Right from the distinct 3D Disney logo at the start, Tron: Legacy is a visually striking film. As depicted in posters and trailers, it has a dazzling, pulsating vibe that relies heavily on CGI — which is apt considering how much of the story takes place inside a digital world. Director Joseph Kosinski marks his feature film debut by making full use of his past experiences, having made equally striking television commercials. Tron: Legacy, therefore, works best for its action, and somewhat less for its story or drama.

The movie begins a few years after the story of the original Tron ended. It’s 1989 and Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), CEO of ENCOM International, tells his son Sam about a new technological breakthrough he has discovered while working on “The Grid”, promising to take him there one day. That night he disappears, never to be seen again. Presumed to be dead, ENCOM is taken over by its Board of Directors. Cut to twenty years later and Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), now 27, inadvertently finds himself transported into the Grid, which he discovers to be a digital world that exists within the mainframe of ENCOM. He learns that his father has been trapped here for the past two decades, while CLU, a program that Kevin had created in his likeness, rules the Grid.

Tron: Legacy is hardly original — it takes inspirations from many movies — but its charm is in the way these elements are combined. The center-piece of the film, the games arena sequence, is a massive upgrade of a similar scene from the original Tron. Gorgeously rendered, the light-cycle battle is set in an arena with multiple levels, transparent floors and ten bikes competing for survival. Bodysuits with funky neon lights, a dark world with high contrast, backlit luminosity and a techno-heavy soundtrack by Daft Punk make the Grid look very cool. Garrett Hedlund, as the lead, helps the film in no small part, performing his role with a youthful but suave machismo. As Sam he is confident, but not cocky. Jeff Bridges as the aging Kevin Flynn and digitally de-aged in post-production to play the younger CLU, is amusing in both roles.

Most (though not all) of Tron: Legacy is in 3D, primarily those scenes set within the digital world, and because they were shot in 3D, the result on screen is quite effective. It is to the director and Disney’s credit for not exploiting the technology: the 3D scenes are not manipulative (no objects deliberately poking outwards from the screen), and more importantly, the scenes shot in 2D have not been digitally converted to shoddy 3D in post-process either, hence freeing the film from the burden that many 3D live-action movies that have been converted seem to carry. Ironically, this also means that the movie can be enjoyed in regular 2D screens without losing out on the experience.

For fans of the original, there may be much amiss here. The Grid, as defined in the original movie, has been modified in structure and idea. Other thoughts have been left open-ended, and the in-world mythology has been somewhat redeveloped. Thus, while Tron: Legacy is a sequel, it functions better as a stand-alone film, though one that may spawn future sequels.

Winter’s Bone is a reasonably well-made drama that falls short of being exceptional. It is a safe movie that follows a tried and tested path, never pushing the plot or characters to the potential they promise. It tries to be a realistic, bleak and emotional story from Midwest US, but instead plays out like a fairly dark bedtime story, happy ending included.

20-yr old Jennifer Lawrence stars as 17-yr old Ree Dolly looking for her missing father. Her father, a criminal who cooked drugs, put up their house for bail, but is now missing. If he does not turn up for his court-hearing in the next few days, Dolly loses her house. With two younger siblings and an ailing mother to look after, Dolly must find him, dead or alive.

While director Debra Grank makes a satisfactory movie out of this plot, it plays safe and therefore fails at becoming memorable. Lawrence’s performance is adequate, but again, not exceptional. The cold detachment she projects towards her father – we learn she has no reason to hate him – ensures we do not sympathize with her. Dolly goes back and forth between her home and those of others she knows to inquire about her father, but never really ventures out, never goes the length she possibly could, considering the dire alternate she and her family face. In effect, there is no sense of desperation in her need to find her father. She faces little danger, apart from once instance when she is badly beaten up. The better-off neighbors feed her horse and give them enough to eat. Everyone who starts out as a menace eventually turns around to assist her. The resolution to the film is equally underwhelming – help comes unexpectedly from all corners.

Winter’s Bone is the typical clichéd American independent film. Much like in mainstream Hollywood, the bulk of American independent film creativity seems to have mistaken a set of rules for creativity. While not a bad movie in any sense, Winter’s Bone becomes a by-the-books forgettable film because of the company it is in. In fact, so much so that by the time the movie ends, the title of the movie makes little sense, and there is no curiosity to find out why either.

The last day of the 7th Dubai International Film Festival included a disappointingly bad movie from a director who had impressed at DIFF earlier. It also included a generic drama that tried to be stylish. But thankfully the first and last movies of the last day made up for the middle two, and provided for a nice closing mixed bag.

Poetry (Shi)
Chang-dong Lee | South Korea | 2010
139 min

Chang-dong Lee’s Poetry is a strong and mature drama. It focuses on the life of Mija (Jeong-hie Yun), an old woman and guardian of her grandson, who works as a maid but yearns to write poetry. A happy woman who loves to chatter, she changes and becomes reclusive when she is told about her young grandson’s involvement in a violent crime. Unable to quite live with the shame, Mija withdraws into observing the world around her for her first poem that she will one day write. Poetry gives us a poignant view of life, built around an exceptionally well-written character and a fantastic performance by Jeong-hie Yun. Acting of this caliber perhaps comes with age and experience. Yun becomes Mija, and ensures to keep her distinct from Hye-ja Kim’ titular Mother (2009). Mija never goes to extremes with emotions, whether it be anger, sorrow or happiness. She stays composed through the situations we see here face, distracting herself with her poetic view of the world around her. Poetry is a movie to be sucked into, to take you on a bittersweet trip with a sad but sweet old lady for company.

40
Emre Sahin | Turkey | 2009
89 min

Three separate lives collide in 40, a theme that has grown increasingly popular in recent years. The first character is a taxi driver who also does odd-jobs of the wrong kind. The second is an illegal African immigrant who yearns to reach France. The third is a nurse who wants to take her daughter and leave her miserable husband. Shot hand-held, and seemingly deliberately made more shaky, the movie over-uses style without purpose. The style itself is not extraordinary, or even fresh. It seems thrown into he mix to make the movie more “cool”, which it fails at. The writing is shoddy, no explanation is given for the twists that push the story forward and character behavior id molded to the need of the story. 40 is, for its most part, a failure.

The Hunter (Shekarchi)
Rafi Pitts | Iran | 2010
90 min

After making the fantastic It’s Winter in 2006, Rafi Pitts takes a mis-step with The Hunter. A silent, brooding movie, the plot centers on a man who has lost his wife and daughter in a cross-fire between the police and insurgents. In vengeance, he kills a random cop and escapes into the jungle, pursued by two policemen. Although this may read as an action-thriller, the movie is neither. It observes the mostly silent man, played by the director himself, but does not make clear why we are observing him. Pitts performance does not let on anything, the story does not suggest anything either. The Hunter ends up becoming a string of sequences that, for all the beauty they are presented in, are detached and ineffective. The movie required a faster pace with more action/thrill sequence, or a more accomplished actor – one with a strong screen presence – to carry it off.

Corridor (Isolerad)
Johan Lundborg & Johan Storm | Denmark | 2009
80 min

A wonderful debut by directors Johan Lundborg & Johan Storm, Corridor would be at home in the “Alfred Hitchcok Presetnts” TV series. It is a suspense thriller that works right from the moment it opens until its last scene. Frank (Emil Johnsen) is a medical student who stays alone in an apartment block. When a new tenant moves in upstairs, Frank is kept awake at nights by the strange sounds from the apartment above – sounds that make him suspicious & nervous. At 80 minutes, the movie is short enough for the directors to hold the suspense. Unexpected close-ups and fast-cuts keep the thrills coming. But their trump-card is the lead-actor: Emil Johnsen. As the nervous student on the brink of paranoia, Johnsen’s Frank is a next-door neighbor or classmate that we have seen, and thus easy to identify with. His suspicions and fears, therefore, ring true. While evoking classic Hitchcockian themes: alone everyday guy, mistaken identities, set in and mostly experienced from within a room, etc., the movie does not burden itself by trying to emulate the master or recreate his work. The stakes get higher and Frank falls deeper into the plot, until the directors deliver a fitting, though expected, climax. It would be very interesting to have the directors and the actor re-visit this Frank for another chapter of his life.

7 Days and 22 movies later, the 7th Dubai International Film Festival has come to a close. As with each of the last festivals, it provided for some of the best movies I have watched this year – Honey, The King’s Speech, Confessions and many more. 51 weeks to go for the DIFF ’11. Let the countdown begin.

A comedy movie about suicide, an ultra-serious drama about a degenerate society and a highly-stylized combination of the western & samurai genres. The penultimate day of the 7th Dubai International Film Festival was a very good day – it held no bad movies for me!

Suicide Club
Olaf Saumer | Germany | 2010
96 min

Director Olaf Saumer’s graduation film, Suicide Club is a mostly humorous story about five individuals who meet one early morning on the roof of a high-rise to jump to their deaths. Once all arrive, one of the five locks their exit door and throws the key away – so that nobody backs out. As is expected of such a plot, not all goes as per plan. Suicide Club’s strength lies not in those five characters or developing their back stories or dilemmas, but in the goof-ups and situations they encounter during the course of the day. These situations that form the film are mostly comical, sometimes tender and rarely tedious. The film is not always logical and many times taking a turn more for convenience. However, Suicide Club is a feel-good film that manages to evoke laughter while it plays and a smile once it finishes.

My Joy (Schastye moe)
Sergei Loznitsa | Ukraine | 2010
127 min

Although titled My Joy in its English translation, the literal translation of the title of the movie is “My Happiness”. In the context of the movie, it means its exact opposite. My Joy is a pessimistic look at the territories of the ex-Soviet union, where the value of life is little, and survival is paramount. People, identities and moralities become lost, while selfishness, violence and exploitation thrive. The story takes off with a good-at-heart truck driver on a delivery trip, but soon expands to include the people he encounters, their past and the deteriorating values of the general populace. The film is cold, bleak and humorless; director Sergei Loznitsa does little to pacify his audience. My Joy is an excellent movie but also very distinct. People un-seasoned in experimental or arthouse cinema will find little to appreciate here.

(Recommended reading: Faizan Rashid’s full review of My Joy.)

Bunraku
Guy Moshe | U.S.A. | 2010
118 min

Bunraku takes its name and inspiration from a 400-year-old form of Japanese puppet theater. Set in an undefined fictional era that is both, past and present, the movie is an odd mixture of a western and a samurai film – made quite obvious from its two protagonists: a man with no name (Josh Hartnett) and a Japanese swordsman Yoshi (Gackt Camui) without a sword. These two men are searching for the same person, who happens to be the most powerful man east of the Atlantic, played by the actor of genre movies: Ron Perlman. The movie is hyper-stylized and references pop-culture seemingly off the cuff, from movie to video game cliches, never taking itself seriously. A humorous narrator adds to the zaniness. While director Guy Moshe initially does a splendid work of mixing all his ingredients, the movie loses some of its team mid-way through, when the fun-factor is reduced and action is put into high gear. If only it had stuck to its wonderful first-half tone, Bunraku would have been an ideal movie to accompany your popcorn and soda.

With just one day to go, we are near the end of this year’s Dubai International Film Festival, and close to my burnout point. Of the films lined up for tomorrow, I hope the Iranian movie that I am scheduled to watch becomes the highlight of the day. But as with today’s My Joy, there is no saying what might surprise me. Look forward to my last daily DIFF ’10 update tomorrow!

Shariq Madani at DIFF 2010
Daily Festival Report: 16th December 2010 (Day #5)

Violence, intrigue, survival and despair were the order of the day. While there was not much new in the way the first two movies dealt with their respective subjects, the final two movies of the day brought me delight in the way they presented theirs. Here’s a lowdown on the four movies I watched on day# 5 of the Dubai Film Festival.

Outrage (Autoreiji)
Takeshi Kitano | Japan | 2010
109 min

Outrage is a Japanese gangster film, focusing on gang-wars between families of the yakuza. When the boss of one of the families makes a deal with a drug supplier for his territory, the yakuza chairman sets in motion an intricate plan; a bloody path that can only lead to an equally bloody end. As expected, the movie is heavy on violence. While the movie does not add anything new to the genre, director Takeshi Kitano manages to sustain the interest of the viewer with a constantly moving story. Unfortunately, too many characters and a predictable plot renders this mainstream endeavor stale.

The Father and the Foreigner (Il Padre e lo Stranie)
Ricky Tognazzi | Italy | 2010
110 min

In an unconvincing mash-up of genres, The Father & The Foreigner is part-drama and part-thriller. The drama: Diego Marini is unable to come to terms with the disability of his son, and hence lives a mechanical life that includes the occasional trip to his son’s special-needs clinic. On one such visit, he meets Walid, an Arab-Italian, who soon becomes a friend and opens his eyes to the wonder that being a parent is. The thriller: Walid is super-rich and seemingly connected in all the wrong places. When one fine day Walid disappears, Diego needs to get to the bottom of things, and thus begins a cat-and-mouse game between Diego, Walid, the Italian Secret Service and a few other entities left unexplained. Unfortunately, the movie spectacularly fails in both, re-hashing what movies of either genre have shown us a few dozen times each year.

127 Hours
Danny Boyle | U.S.A. | 2010
95 min

Among the best of contemporary film directors, Danny Boyle brings his visual energy and heroism theme to 127 Hours with renewed fervor. Inspired by true events, the movie is about one man’s 127 hour ordeal of being stuck in a remote canyon crevice with his right-arm trapped under a boulder. With only a few tools and objects at hand, and water to last him a few days, Aron Ralston (James Franco) prepares for the worst and records messages on his handy-cam for his parents. Using the real Aron Ralston recordings as inspiration, Franco and Boyle recreate his time of tribulation, yet make it entertaining enough for a good mainstream movie. While we have seen better work from Boyle, this is James Franco’s tour-de-force. The screen belongs to him, and he carries it through splendidly.

(Recommended reading:  Faizan Rashid’s full review of 127 Hours.)

Norwegian Wood (Noruwei no mori)
Anh Hung Tran | Japan | 2010
133 min

Norwegian Wood is an adaptation of a book of the same name by revered author Haruki Murakami. Beginning with the suicide of a 17 year old boy in 1960s Japan, the movie explores the complicated relationship shared by the boy’s girlfriend, Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), and his best friend, Toru Watanabe (Ken’ichi Matsuyama) – both trying to cope with their sorrow. While Naoko’s pain consumes her, Toru finds it difficult to let go of his confused feelings for Naoko. Further confusing the two are Reiko, Naoko’s consular, and Midori, Toru’s outgoing classmate who likes him. The title of the movie (and the book) refers to the Beetles song. Its reference to the story is the emotional value it holds to one of the characters, and via her, to the others. This small detail is left out of the movie, leaving those not familiar with the novel a little confused about it. Many such details have probably been left out therefore making the movie a little unexplainable without assumptions by an uninformed viewer. So, for instance, when the female characters discuss sex with explicit detail, it comes as a surprise. Hence the overt usage of verbal sexual intimacy and loud musical cues suggests an exploitative intent within the confines of the movie. Norwegian Wood, although mostly about sorrow and despair, is neither heavy nor dreary. Mostly shot with picturesque locations as back-drops, the movie effortlessly glides on its themes of loss and sexuality – even romanticizing them. It is a wonderful journey about the sorrow of loss that comes from the death of a beloved. The characters use sex as a form of release from their inherent pain, while Toru understands and misunderstands the machinations of the great mystery that love is. In the way it deals with these emotions, Norwegian Wood is an excellent movie that, for its most part, succeeds.

(Recommended reading: Faizan Rashid’s full review of Norwegian Wood.)

Two days of DIFF left to go. 3 movies scheduled on day# 6. My report, tomorrow.

It is only at the Dubai International Film Festival where you get to watch a Cannes’ Palm d’Or winner, Berlin’s Golden and Silver Bear winners on the same day. And what an experience this day was. More on the four movies of the day below.

Honey (Bal)
Semih Kaplanoglu | Turkey | 2010
103 min

Director Semih Kaplano?lu’s Honey, this year’s Golden Bear winner at the Berlin Film Festival, is the art-form of cinema at its best. A fantastic pre-credit scene, good enough to be a short film in itself, sets the tone for this beautiful movie that, from within the confines of a dark cinema hall, transports you into the lush green mountains of Turkey. A harmonious soundtrack of incidental sounds from nature lends depth to the visual artistry that the movie is composed of. Some single-take shots are simply breathtaking, elevating the movie over mere performance and story-telling. The final installment of the director’s “Yusuf Trilogy”, Honey is a portrayal of the early childhood days of Yusuf (Bora Alta?), a six year old boy and the son of a bee-keeper, focusing specifically on the days before and after his father Yakup’s death. Much like honey, the movie flows slowly but smoothly as we discover life with Yusuf: alone, when with both or either parent and some exceptional moments of Yusuf at school. Yearning for that elusive badge to make his father proud, Yusuf works hard to impress his teacher with his reading skills, feeling much embarrassed when he fails. Through the movie, and especially in these scenes, Bora Alta? shines as the little Yusuf. His unassuming and honest performance may very well be one of the best of the year. Combined with the movie’s brilliant aesthetics, it contributes towards making Honey one of the best movies of the year. For a more detailed review of the film, read what our very own Faizan Rashid has to say.

End of Animal (Jimseung Ui Kkut)
Jo Sung-Hee | South Korea | 2010
114 min

End of Animal is a post-apocalyptic movie like few others. A pregnant woman is in a cab going through a rural landscape to get to her mother’s house to deliver her baby. On the way, a blinding white light leaves her (and everyone else) unconscious, and also disables everything electronic. Unfortunately, like the movie’s lead character, the director just wanders lost around this setting not knowing where to go with it. Random references to religion and humanity aside, the movie neither offers an explanation for the cause of the event, nor uses the setting in any meaningful way. Scenes just seem to randomly unfold without merit. Showing God (or was it Satan?) in a baseball cap may be an acceptable artistic decision, but him having to physically carry a bicycle out of the way to drive by in a car seems just too limiting for someone who brought about the “End”.

If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle (Eu Când Vreau S? Fluier, Fluier)
Florin ?erban | Romania | 2010
94 min

If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle is set in a Romanian youth prison. Silviu (George Pi?tereanu) has two weeks left for his release when he learns that his mother has returned from Italy to take his younger brother back with her, something which Silviu will not allow. The movie depends on and primarily succeeds due to the performance of Pi?tereanu as the troubled youth. From suffering physical intimidation silently to retaliation at emotional pressure, Pi?tereanu conveys a realistic performance in Silviu. Although little physical violence is depicted on-screen, If I Want To Whistle… uses the constant presence of threat to its various characters to keep the movie’s tone aggressive. The movie breaks no new ground nor improves what has already been done, but possess a realistic and emotionally strong story, an efficient use of running time and a formidable central performance.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul | Thailand | 2010
114 min

Uncle Boonmee… is, for its most part, an abstract movie. It is the final part of a multi-platform art project that includes seven-part video installations and two short videos. As a stand-alone movie, Uncle Boonmee… is incoherent, aimless and beyond comprehension. It holds little merit in story, theme, performance or production within the confines of its 114 minutes – you need extra media to make any sense of it. It does not present any complete ideas, leaving this task to the audience to search for their own interpretations. While Auteurism may be used to defend or praise the movie, it by no means justifies the ineptitude of the work itself. Watch it if you have seen the director’s other works or the other attachments of the project this movie is a part of. Else, you may do well to stay clear.

While day#4 was about movies awarded at other Film Festivals, we kick into the high gear with day#5, which includes the most commercial movie I will see at this year’s Dubai International Film Festival, Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, and a violent action movie from Japan, along with another Japanese movie and an Italian-Arabic feature. My report tomorrow!

Shariq Madani at DIFF 2010
Daily Festival Report: 14th December 2010 (Day #3)

Thick into the film festival by day 3, today was for movies from Asia and Africa. Three of the four movies I watched were testing and one was downright bizarre. Read more about each of these four movies below.

Autumn (Harud)
Aamir Bashir | India | 2010
99 min
Autumn is the story of one disillusioned youth’s aimless days during one autumn season in violence-ravaged Kashmir. The movie takes its time with the subject, perhaps too much time, but thankfully does not digress. With few dialogs and just incidental sounds, this quiet brooding film has some interesting subtle moments that make for a patient watch. The story is mostly by observation of and by the protagonist. Unfortunately, it suffers from a lack of good performances that make the movie difficult to accept as anything but an effort. The protagonist is correctly referred to by one of his friends as a zombie – he hardly emotes or speaks, waiting to be challenged to release his pent up frustrations. Aamir Bashir’s debut movie proves he may have an eye and feel for film, but he needs a more fluent cinematic language.

An Unfinished Letter (Iti Mrinalini)
Aparna Sen | India | 2010
130 min
Coming from an acclaimed director, Aparna Sen’s An Unfinished Letter is a letdown. The movie takes a look at an actress’ unrequited love from the start to the end of her career. Aparna Sen herself plays Mrinalini, the ageing actress while her daughter, Konkona Sen Sharma, plays a younger Mrinalini in the flashbacks that tell the bulk of the story. While providing an ample scope to perform for the two actresses who portray the central role, the movie tells a generic tale that seems worn-out, and has a conclusion that is at tangents to the rest of the story. At 130 minutes and lacking a strong narrative, An Unfinished Letter is too long to hold the interest of the viewer through to the end.

Confessions (Kokuhaku)
Tetsuya Nakashima | Japan | 2010
106 min
Made in a way that probably only the Japanese and Koreans can, Confessions is a revenge movie that leans towards the macabre. A teacher announces to her class that she knows the identity of the two killers who murdered her daughter – both students of the very same class. She gives out enough clues to make the identities of the killers obvious, and thus starts her cold and elaborate revenge. Skipping back and forth between ultra-violence and humor in a heartbeat, Confessions is an amusing yet chilling watch. Combining mesmerizing visuals with convoluted story-telling, director Tetsuya Nakashima makes Confessions fantastical – a movie that has to be watched for its face value only. Yet, after the movie, one cannot help but wonder at how desensitized today’s children (and adults) have become. For a more detailed review of the film, read what our very own Faizan Rashid has to say about the film.

A Screaming Man (Un Homme Qui Crie)
Mahamat Saleh-Haroun | Chad | 2010
92 min
In setting and tone, A Screaming Man is quite similar to director Mahamat Saleh-Haroun’s acclaimed previous film Dry Season. Also starring the same lead actor, Youssouf Djaoro, this movie is equally bleak and melancholic. Djaoro stars as Adam, who along with his son Abdel, works as a swimming-pool attendant at a hotel. Under new management, the hotel decides to keep just one attendant and Adam is shifted to gate-keeping duties. Distraught, Adam takes a decision that bears down on him as guilt. Djaoro, in his performance, broods his way through the story that may not be easy to identify with, but is realistic enough to sympathize with. Although the deliberate pace of the movie is required as a narrative tool, it can be a test of patience for many. Having watched Dry Season, it is not easy to appreciate A Screaming Man, for this movie is just more of the same. Faizan Rashid of wearethemovies though has a different opinion however, one which can be read in our detailed review of the film.

Day#4 brings us to the mid-point of the festival. My schedule for tomorrow starts with the Golden Bear winner of Berlin, continues with a Korean post-apocalyptic movie and the Turkish Silver Bear winner of Berlin, finally ending with the winner of the Palm d’Or at Cannes. Could anticipation of a day at DIFF be more than for tomorrow?

Day 2 of the festival featured two movies, one each from either side of the Atlantic. The first, although quite acclaimed, did not impress me much. The second movie helped bring balance to the day.

When We Leave (Die Fremde)
Aladag | Germany | 2010.
119 min
When We Leave is a laboriously paced German movie about one Turkish-German woman’s struggle for her freedom to live a peaceful life with her son, away from the cruelty of her husband and her own family. Unfortunately, the makers of the movie did not have much more than this central idea to work on, and hence resort to a deluge of predictable clichés. The struggle of Umay, the protagonist, is justified by having all supporting characters of Turkish ethnicity act with unbelievable malice towards her. This does the reverse of its intent: instead of sympathizing with Umay, it creates a curiosity to the kind of community and ethnicity she belongs to. Even with its over-the-top finale, the movie tries too hard to succeed, and fails miserably.

The Company Men
John Wells | U.S.A. | 2010
109 min
Focusing on senior executives who lost jobs due to the financial recession, The Company Men is an engaging contemporary drama that snuggles in that comfortable spot between being preachy and being grim. When pride deflates, reality sneaks in and effects men in different ways. The movie delves into this theme, exploring the lives of three victims of downsizing – Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper. Effectively showing what men go through when they not only lose their job, but are not able to find a new one, it also provide that kindle of hope that such depressing times require. Riding on good performances by Affleck and Jones, The Company Men is a strong debut by John Wells.

Day 3 promises to be busy, with at least four movies scheduled to be watched, all from Asia or Africa. Stay around, as I continue my journey around World Cinema.

The seventh edition of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) started today, with a Red Carpet gala screening of The King’s Speech. Concurrently starts my daily coverage of the festival. In addition to the 10 Films You Must See At Dubai Film Festival ’10, look out for my annual day-by-day update of DIFF to tell you about movies to watch, those to steer clear of and some to simply take your chance with.

The King’s Speech
Tom Hooper | UK | 2010
118 min
In The King’s Speech, Colin Firth plays King George VI with a speech impediment in this historical yet personal drama about one man’s struggle with his weakness. From being the King’s son, then brother to the next king, and eventually reluctant king himself, the movie explores King George VI’s relationship and eventual friendship with his speech therapist that lead him to conquer his disability. In one of the most refined performances of the year, Firth plays the stammering monarch with such finesse that it is not too far-fetched to wager on his winning the coveted Oscar for his leading role. Lending him able support are Helena Bonham Carter as his wife and, in an excellent performance, Geoffrey Rush as the King’s speech therapist. Without letting the grandeur of royalty and impending war crowd the screen, the story stays mostly with these three characters, with occasional foray into their families and other historical figures of the time (Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill is priceless!). The King’s Speech is a must watch, not the least for its powerful central performance.

Our own Faizan Rashid, in his full review, calls the film “an inspiring, entertaining, feel good, crowd pleaser, one that’s actually very good and sustained in no small part by two performances that enthrall.”

The King’s Speech is a fantastic opening film to a festival that promises to enthrall. With enough enthusiasm to last me the week, I have drawn up my schedule for the next six days. Look forward to reading about movies of various languages and genres from across the world. And if you get the opportunity, try to watch some of them too!

I had the opportunity to speak with one of them — writer and co-director Swel Noury — at the 2009 Dubai International Film Festival, and he confessed a strong predilection for cinema, pop culture, art and geeky camera technology, which is apparent from the expressionistic visuals and experimental narrative. The plot concerns X (played with beguiling charm and repulsion by Said Bey), a rather unattractive clerk in a futuristic, unrecognizable city (actually Casablanca) who is madly in love with beautiful French cabaret performer Lili; luckily, she feels the same way, and the happy couple have even been “approved” by the Ministry to be married. Only problem is that X, like any logical guy who has read enough Kafka and Orwell, is a little fucked in the head and is unable to accept such happiness. Man Who Sold the World documents X’s tragic descent into madness via 108 minutes of French New Wave-style montages, 15 chapter headings, one prologue, one epilogue and epilepsy-inducing handheld camerawork.

But if you can take it all (and most viewers can’t, except may be hardened cinephiles and art connoisseurs) there is much to be relished in Man Who Sold the World — the Brothers Noury have a taste for the aesthetic and conceptual: this much is clear from the Antonioni-esque compositions lensed by cinematographer Paulo Ares, the influence of Vermeer in the set decoration and, most importantly, Orson Welles’ The Trial (itself a Kafka adaptation) which is the pivotal inspiration behind this film’s theme of helplessness of the individual in a totalitarian society where love and free-thinking are dangerous dirty words. That and punk rock…

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