2010 could mark the beginning of decade where movies take advantage of the meteoric rise in advanced special effects that the noughties also heavily relied upon. It seems the big studios will make money (despite the ubiquitous recession) as long as there are super-hero graphic novels to pillage and tween vampire tales to tell. Unfortunately, this also means that the dearth of original ideas will continue to plague cinemas. Most mainstream movies today tend to be adapted from or are sequels of a book, movie, blog and/or a memoir. In fact, one upcoming movie is even about facebook! As many of us plan the year ahead — with resolutions, family, vacations, career, etc — we at WearetheMovies.com have shortlisted, from the 200-odd movies that Hollywood will unload on cinemagoers this year, a few of the more popular titles that we look forward to. The aim is to get you excited about what’s in store. Some of these may be postponed, even cancelled. Others may turn out to be total duds (Transformers 2, anyone), and yet others may surprise everyone, coming out of nowhere and stealing the limelight (like last year’s funny Hangover). The titles are sorted in ascending order of their US release dates. 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 »»

Shariq Madani at DIFF 2009
Daily Festival Report: 14th December 2009 (Day #5)

This day of DIFF was quite tiring. Each movie was emotionally draining, watching them back-to-back multiplied the effects. Fortunately, the festival atmosphere does the work of an energy drink; this makes the going easy.

Heiran
Shalizeh Arefpour | Iran | 2009
88 mins

Regrettably, Heiran gives us nothing new or exciting. The initial scenes set up a love story that could have gone one of many predictable ways — Heiran chooses the route of “village girl alone in big city”. Apart from the female lead’s striking resemblance to the gorgeous Indian actress Manisha Koirala (looks and performance), there is not much that can be appreciated here; unless you are biased towards it. continue reading »»

Shariq Madani at DIFF 2009
Daily Festival Report: 13th December 2009 (Day #4)

So was it a close competition? Not in the least. Saw Earth’s Women, Mother, Moon, Farewell Gary. Read on to know which one triumphed over the others and which one particular movie made me fall asleep!

Earth’s Women (Ddag-ui Yeo-ja)
Woo-jung Kwon | South Korea | 2009
95 mins

In the closing narration of this documentary, the director makes a statement where the three farmer-women, subjects of the film, wonder why they are being filmed since they are not special in any way. The director then, in her narration, agrees that they are not special at all. Then why indeed was this movie made? Even at 95 minutes, it would have felt twice that duration if only I could keep myself awake to watch it all. continue reading »»

Shariq Madani at DIFF 2009
Daily Festival Report: 12th December 2009 (Day #3)

I did not end up watching four movies on the third day of DIFF 2009 as planned. But the quality of the three that I did watch (Well Done, Abba; Amreeka; The Message) has more than compensated for this small personal tragedy. This year is indeed turning out to be a surprise. Seems like where Hollywood lacked in 2009, independent cinema has made up for.

Well Done, Abba
Shyam Benegal | India | 2009
135 mins

Shyam Benegal, a celebrated director of the revolutionary “parallel cinema” movement of 70s India, moves a step-down with his latest feature, Well Done Abba, a satire based on the corruption that permeates India’s government schemes for the poor. Even so, this mediocre effort by Benegal’s standards leaves its mark. Abba (an over-acting Boman Iran getting his Hyderabadi accent way off-mark) faces corrupt officials at every step of the way when he tries to avail of a government scheme that finances the building of wells in a village. Each man wants his cut, eventually leaving Abba with no money, no well and documents saying all was done. Not to be victimized, Abba and his daughter (Minissha Lamba) decide to play the system instead. They file a report at the police station for a stolen well, presenting all documents to prove they officially had one. As departments collide, pandemonium ensues. Well Done, Abba was made with one purpose in mind: to use the mass-media of cinema to make a statement on the socio-economic condition of present-day India. Within that context, the movie does and will serve its purpose. But to present it to an audience not meant for it or to appraise it purely on cinematic terms not only diminishes the necessity of the movie, but also brings the tag of mediocrity to Benegal. The director may not be too bothered though, he is probably deep into composing his next socio-political statement. continue reading »»

Shariq Madani at DIFF 2009
Daily Festival Report: 11th December 2009 (Day #2)

Three movies, three genres, three varying levels of quality: from Korea to Japan to Sweden; from a personal story to a mythical epic to a post-apocalyptic animated. As my oft-repeated slogan de troika goes, the day included the good, the bad and the weird (but not necessarily in that order!). Here’s the doozy:

My Dear Enemy (Meotjin Haru)
Yoon-ki Lee | South Korea | 2008
123 mins

My Dear Enemy commits one of the greatest sins a movie can commit — it gets boring. A simple enough premise could well have lead to a useful exploration of the film’s two main characters’ interplay and psyche; it could also have been a humorous look into the situations they get into. The film does neither. The first 15 minutes of My Dear Enemy tell us almost everything we need to know about these people. Then from there on it out, it just allows time to tick on, burdening us with a painfully shallow female lead. It could have been a wonderful short. But it ends up being a five-course meal of biscuits only! continue reading »»

Shariq Madani at DIFF 2009
Daily Festival Report: 10th December 2009 (Day #1)

As the 6th edition of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) began, the buzzing gossip and conundrum surrounding this year’s film selections and celebrities settled for a more meaningful reverberation –- a celebration of cinema. And today is just the beginning: DIFF is seven unremitting days of back-to-back world cinema. With it, here also begins our resident film critic Shariq Madani’s annual day-by-day account of fest films good, bad and plain simple…weird.

Gulf Voices #1 (Collection of 5 Short Films by Arab filmmakers): This was a mixed bag — but that’s how these things come. Fortunately, two of the shorts were better-than-average, and that made the assortment worth the bad ones.

#1
Amal’s Cloud
Rawia Abdullah | UAE | 2009
9 mins

It starts with Amal’s Cloud, an over-thought under-shot movie that probably made sense to a few from the crew only. The movie has arbitrary shots threaded together in some unintelligible way and is akin to reading 4 random pages from a 40-page book. But it does have the advantage of being a short though. continue reading »»