, V. Vijayendra Prasad, being a huge fan of Salim-Javed movies, particularly Sholay, whose homosocial pairing has been read as queer by queer Indians for decades.

The movie itself gave us more than we could have hoped for from a project made on such a huge scale. Ram and Bheem mimic many of the "hero and heroine" pairings in so many masala movies, doing everything from the "slow-mo staring" for the first meeting, to getting a whole montage song for the progression of their bond, to dressing each other up, to dancing together at a party, to carrying each other, to rescuing each other.

The final rescue scene is perhaps the most telling, as it twists a well-known myth from the Ramayana by putting Ram and Bheem in the position of heroine and hero. It is not Hanuman who tells Rama where to find Sita in Lanka, but instead Seetha who tells Bheem where to find Ram. Bheem, upon finding him, promises to get him out 'even if [he has] to burn this Lanka down to do it'--then promptly carries him on his shoulders the way Hanuman carried Rama, to do away with any suspicions from homophobic audiences.

Those homophobic audiences still made their complaints--a glance at the oldest comments on any clip or behind the scenes video for RRR will make that clear--but they were drowned out by the many fans of the movie. Ultimately, like with any coded movie, the interpretation is up to the individual, but it is undeniable that a number of queer Indians felt that there was a romantic bond between Ram and Bheem. To dismiss that would do a disservice to the many queer people who have, are, and always will work quietly behind the scenes to write our stories, even if they can never say so directly.

[indianmovielinks]

A socio-political action movie, the plot revolves around a middle-aged communist-turned-social reformer who launches a fight against the Endowments Department over the misappropriation of temple funds and donations.

[drivingsideways]

2024 Watch List: Movie Edition

After what feels like a decade of not really watching any movies, I had a good movie year- 70 films, which is a little over a movie per week, mostly because I stuck to watching or rewatching older films. Went through most of Wong Kar Wai's filmography, which always leaves me dreamy and slightly perplexed and also a bit annoyed (complimentary); going bonkers over Interview with the Vampire S2 made me fall into French New Wave for a time- a longing to revisit Paris struck me enough to do something about renewing my passport- though naturally, it didn't improve my bank balance enough to think about actually visiting. Anyway, tbh, I was quite surprised that Hiroshima Mon Amour and Masculin Feminin, among others, are really all that. Sixty years later, Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall (2023) would have been my pick for best film at the Oscars- it made me want to return to watching movies in theatre.

Returned to the mothership (UK) via Merchant-Ivory productions and old British tv - Howard's End (1992) which I probably watched for the first time too early in my life, knocked me down and then took me out back and shot me in the head this time around. Maurice (1987) was everything Luca Guadagnino films aren't (y'all were just really flat out lying about Challengers being good); Heat & Dust (1983) made me a little angry, and also pushed me into reading A Passage to India (1924).

Closer home, Kim Jee-woon's weird and wonderful brain gave me Cobweb (2023), which was odd, stylish, darkly funny, and just an incredibly good film to watch some of Korea's top actors doing their thing (and some unexpected things- Jung Woo Sung's cameo, for example). Speaking of the new father (*sniggers meanly*) , I finally got to watch Kim Sung-su's era-defining "youth" film Beat (1997) and John Lee's A Moment to Remember (2004), two films that have defined Jung's career- loved the former, despite the bleak ending, and about half of the latter; it was at its best when it was being unselfconsciously horny- the sharp left into melo territory left me unmoved. It's crazy to me that it's Jung Woo-sung who keeps getting asked to re enact the "If you drink this, we're dating" dialogue for like twenty years, when that scene- and the movie- really belong to the luminous Son Ye jin. Shout out also to director Kim Sung-su's 12:12 The Day/ Seoul Spring(2023), a fictional retelling of the 1979 coup by Chun Doo-hwan which was oddly prescient about Events (TM) of December 2024 to the point where I actually said aloud- wait, I just saw this in a movie.

Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster (2023) is a perfect film, 10/10 no notes; and I wept buckets watching Shoplifters (2018), but found Airdoll (2009) a bit icky, despite a bravura performance from the great Bae Doona. Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers (2023) was another film that had me crying- and it didn't surprise me later to find out that it was based on a Japanese novel by Taichi Yamada. There's just something about how Asian storytelling uses the supernatural that is easily identifiable, even when situated in a different culture.

Moonstruck (1987) turned out to be the rom com of the year for me- just PERFECT, god, imagine Hollywood used to know how to make romances????

Malayalam cinema continues to be the only Indian cinema worth watching (I said what I said): Kaathal: The Core (2023) and Thallumaala (2022) are very different films thematically and stylistically, and give you some idea of the range of what's on offer there, while the bigger Hindi/Telugu cinema industries continue to churn out headache inducing, morally and artistically bankrupt mega-hits. They're not the only ones, of course- why on earth does Emerald Fennell get to make movies, y'all? Saltburn (2023) was trash. Poor Things (2023) was even worse, if that were possible. And yet, I'm told we're going to get treated to MORE of the same. Love yourselves, guys, please.

I'm not sure what I'm looking forward to movie-wise next year, but I do hope to continue rediscovering the joy of cinema. Anyway, what've you all been watching this year? Tell me in the notes/ link me to your posts!

[jezebelgoldstone]

RRR (2022, dir S. S. Rajamouli)

things i am not now and likely never will get over from RRR

DRIFT COMPATIBLE BATTLE COUPLE DETECTED

queer? platonic? queerplatonic? who gives a shit no matter what it was it was AWESOME

Colonialism Is Bad Actually: The Musical

the symbolism. holy shit. every BIT of it was absolutely amazing.

wow all the mains in this movie are just, really hot? my poor lil pan heart had a rough time with this one ngl

the fact that someone (likely many someones) watched this movie about Colonialism Is Bad Actually and said 'you know what let's dub this whole thing into Hindi and English and then not give an option to watch it with the original Telugu dialogue' sure was,,,,,,,,, A Choice

THE MUSIC

by which i mean the actual song-and-dance numbers as well as the like story soundtrack all of it is going on my playlist asap

listen the spirk-behind-glass scene is awful. spock and kirk can't even touch. they can hear. they can see. but they cannot touch. and i in my sweet ignorant bliss thought that was as bad as it could get.

tonight i learned that holding someone in your arms through the bars of their cell is so much worse

I watched it on Netflix but i looked it up on a few other ahem websites and on EVERY SINGLE ONE Telugu audio wasn't even an option.

there was not one single chance to tie things together or make a connection or do a setup/payoff or callback that was not taken. not a single one.

everything about this movie is 100% Extra

in short: this movie is a masterclass

aaaaaand the rest below a cut because WOW i have a lot to say actually

which brings me to the dancing oh my gods. not sure i've ever seen such enthusiastic dancing in anything in my entire life. seriously by the final number i was exhausted just watching them

in general, this movie is: stunning

"RAM." "BHEEM." "SEETHA." IT'S ABOUT THE SYMBOLISM.

also this was kinda hilarious because i watched it in hindi [the least disorienting option] and they kept SAYING "ram" but in the subs it was always fuckin RAJU so like. again with the Choices. like seriously what was the thought process there. WAS there a thought process.

FIRE. WATER. STORY. I JUST. I. HELP ME.

i ADORED jenny. with my whole entire heart. she is one of the very BEST examples of Ignorance Is A Privilege and also At What Point Does Ignorance Become Malicious that i have ever ever seen. i loooooooooved it. i mean i hated it a whole lot while it was happening but also i am SO GLAD that now rather than trying to explain all of this to people i can just tell them to watch this movie and then sit them down and be like, so what are your thoughts on jenny's culpability in literally everything?

oh and how you can be a kind person and still do atrocities! like jenny is so sweet and so kind and you just like her so much and yet. and yet.

t h e s y m b o l i s m

i cannot remember the last time i saw a movie so visually stunning. the cinematography is breathtaking. pause on just about any random frame and it could be a movie poster or hanging in an art gallery or what have you.

they also dubbed all the lines that were actually in english? i mean i get it for the characters who spent most of the movie speaking Telugu because you'd need their voices to stay the same through the whole movie yeah fine whatever. but like. they dubbed all the ENGLISH characters, too? like literally dubbed them from english into english??? the dialogue matched their mouths except the timing was veeeery sliiiiiiiightly off but it SOUNDED really obviously dubbed??? Y THO???

HOLY SHIT THE FIGHT SCENES OH MY GODS

Malli. Malli honey i love you. i'm just realizing i don't know if that's your actual name gods damn it. but whatever your name is child i love you.

and did i mention that everyone in this movie is beautiful? like. seriously. Ram and Bheem especially holy SHIT.

Physics Does Not Work Like That And I Do Not Care Because That Was AWESOME: The Musical

oooohhhhh they re-recorded and dubbed the fucking SONGS too. i am so pissed about this y'all i can't even tell you.

oh i want to do a whole entire post that's even longer than this one about the symbolism. hell i could probably do a whole entire post just on the fire/water symbolism even without everything else. It was AMAZING.

okay ram is fire and bheem is water and ram's people go to a valley on the shores of a river and the river is in literally every shot of the village and just ram BEING fire but water being a place of HOME and SAFETY for ram

i'm not crying shut up

MALLI AND HER MOTHER TRY TO REACH EACH OTHER BUT THEY CANNOT TOUCH THROUGH THE GLASS

BHEEM AND MALLI HOLD EACH OTHER THROUGH THE BARS OF HER CONFINEMENT AND HE HAS TO LET GO AND LEAVE HER

BHEEM AND RAM HOLD EACH OTHER THROUGH THE BARS OF HIS CONFINEMENT AND BHEEM RIPS THE DOOR RIGHT OFF

ooooooohhhhhhh and people holding hands right before they part. oh that hurts. all of those hurt so bad.

how every single time people held hands when they parted they always held on till the last possible second EXCEPT FOR RAM'S MOM.

she lifts her hand away from him and then pulls back and it was devastating

Predators Do Not Work Like That But I Do Not Care Because That Was Awesome And Also They Ate A Bunch Of Colonizing Cops: Queercoded Edition (ACAB)

bheem with his arms spread and rope or chains around his wrists or in his hands. i just. the way it flipped back and forth from 'he has the power' to 'he is helpless' to 'he should be helpless and isn't' was just. breathtaking.

AND THEN. AND THEN RAM. CHAINED UP THE SAME WAY. DOING THE SAME GODDAMN THING AND USING THE FACT THAT HE'S CHAINED UP FOR HIS OWN FUCKING PURPOSES BECAUSE HE SAW BHEEM DO IT FIRST DON'T TOUCH ME

okay listen this movie would've been good no matter what but like. they really are just SO beautiful. and. when ram. with like the long hair. and. beard. and like. you know? like. his. his hair. his general. everything. um.

literally at the most emotionally inappropriate moment i literally thought about that whole 'i saw a man so beautiful i started crying' thing and like that almost literally happened literally

Why There Can't Be Any Such Thing As Good Cops: The Romance (ACAB)

and like here's the thing i'm not sure i would've even NOTICED this had it not been for the linguistic chauvinism with the audio and everything but like both of them were hindu and a lot of the symbolism though awesome was also really strongly hindu and i just i don't know nearly enough about hindutva to have any kind of opinion BUT i also feel like maaaaaaaybe there was something a little uncomfy about some of this

oh no wait the suspenders dance. that might've actually been the best part. yeah.

oh all the british actors did SUCH a good job being so eminently punchable

throw cheetahs at each other! and snakes! somehow have upper body strength greater than the force exerted by a 800+ lb tiger lunging! throw those motorcycles! punch through those walls without breaking your fingers! use herbal paste to heal broken bones in a matter of a minutes! break solid stone with nothing but the strength of your shoulders and gay love! i am so here for all of this!!!

Throw Rocks Marble Pillars Live Tigers Cops At Cops: The Movie (ACAB)

i love that jenny felt bad for the poor little girl who got kidnapped enslaved and imprisoned so she. bought her a dress and a toy.

you know, to make her feel better about the whole 'being kidnapped enslaved and imprisoned' thing.

instead of doing, i don't know know, literally anything else. like even just saying to her aunt 'hey this makes me sad' or something. #solidarity.

the violence was violent and the romance was sweet

okay so during the fight at the midpoint like i know that by the end of it ram and bheem are literal fire and water BUT ALSO. Ram enters the scene in a flaming carriage and from that point forward the fountain is in pretty much every shot of bheem. just sayin.

love that lachu (or whatever his name really is) told ram that there was no cure. like yes! you go man! ram may be so beautiful that in forty minutes i'm going to be in tears but that's no reason to tell a cop the truth about anything! you lie to that cop man!

A BRITISH SOLDIER HIT LOKI IN THE HEAD WITH A BRANCH AND THEN STOLE MALLI AWAY

BHEEM HIT RAM IN THE HEAD WITH A BRANCH AND THEN STOLE MALLI AWAY

i know other people got hit in the head with tree branches too but STILL

honestly i really like that ram and bheem were, well, ram and bheem. but i mean im glad they weren't like ram and lakshman or bheem and arjun or something. not even just because that would've been brotherly like i'm glad they weren't arjun and krishna or something either. i liked that their names weren't from the same story. i liked it better this way and i can't even articulate why.

i am never ever ever going to get over the progression of part of bheem's introduction being something going wrong and him holding two ropes (he has all the power) with his arms spread and that being used to show us how incredibly strong he is -> something going wrong and bheem with ropes around his wrists (he shouldn't have any power at all) holding his arms spread and that being used to show how incredibly strong he is in a completely different way

like every time there were ropes or chains in bheem's hands or around his wrists it meant something, and it was a beat in the rhythm of a discernable arc, but now i can't remember all of them gdi

oooohhhhh there was SO much more symbolism i wanted to talk about but it's so late that i have a headache and this post is so long my computer's lagging like two sentences behind so i should stop and go to bed. sigh.

just go watch this movie, okay? pleae? I cannot IMAGINE who would've read this whole thing,m but if you did, just watch it, all rigth? (and if you happen to know of any site - ANY site - where i can watch it in FUKIN TELUGU kindly drop a link please and thank)

[reyoftarth]

Jr NTR & Ram Charan Movie Master list for US viewers

I've been attempting to watch all of Tarak and Charan's movies but some of them have been difficult to find with English subtitles, so I put together this list for myself and anyone else who wants to access their movies with English subs in the US!

If you haven’t seen RRR yet, you can watch the original Telugu version here (thank you @charcubed !!), on Einthusan.tv or ZEE5, and the Hindi version on Netflix.

*movies with a question mark (❓) next to them are ones I haven't been able to find. Let me know if you have more luck or if I am missing anything and I'll update this list!

**Updated as of 7/26/24

***I found this list on IMDB so some of the titles may be wrong, I tried to add alternate titles if found.

Jr. NTR

Someone uploaded all of Tarak's filmography to Google Drive at this link, not all have subtitles unfortunately!

Ramayanam (1996) - buy/rent on Amazon

Ninnu Choodalani (2001) - ❓

Student No. 1 (2001) - subbed and archived by @stanleykubricks at this link

Subbu (2001) - ❓

Aadi/Aadhi (2002) - ❓

Allari Ramudu (2002) - ❓

Naaga (2003) - ❓

Simhadri (2003) - buy/rent on Amazon

Andhrawala (2004) - with a premium subscription on Aha

Samba (2004) - Odia version available with a subscription on ZEE5

Narasimhudu (2005) - Einthusan

Naa Alludu (2005) - Einthusan & YouTube

Ashok (2006) - Einthusan

Rakhi/Rakhee (2006) - buy/rent on YouTube

Thief of Yama/Yamadonga (2007) - Einthusan, YouTube & buy/rent on Amazon

Adhurs (2010) - Einthusan & YouTube

Kantri (2008) - Einthusan

Brindaavanam (2010) - Einthusan, with a subscription on SunNXT or buy/rent on Amazon

Sakthi/Shakti (2011) - Einthusan & YouTube

Oosravelli (2011) - Einthusan

Dhammu (2012) - Einthusan & with a subscription on ZEE5

Baadshah (2013) - Einthusan, YouTube & buy/rent on Amazon

Ramayya Vastavayya (2013) - Einthusan, Netflix & buy/rent on Amazon

Rabhasa (2014) - Einthusan & YouTube

Temper (2015) - Einthusan

To Father with Love/Nannaku Prematho (2016) - Buy/rent on Amazon

Janatha Garage (2016) - Einthusan & YouTube

Jai Lava Kusa (2017) - Telugu version with a subscription on SunNXT & Hindi version with a subscription on ZEE5

Aravindha Sametha Veera Raghava (2018) - Einthusan & buy/rent on Amazon

Ram Charan

Cirutha (2007) -  Einthusan, YouTube, & with a subscription on ZEE5

Magadheera (2009) - Einthusan

Orange (2010) - Einthusan & YouTube

Rachcha/Racha (2012) - Einthusan

Naayak (2013) - Einthusan, with a subscription on SunNXT & buy/rent on Amazon

Zanjeer (2013) - Einthusan & with a subscription on ZEE5

Toofan/Thoofan (2013) - ❓ Telugu version of Zanjeer

Yevadu (2014) - Einthusan & Netflix

Govindudu Andari Vaadele (2014) - Einthusan & buy/rent on Amazon

Bruce Lee The Fighter (2015) - Einthusan

Dhruva (2016) - DM me! IMDB says Amazon but that brings you to a 2020 movie with the same name.

Rangasthalam 1985 (2018) - with a subscription on Einthusan & Amazon Prime

Viaya Vidheya Rama (2019) - Einthusan & buy/rent on Amazon

Acharya (2022) - Einthusan & Amazon Prime

[severetravelerhologram-blog]

Full Video: Ninnele Song | Radhe Shyam | Prabhas,Pooja Hegde | Justin Prabhakaran | Krishna K

T-Series Telugu presents, Ninnele full Video Song from New Telugu #RadheShyam Movie starring Prabhas,Pooja Hegde …

[sabugabr]

RRR, Black Adam and the Response of the Oppressed

OR: The Colonial Wound and how to approach Violence as a solution against the mechanisms of oppression

OR: how to get the debate right VS how to ruin it completely

Spoiler: RRR gets it right

So, I was keeping this one to myself because it's a very delicate subject, but rejoicing in RRR's recent Golden Globe nomination, I thought hell might as well talk about it.

First of all, a very important disclaimer:

I am not here, in any way, defending or endorsing any side in this debate. My personal views on violence and armed struggle and guerrilla warfare are not what I will be addressing. Armed struggle, is an extremely complex issue that is still being debated today by theorists and academics much more qualified than I am, so no.

Rather, my aim here is simply to address how this debate has been represented, and my take on this issue: media portrayals of social, historical and most importantly, decolonial debates. And recently in 2022, we've had two approaches (And yes, I am fully aware that this topic is much better covered in dozens of media that have this debate entirely as their main focus, but I am talking about superhero blockbusters here, so keep that in mind) that may seem similar, but are fundamentally completely divergent:

The Telugu movie RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt)

And curiously, DC Film's Black Adam

No need to say, there'll be major spoilers ahead, so be warned

1. THE RESPONSE OF THE OPRESSED

Before I start, I would like to clarify as briefly as I can some terms and concepts that I consider necessary to begin to understand decolonialism and the response of the oppressed, a term that was coined in the famous quote by Jaylen Brown during the height of the BLM movement, "Do not confuse the response of the oppressed with the violence of the oppressor".

Pierre Bourdieu differentiates the violence of the oppressor into two categories:

explicit violence – in which the action of the dominant subject is visible (and therefore, in our current society, subject to questioning and legal or moral limitations)

and symbolic violence – conceptualized by Bourdieu when he addressed the issue of male domination in society and all the faces in which it presents itself – and we see it everywhere, from racial demographics in income distribution to that homophobic joke your uncle always makes.

This relationship of systematic domination can be understood as a chain, and in view of the necessary rise of awareness and consequent rupture of this chain, Audre Lorde presents the uses of anger.

By connecting the idea of symbolic power and the breaking of the domination relationship with the use of anger, we have the explosion of a natural reaction of the oppressed triggered by centuries of imprisonment in their own fear and, bringing this reality specifically to colonial relations, using anger over your own fear results in liberation. (source)

And although it wouldn't hurt to address the revolutionary terms in its most famous roots in the French Revolution and etc, here it seems more fitting to comment on Marx. And class struggle.

Briefly, Marx and Engels saw revolution as the result of organized political action by the exploited. Therefore, one can only speak of revolution when there is a rupture with the old political, social and economic order; and in its place, new standards of social relations are established whose principle is to ensure freedom and social equality among men.

This is what we mean when we talk about inverting the social order, and Marx will also use the terms infrastructure (productive forces + relations of production) and superstructure (politics, police, army, law, morals, religion, etc.).

The superstructure, for Marx, is created by the most favored and dominant class, but determined or conditioned by the infrastructure.

Therefore, the revolution would happen when the working class (and in that logic, any oppressed group) reversed the order and took control of the superstructure.

In short, this can be understood as the basis of revolutionary thinking.

Now apply this to the invasion, colonization and genocide scenario, and you'll see where I'm going here.

KKKKKKKKKKKKKK THAT'S A BIT EXTREME EXAMPLE SORRY but actually in Black Panther I the plot could very well be read through Marxist lens (and that has certainly been done), but I won't even go into that here, god forbid Wakanda Forever hahahah imagine that, anyway going back to my thread

2. ARMED STRUGGLE

A quick definition of armed struggle, which can be found in dictionaries, is armed resistance against oppressive regimes. In the armed struggle, the militants understand that the situation of society requires drastic action so that it can be modified, and for this reason they decide to take up arms and declare war on the oppressive regime. Guerrilla warfare is an example of armed struggle.

In the armed struggle, a group of militants opposed to the current regime in a given society, organize actions that can be strikes, attacks on barracks or public buildings, etc, aiming to destabilize the current power with the aim of overthrowing it and placing a different regime in its place, like a democracy, for example – in general, the armed struggle follows a leftist tendency. (source)

In Brazil, for example, the armed struggle appeared mainly as resistance to the Military Dictatorship between 1964 and 1985.

All of this goes along the idea of using violence as resistance to oppression (as already pointed out before): fire is answered with fire. In the specific scenario of the guerrilla, the French philosopher, journalist, former government official and academic Jules Régis Debray writes the controversial book Révolution Dans La Révolution, where he points out that "The main objective of a revolutionary guerrilla is the destruction of the enemy's military potential"; the enemy is stripped of it's military power (it's weapons) to ensure a greater chance of victory.

"To destroy an army you need another army.", Debray says. "Precisely because it is a mass struggle, and the most radical of all, the guerrillas need, in order to triumph militarily, to gather politically around themselves the active and organized majority, since it is the general strike and the generalized urban insurrection which will give the coup de grace to the regime and destroy its latest maneuvers - last minute coup d'état, provisional junta, elections - by extending the struggle throughout the country." (source)

Does that all ring a bell?

Sure it does.

Now, these are all historical scenarios, and nowadays the moral debates about armed struggle have become extremely more complex (as they should), and the disarmament discourse is taking more and more space in these debates. Is armed struggle the only solution? Wouldn't there be others?

But it is still a complex debate. The Brazilian rapper (and political thinker and, dare I say, philosopher) Mano Brown, a strong advocate of disarmament, staunchly defends that violence, most of the time, bounces back on the oppressed, not the oppressor.

Look at him all precious

He argues, however, that one cannot simply condemn the oppressed who react violently. Already in 2006 he presented in an interview that:

"I am in favor of disarmament, but this argument is difficult, things should be done differently […] People are coming as a class struggle, you know? Rich people don't want poor people to arm themselves and remain unarmed. And poor people don't want rich people to arm themselves and remain unarmed. Did you see the kid's argument: "How are the police allowed to carry guns while I remain unarmed? " It's kind of uneven. It's confusing." (source - translated by me)

Mano Brown is part of the Brazilian rap band Racionais formed by 4 black men from the periphery, who revamped their music after realizing that it could be used to foment violence. They front a series of social programs, and revolutionized the way peripheral music is seen and consumed. Nowadays, in 2023, Mano Brown hosts one of the biggest political interview podcasts in Brazil (having even interviewed Angela Davis), is considered one of the most active leaders of the racial struggle, and along with the other members of Racionais, has taught open classes in estate universities.

The Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, considered one of the most notable thinkers in the history of world pedagogy, inaugurates in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed (you can read it translated right here) the idea of the liberation pedagogy. He strongly emphasizes that liberation pedagogy is a political process that aims to awaken individuals from their oppression and generate actions for social transformation – through education.

NOW WITH ALL THAT IN MIND WE CAN FINALLY MOVE ON TO WHAT MATTERS,

3. THE MOVIES

I'm going to talk about RRR here first because it makes me happier, but for reasons of time and your patience I'm not going to extend myself so much in the analysis of this film technically, and if you want a more detailed look at the grandeur and the importance and the genius of this film, please watch any of the many videos that are now appearing on youtube on the subject (I recommend RRR: Make Movies EPIC Again, by Jared Bauer, and The Importance of RRR, by the wonderful Accented Cinema)

ONCE AGAIN ATTENTION FOR BIG, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

The story therefore revolves around two men: Raju, who infiltrates the British army to steal fireguns and deliver them to the people's guerrilla, and Bheem, a Gond leader who is after Mali, a child of his people who was kidnapped by the British to basically serve as a pet.

They meet under false identities, and unaware that they were both fighting for the liberation of India (through different methods), the two men form an extremely strong bond of love and friendship, which results in their struggles coalescing into an evocation of patriotic unity and popular resurgence against the colonial forces.

First of all, RRR is a fictionalized biography of two real-life Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. So, in real life, Alluri Raju actually stole guns from the British to stage uprisings against the British Raj, and Komaram Bheem really was a Gond revolutionary leader who coined the slogan Jal, Jangal, Zameen (transl. Water, Forest, Land) wich became a call to action for Adivasis (or Scheduled Tribes) peoples.

You can see the flag in the last scenes

This "historical aspect" (in addition to the incredible, completely impossible and impossibly glorious action scenes) makes it plausible to draw parallels between RRR and Tarantino's historical revisionism films like Django Unchained (2013) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), where in all cases we see scenes of extreme violence that somehow feel justified, or cathartic, for being directed against oppressors (slave masters, Nazis, British colonizers, etc etc)

The parallels are just there.

Black Adam, on the other hand, states in its synopsis that "After nearly five thousand years of imprisonment, Black Adam, an anti-hero from the ancient city of Kahndaq, is released in modern times. His brutal tactics and righteous ways attract the attention of the Justice Society of America, who try to stop his rampage by teaching him to be more of a hero than a villain, and they all must band together to stop a force more powerful than Adam himself."

So we have a superhero story set in the present day in a fictional country on the Sinai Peninsula (that means, right there besides the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal), occupied by a mercenary crime syndicate called Intergang, who brutally oppresses the Kahndaqi people while robbing their mineral resources. All good, all great.

But as stated in the synopsis, the film's great moral conflict revolves around whether the use of violence against mechanisms of oppression is justified or not.

Basically,

And while these two scenarios may seem similar, the approach the two films take to this debate, which, as I've said before, is EXTREMELY DELICATED, and EXTREMELY COMPLEX, is completely different. Firstly, because RRR is the only one of the two that treats it as, well, a debate.

From the beginning, RRR establishes the two characters as essentially polar opposites; Raju is fire

Look at the scenery with the european buildings in the background

Bheem is water

And here, the native, untouched forest with pure cristaline water

Bheem is the god Bhima, immovable, patient and resilient

(like water)

And Raju is the god Rama, heroic, springy and skillful

(and hot)

Bheem is the legs (the foundation) while Raju is the arms (the action)

They ✨ complement ✨ each other

And this is translated into their different approaches to the revolution: Raju with his arms policy (inherited from his guerrilla father), who operates within the system to overthrow it, and Bheem with his native philosophy, using the land, the fauna, the culture, the religion, the people themselves as agents against oppression, operating from outside the system to overthrow it.

At the beginning of the film, Raju dresses Bheem in western clothing so that he can attend a British party (which allows him to know the building and locate Mali), and at the end of the film, Bheem dresses Raju in the traditional clothing of the god Rama, and arms him not with european firearms but with a sacred bow and arrow, evoking his native homeland in what configures the real defeat of the colonizers.

Not even getting into the merits of comparing these two films technically, just talking about the discourse itself, what for me fundamentally separates RRR from Black Adam, and even Django and Inglourious Basterds, is precisely Bheem's character. It's the other way to fight (but fight nonetheless)

This does not mean that the armed struggle is delegitimized, or diminished. On the contrary, it is explained, justified (within that historical and social context) and respected. People who fought in the armed struggle, and died in the armed struggle, are honored and respected. It allows you to understand where the idea of arming the population is coming from (in a certain parallel with Mano Brown's interview that I mentioned above), but it also presents other discussions on the subject, that happened at the time, and still happens today.

And above all, as I mentioned before, the film presents and reinforces the idea of inspiration. Even if education is presented only very briefly, in a popular assembly, in the long term, the film still gives extreme focus to the importance of raising awareness among the oppressed people.

This can be clearly seen in the scene where Bheem is being tortured in a public square by the British government, and refuses to kneel.

So when the torture becomes too much to bear, he starts to sing

Now, this is the most important scene in this movie and I'll die on this hill

And then, this happens

Bheem inspires not only the population, but also Raju, who even after years of enticement by his own father, steps back on his original (armamentist) plan when he realizes that "I was under the impression that guns would bring us freedom. But Bheem inspired a whole crowd with one song"

Even though in the context of the film the "path of choice" was still violent (this still is, after all, an action superhero movie), the message of this scene is extremely metaphorical. The idea of a song (art) inspiring all people to "become a weapon" against an oppressive regime is very powerful, and it resonates deeply in anti-opression movements all over History. It is, literally, the power of the people.

Furthermore, at crucial moments in the plot, both Bheem and Raju put aside their collective struggles for the other's individual good; Unlike his father, who readily accepts the militarization of his child son for the greater good, Raju, when questioned by his guerrilla companion for abandoning 15 years of work to save Bheem, says that "I will bear it for another 25 years, but I won't sacrifice Bheem for my goal".

Bheem, here, represents not only the friendship and love between them, but, metaphorically, an entire ideal of the people. Ultimately, one can say that this film addresses the idea of "what are the limits in my revolution": I will not sacrifice the other for my revolution; the limits of my revolution must be the wellness of the other (and in our metaphorical reading here, the wellness of the people).

Parallel, the torture scene can be metaphorically read as: the only valid sacrifice is my own, never that of the other. (and I won't be commenting on the revolutionary character of ideas like martyrdom and self-sacrifice, but yes). That's what Bheem and Raju do throughout the entire film, they put the other above themselves.

And in the end, they kill the british defeat oppression together✨

Now, as I've mentioned before, yes, this movie still ends violently, yes, it still glorifies and celebrates this violence in some of the best action scenes I've seen in my whole life, yes, it is heavily patriotic and sometimes a little bit too on the nose about it, yes, and did I rejoyce in it? Yes.

But it cannot be denied that RRR at least presents a reflection not often seen in films of the genre, which is the mere existence of real debate. In addition, the film is placed in an extremely specific historical context, portraying real historical figures, real life revolutionaries, folkloric parallels, a gigantic symbolic charge, in short, a whole other deal.

Besides it, the only difference between this film and idk, Braveheart, or Star Wars, is that in this film the social and racial parallels, the guerrilla warfare and class struggle (and the colonial wound) become clearer – and perhaps this is a more responsible way of representing a revolution.

NOW, BLACK ADAM ON THE OTHER HAND KKKKKKK

As mentioned in the synopsis, the background of Black Adam is curiously similar: we have an oppressed people, we have the militia, a clear racial reference to a real-life conflict, which affects thousands of people daily, and the figure of a mythologically evocative hero with super powers who will free the people from oppression through violent means. And yes, there is debate: we have the Justice Society, which condemns Black Adam's methods and questions his use of violence, only to be proven wrong at the end of the movie.

But the "proved wrong" isn't really built, or developed (as Intergang is quickly forgotten when they all start fighting each other and then… Satan? For some reason??), and it basically boils down to this:

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

And that's so funny because he actually just… killed like 3 soldiers in the second act of the movie. That's all he did.

And it gets even funnier because at some point we have a scene that genuinely makes a VERY VALID point that made me very hopeful when I was in the theater watching it

Like, this is SO VALID and she is SO RIGHT and this is such a great argument and a great debate point and then it just... goes nowhere

He just killed like 3 guys he didn't even talk to the people he just, quite literally, killed some pawn soldiers and went on to fight his own individual battles that had nothing to do with the actual opression state of the country besides them telling you that "it was bad".

The problem with Black Adam's is ac how shallow the argument is. Nothing is justified, nothing is not even debated, we just have Hawk Man going "killing is bad" and Black Adam going "yeah but I do it caused I'm disruptive like that", and even when we have this "inspire the people" moment is just... this kid with a cape doing this symbol and yes, symbols of struggle are a great tool in fighting oppression, and yes they work and they're so, so great, but this one specifically kind of just…was there?

LIKE OK THIS IS ALL GREAT but then it lead to people… fighting zombies?????

zombies ??!?!??!!!????

Like, how, seriously, how does this have to do with any of your previous state of opression? How does this change absolutely anything??? Are we going to have elections after the zombies thing, or... ?

And that, to me, is such a poor and wasteful way of representing people power that, even though I didn't take this film seriously, I couldn't help but feel mildly frustrated. Much of the recent wave of blockbuster media about decolonialism, in my opinion, has been making this same mistake, which is apparently thinking that just because a movie is made to be a blockbuster, or a superhero movie, or an action movie and easy entertainment, it cannot tackle complex topics. It cannot deepen a discussion. It can't take 10 minutes off a fight scene to establish a full dialogue. As if that would, idk, tire the audience maybe? Idk.

As if a universe of superheroes, or fantasy and action, couldn't contain a scene like this:

This scene seems so simple but it is so, so huge

Andor is perhaps an example out of the curve, because Andor is a series that makes a great effort to represent the fight against oppression in a very serious and responsible way, making it its main theme, of representing what a fascist government is,how a fascist government acts and affects all layers of a population, what is the immigrant cause, what is the armed struggle, what is it like to be a person of color in an far-right government. And it does all of this in an unprecedented way in the genre so far, indeed.

But as I said before, perhaps this should be how all media represent these themes. Because otherwise, even the best of intentions can turn against the causes you sought to defend. And ok, I know that Black Adam is "just a superhero movie" and that maybe it's unfair to demand so much from a movie that only came to propose a simple entertainment with fight scenes and jokes, and I had fun watching it indeed. I love Dwayne Jhonson we all do. But the thing is, if you're going to represent that debate, I genuinely believe it can't be done as simply, or as poorly explained, as it was in this film. A poorly presented arms discourse can become an attack on the legitimization of the armed struggle in its historical context, it can become a justification for a shootout against anti-oppression demonstrations, it can become the excuse for why a policeman mistook an umbrella for a rifle, or a piece of wood for a gun, and killed innocent (and peripheral) men.

In the best of scenarios, the intent is simply forgotten, or it's so hidden in the metaphorical layers of the work that it's easy to miss them. If that weren't the case, there wouldn't be so many racist, misogynistic, right-wing Star Wars fans, for example (just to be clear, I'm not attacking Star Wars here at all, ok, I'm just using it as an example – you'll agree with me that I've never seen any Cambridge professors attack Star Wars)

And fair is fair, Luke did explode a moon-sized military base full of millions of people and all that...

SO ANYWAY

Armamentism is an extremely serious issue, and it must be handled very, very carefully. As I mentioned before, RRR has a historical context, and an argument builded throughout the entire film; I hardly think anyone comes out of RRR, or WomanKing, wanting to pick up a gun and simply shoot someone (I hope). But the way this idea was presented in Black Adam, it is not an exaggeration to say that someone might have had this impression after watching it. At the very least, the movie took no care making sure this wasn't the case, and that for me is troubling enough.

The struggle against oppression and decolonialism are extremely important topics, and I am happy that these themes are increasingly making themselves present in more and more media works (and we have had several very good ones recently) – and Black Adam does have good ideas in the middle of the mess. But if you're going to make a film to talk about oppression, without actually commiting to approach it responsibly, why do it?

And ok, RRR does have a very imperative call to action but well, look at them, would you not answer???

[letamreviews]

Top of 2022

With 19 films watched and 2 favorited from 2022, I composed a list of my top. To coincide with 2019′s pure happenstance, the list is ‘almost’ an exact third (7) of the total films watched. Anything seen after the end of February, 2023, isn’t included (with 1 exception).

Honorable Mentions: Infernal Affairs remastered trilogy (2002 - 2003), Skinamarink, Vesper, TÁR Exception: Aranock’s Queer Relativity Why’s this so late? Yes, it is late.

Blind Rating is how worthwhile the film is watching “blind” (or knowing nothing). The scale is 1 (worth it) to 5 (you must). ‘Eh is essentially a 0.5.

1. Queer Relativity | Aranock (Canada)

Saw on YouTube in early March twice and listened to atleast once. i don’t even know (i guess: i fucking love it). Y’all, this movie fucked me up. Had to pause it so many times during first viewing this shit took me back so much. fuck Also, i fucking hate it. Blind Rating: 0.5/5 | film | Teaser | Description:

Hope you all enjoy my film on queer temporalities, language, and journey of discovering self

2. RRR (India)

Saw on Netflix in Hindi with English subtitles and again in theatre in Telugu with English subs. i fucking love it. Best (official) movie of the year. Don’t waste my time. Blind Rating: 1/5 Thoughts

3. Please Baby Please (USA)

Saw at Sie FilmCenter. i really like it (? tier). Holy fucking shit, this movie. lul Definitely put some people in the mood. Thoughts Quickie

4. Avatar: The Way of Water (USA)

Saw at Hawkins Theatres in 3D HFR and again at AMC Theatres in Real 3D. i really like it (mid tier?). Thoughts 1 & 2 Quickie

5. Everything Everywhere All at Once (USA)

Saw in theatre. i really like it (mid tier?). Y’all, I saw this in a theatre with 2-3 other dudes and we all bawled during the same scene. Shit was great. Thoughts Blind Rating: 0.5/5

6. Three Thousand Years of Longing (Australia & USA)

Saw at Hawkins Theatres. i really like it (high tier). Did not expect to enjoy it so much. Glad I went (and disregarded certain reviews). Thoughts

7. Nope (USA)

Saw at Harkins Theatres and again in VR (don’t ask). i really like it (mid tier?). Really enjoyed the entirety of it, especially as a story of two siblings. While I do see this as the director changing the horror genre (again? 🤔), I’m now wondering how much of it already exists in widely unknown indie films. 😐 (shout-out to LambHoot’s “The Resident Evil they keep Remaking...” video) Thoughts 1 & 2 Blind Rating: 1/5