Nine
Rob Marshall | USA | 2009
118 min

Nine is a cinematic burlesque show. It stumbles into the spotlight as a treatise on art and cinema and the difficulty of filmmaking, but is really nothing more than an awful excuse to bring together on the big screen one named actor and a bunch of famed beauties. Based on a stage musical, itself based on Federico Fellini’s seminal 8 ½, Nine suffers from a grim setting, unmemorable songs, a wayward script, but mostly due to the miscasting of Daniel Day Lewis in the lead role.  continue reading »»

The Limits of Control
Jim Jarmusch | USA | 2009
116 min

Jim Jarmusch is an original. As critics and audiences celebrate Inglourious Basterds, Limits of Control is the year 2009’s genuine swansong to film culture; most subversively, it is a fuck-you to blockbuster cinema and quirky American indies from a maverick independent filmmaker in complete command of his craft and technique. Limits of Control seeks to study the nature of existence through the eyes of a hero (that rarely speaks), but the film is not taxed with ponderous philosophizing. Although Jarmusch has always been interested in big ideas — ideas about love, sex, death, reality; it is his idiosyncratic approach to these themes that protects and improves him as a innovator of cool and the new in cinema. continue reading »»

Man Who Sold the World
Imad & Swel Noury | Morocco | 2009
108 min

Man Who Sold the World is based on “A Faint Heart” a short story by the granddaddy of existentialism Fyodor Dostoevsky; it is the second feature film from Moroccan brother-duo Imad and Swel Noury, who probably grew up on Godard instead of Big Bird from Sesame Street, played with Taschen art books instead of crayons and favored punk rock over Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars. (Bowie’s song Man Who Sold the World also becomes the film’s title.) In fact, it is such a labor of love that the filmmakers’ own mother Pilar Cazorla had to assume the sole duty of producer, allowing the young directors carte blanche in self-indulgence. Then why blame the Brothers Noury when they spare no expense in creating a very personal vision of style and excess? continue reading »»

Avatar
James Cameron | USA | 2009
162 min

Know this fact: director James Cameron has made better films than Avatar. This is not to say that Avatar is a failure; it is simply overhyped as Cameron’s return to filmmaking after he proclaimed himself King of the World over a decade ago. Avatar has an emptiness about it that cannot compensate for the lack of sufficient live motion scenes. While the planet of Pandora is vividly realised, it evokes cheerless memories of the world created by the Wachowski’s in latter films of The Matrix trilogy, one level above animation and every bit heavy laden with as much wall-to-wall CGI as your largest IMAX screen can contain. continue reading »»

Avatar
James Cameron | USA | 2009
162 min

December of 2009 is a fantastic time for the release of Avatar, mainly because it has been a horrible year for big-budget mainstream films that everyone can gather around and love. The IMAX Dubai showing I went to had people applaud at the end, and while it is something I have always found a bit silly (it’s okay if the crew is at the showing, but otherwise…), it does show the enthusiasm of the general public. Avatar is a great cinematic experience. continue reading »»

Shariq Madani at DIFF 2009
Daily Festival Report: 16th December 2009 (Day #7)

Many movies at the Dubai International Film Festival had a Q&A session after the screening. Of the three movies I managed to watch on the final day of the festival, the last two colourful post-screening Q&As that added value to the experience. This was possibly the best facet of the festival, apart from bringing us movies that we would not otherwise have had the opportunity to be discovered.

After the Downfall (Apres La Chute)
Hiner Saleem | France | 2009
63 mins

The title of this movie refers to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime. The movie takes place in the apartment of a Kurdish man in France, celebrating the downfall with fellow Kurdish friends, while live televised news is projected on one of the walls. The time-line of the movie is two-fold: the entire story takes place on the same day as the celebration continues in the apartment, while the projected news-footage spans months as it goes from the US invasion of Iraq, their open-arm welcome by the Iraqis and eventually to the resistance and civil unrest the US occupation caused. Although this is a smart idea, and would surely have looked appealing on paper, the pull-off is dismal. Furthermore, the movie’s treatment is spineless: the rift between the characters at the party (due to their racial differences: Kurds vs. Shiites vs. Sunnis) is touched upon with kid gloves, and never properly explored or exploited. Instead, the director populates the movie with vulgar sensationalism of graphic news footage (real beheadings, etc) and needless nudity.

The Barons (Les Barons)
Nabil Ben Yadir | Belgium | 2009
106 mins

Set in a working class neighbourhood of Brussels, The Barons is the story of four young friends, nicknamed The Barons, who live a simple and lethargic life. Having no ambition in life, they intend to laze away, philosophising life. Except one of them, who dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. The movie starts of as a delightful comedy, mixing quirky and bizarre humour with the narrative (breaking the fourth-wall, literally walking into the flashback, etc). But it steadily shifts spectrum, ending as a conventional drama. This could be interpreted as the characters growing up over the course of the movie and taking life more seriously, but it fails to resonate. Eventually, perhaps an ideal flight movie, The Barons has not much to take away, but it could take away your time quite effortlessly.

Little Soldier (Lille Soldat)
Annette L. Olesen| Denmark | 2008
101 mins

Little Soldier reminds me of El Custodio, the 2006 Argentinian movie. Quite similar in mood and treatment, Little Soldier is a restrained drama about Lotte, an ex-army soldier, coping with a distorted life. Brought up by her grand-parents after her mother’s death early in her life, Lotte finds it difficult to connect or communicate with her father. Taking up job as a driver for his prostitution ring, she eventually empathizes with her father’s Nigerian hooker girlfriend, taking it upon herself to ‘rescue’ her. Trine Dyrholm, playing Lotte, turns in a very restrained performance, letting her eyes and masculine-physicality evocate the character’s state of mind. Very well shot and presented, Little Soldier makes for a captivating watch.

And so it ends. As the curtains on the 2009 Dubai International Film Festival are drawn, looking back at the past week generates a smile: I was not sure about the movie selection this year before the start, but I am now glad to say that the festival proved to be quite fertile! For me: 7 Days, 5 shorts, 22 features, 1 documentary. However, all is not over yet. Expect an Afterword soon!

Shariq Madani at DIFF 2009
Daily Festival Report: 15th December 2009 (Day #6)

What a day of extremes! I watched four movies, none of which were in the middle-ground.  Keep reading for the low-down.

At The End Of Daybreak (Sham Moh)
Yuhang Ho | Malaysia/Hong Kong/South Korea | 2009
94 mins

This confused movie sets up an interesting enough premise, but then forgets who it is about. The narrative follows one character, then without rhyme or reason, shifts to another one, and then similarly to a third character. This could have been a good technique, but the way the movie progresses, it comes across as if the character in-focus becomes too boring, and hence the need to focus on someone else. Eventually, ends up being pointless. continue reading »»