I don’t often do dual reviews. The main reason for that is, well, focus. If I’m going to write about a movie, I want to drill down into it a little. It’s tough to do that if you have two films that have nothing to do with each other by subject or theme. Somewhere out there is a critic that can masterfully weave together the similarities between Ghoulies and Anatomy of a Murder. I got news for you – that someone ain’t me.

Once in a great while, though, a couple of films come along that dovetail together nicely. Since as far as I know I’m not your Dad, I can’t tell you which order to watch these two in. But if my opinion counts for anything* in this cruel world, I would start by watching the hefty and ambitious Anno 2020, then wrap up with the ruthlessly efficient 1924 – The Kakori Project.**

Anno 2020 is, generally speaking, about a web of people dealing with the cursed year of 2020 and the pandemic that changed everything and nothing. But that’s not what it’s truly about. Instead, like Magnolia or the stronger works of Robert Altman, it’s about people in an extended high stress situation. They talk to each other, at each other, past each other. Just a few of the characters are:

• Travel blogger Emma (Jessica Castello) finds herself stuck in Wuhan during the lockdowns. Real life intrudes on her growing conspiracy theories when she discovers her mother Heather (Sheila Ball) is diagnosed with cancer and can’t receive timely treatment.
• Levi (Gil Ben-Moshe) is a ladies man confronted with the fact that he’s not quite as young as he used to be. He deals with it by stringing along both Esther (Lital Luzon) and Maria (Adriana Moccia). 
• Elijah (Kevin Scott Allen) is on the verge of becoming a big-deal author. He’s also a gay man who’s been ostracized by his family in Australia. Elijah struggles to reconnect with his brother Mark (Greg Poppleton) and learn if they can be a family again.
• Childhood best friends Jarrell (Andre Doc Green) and Malik (Shaun Huff) have formed a pact to conduct a journalistic investigation of a missing children’s case. That will become far more difficult with the involvement of Imani (La Rivers), who will challenge their bond and their values.

Do we really need a movie about the societal effects of COVID-19? Absolutely. If there’s one thing I know about Americans, it’s that for all our talk of history, we hate learning from it. There’s a bedrock ideal in the American character that we affect historical forces rather than being affected by them. That’s a big reason why our country makes the mistakes that other countries have grown from.***

The first thing you need to understand about the production of Anno 2020 was that director James Morcan began production during the pandemic itself, managed to capture footage from seventeen cities in five countries, and shot it all for six thousand dollars.**** That alone is a genuine cinematic miracle. Ambition is nothing without skill, and the film does excellent work of taking hours of footage of over a dozen major characters and creating a mosaic of the human experience during the pandemic. We see characters fail, succeed, and achieve something that looks a lot like grace. They learn that the people on the other side of the Zoom screen, or the conspiracy theorist at the cemetery, or the married couple barreling toward divorce are people. Like them, and that sense of empathy is the first step to unity.

But what if empathy isn’t possible? What if unity is an authoritarian boot on the neck of the people? And what if, during the fight for freedom, innocents suffer? That’s 1924 in a nutshell, and within its runtime of four minutes and fifty-nine seconds, it effectively shows a snapshot of India’s battle for freedom against the British Empire.

We meet a young man (Sudeb Das). Like many young men, he burns with ambition and yearns for a righteous cause. Did he find the cause or did the cause find him? I cannot say, but the young man is recruited by an operative (Kartikey Tripathi) of India’s independence movement. The young man’s assignment is simple; to kill a British informer (Rohit Basfore). The assignment is complicated by a new piece of information, which is that the informer has a young daughter (Swarnakshi Dey). Is the operative certain that he’s doing the right thing, and that the path he’s set the young man upon is necessary? That’s unknown, yet he’s coolly issued orders from a seasoned freedom fighter (Deboprasad Haldar). Right or wrong, there is always a chain of command. It must be followed, even when a child suffers. 

Remember I mentioned cinematic miracles? 1924 is another film that, in its way, seems to be touched by the divine. Director Prataya Saha only uses fifteen lines of dialogue, along with a brief clip of a Gandhi speech. He doesn’t really need any of it, since his control of filmmaking is so strong. By filming in locations where these events actually took place, and by utilizing era-appropriate clothing used by Saha’s grandfather, Saha creates an atmosphere of tactile reality. Along with that are clear camera angles, capable edits, and a tone of mournful compassion. Saha’s film has too much class to glamorize violence, not when the daughter of the informant has blood spattered across her face. He reminds us that sometimes it takes more than rhetoric or diplomacy to win freedom, yet there are always costs.

It was a lucky break that I watched Anno 2020 and 1924 – The Kakori Project during the same week. Both films show us people in high-stress and historically consequential circumstances. Both films are made by talented people with focus and intelligence. One of them shows us what can happen when we stop talking and start listening. The other film shows us what happens when we don’t.

*It doesn’t.

**Neither of these films is currently playing theatrically or on streaming platforms, but I’m told by representatives of both films that they’ll be available soon.

***For example, de-Nazification was a widespread policy in post World War II Germany. That helped the country to confront its history and heal. The flip side is the United States’ refusal to do the same thing after the Civil War. That’s why, 159 years later, we still haven’t fully dealt with it.

****If you’re reading this and work for Marvel Studios, maybe reach out to James Morcan. He can probably give you guys pointers on cost-effective budgeting. 

Tim Brennan Movie Critic

Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.