Metro - back on the chain gang

 

Metro

Tamil, 2016

Director - Anandakrishnan

Stars - Shirish, Bobby Simha, Sathya, Sendrayan, Maya

Mohan's Measure ⭐ ⭐

Film noir is a genre I really like.  The moral questions, the code of honor, and the poignant, philosophical conversations are finely crafted in the hands of a good director, much like a symphony.  The stuff of movie magic.

What Kodambakkam has done to this art is much beyond me. Inspired by Quentin Tarantino, what I like to call "dirty noir" is a frightening interpretation, offering us a city gone mad, and men driven not by justice or moral calling, but by sheer, unadulterated, blatantly amoral revenge.

This would explain the brutality and torture of Metro.  What is supposed to be an entry into the world of chain snatchers soon turns into scenes of hallucinogenic drugs, brutal torture, and gruesome murder.  How it devolves into this is told in a choppy, very over the top way, and the small actors playing the role act it out with little more than apathy on their faces, as they wipe blood off their face and hands. This is what life is about it seems; take it or leave it.  It is a never-ending war in which no justice, no police officer, no sense of decorum can prevent an IT worker from going out on a vicious killing spree, only to be ignored by the cops and forgiven by his father.

Thoughts of anarchy revolve in my mind as I squirm in my seat and fight nausea.  I have to keep asking myself, "WWBD - What Would Bogart Do."