Time flies as we’re already near the end of Jan. I’ve got a few posts to go before we wrap up this month and this one here I have been neglecting to talk about for a while. My Hindu Friend came out just over a week ago and it’s available on numerous platforms (full list at the bottom of this post). I was given a screeners copy from TriCoast Entertainment so I could review it early, but yeah that never happened.
My Hindu Friend is a fictionalised tale of the movie’s director Hector Babenco who in this film is named Diego. It’s an account of the final years of his ongoing battle with cancer, the friendships and relationships he gained or lost during that time and ending it off with, weirdly enough, writing the screenplay for this movie.
This was an interesting watch and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, but there were some strange choices that kept me from putting it in higher regard. We’ll start off with what worked and first off is Willem Dafoe. He’s always great to watch and he gives another good performance in this movie. His character is a bit of an ass. He’s a jerk to his wife and family and is very self-indulgent in whatever is going on in his own little bubble. The film does a good job at making you understand him and most of his bad deeds as he’s almost on death’s door and he just doesn’t care what he leaves behind.
The camera work is another highlight as it makes the movie feel a bit more fresh, along with a pretty good soundtrack. There are some creative sequences with Willem Dafoe acting out some of the events in his screenplay, one including him and the Hindu Friend pretending to march out onto a World War II like battlefield. Willem Dafoe sings in one scene and I enjoyed that! It’s a really slow movie with not much happening and some parts can be a bit tedious so when the weird stuff happens it makes it feel more worthwhile.
There were some parts that I’m not sure were necessary like there is a guy who keeps checking in on Dafoe and even by the end I still don’t know what the point of his character was. I feel his role should have been passed onto the title character who doesn’t even show up until an hour in and is barely in it after that. I think that’s my issue as some of these characters bog down the movie as they come in and then disappear for a large portion of the film. The only constant side character is the wife.
Overall it’s a competently made movie with a few hiccups along the way. The last thing I will mention is that it did make me want to check out Hector Babenco’s other work to maybe get a better appreciation of this final film. Anyway here’s a 7/10. This film won’t be for everyone, but if you have a pretty strong taste in film it’s worth a watch. If that is the case then it’s available on Amazon, iTunes, inDemand, DirecTV, Vudu, Google Play, FANDANGO, Vimeo on Demand, FlixFing, Hoopla, AT&T, Xbox, Sony & Sling/Dish.
Special thanks to TriCoast Entertainment for giving me early access to this film and I hope this was a good read. I have been The Blog Complainer, signing out.
