Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Review:
Ajami, at the southern end of Jaffa/Tel Aviv in Israel, is a district made up of poor Arabian families, both Christian and Muslim. The film follows several characters as they make their way there, in a world where crime often seems like the only option and everything can change at any minute. Central is the story of a family whose eldest son fears to be killed for what his uncle did after his neighbour is mistakenly assassinated. The story spreads from there and is sadly told in such a confusing fashion that the ultimately satisfying pay-off, when the different threads come together, is too late to save the film. Nevertheless, it is a ruthlessly realistic look at a world that is governed by principles, both religious and political, that are hard to comprehend to an outsider and have lost all reason for those living in it.
Random Observations:
Ajami at the IMDb
The film was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film, but lost to the Argentinian entry El secreto de sus ojos. This was the third year in a row that an Israeli film was one of the five nominees.
Directed by two young directors, one a Jewish Israeli, the other an Arabic Christian. The film is largely in Arabic, although some passages also deal with Jews and thus are in Hebrew.
Tags: 2009, Abu George Shibli, Ajami, crime movie, Drama, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Elias Saba, english, Eran Naim, Fouad Habash, Hilal Kabob, Ibrahim Frege, Israeli Film, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Nisrine Rihan, Oscar, Ranin Karim, Scandar Copti, Shahir Kabaha, Yaron Shani, Youssef Sahwani
Posted in Minute Movie Reviews, Movie Reviews, Movies | No Comments »
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Award Season is Crazy Season. If you follow these things at all, you have been bombarded by information about the superiority of one film above another for months now. If you blissfully ignore all that stuff, you might even not have heard that a producer on The Hurt Locker is in trouble for trying to convince Academy voters to vote for his film instead of Avatar. His crime: sending an e-mail to his friends. Yes, things are crazy. So it is a good thing that with the Oscar telecast on Sunday, Award Season will be over. Until May or so, when the first discussions for next year’s favourites and winners will begin once more.
But before the Oscars, the most important of all the meaningless awards, are handed out on Sunday, it is time for my annual Oscar predictions. Last year, I picked 19 of the 24 winners. This year, let’s try to improve on that. But unlike last year, this year I actually feel like I am entitled to my own opinion, having seen 20 of the 58 animated films, 18 of the 38 feature films, and actually having seen all nominated films in three categories. So not only will I now predict the Oscar winners as promised, I will also tell you who should win. (Yes, my opinion constitutes objective truth in these matters.) The following list is ordered rather randomly and incomplete, an alphabetical and complete breakdown of all categories and predictions follows at the end.
(more…)
Tags: 2009, 2010, A Matter of Loaf and Death, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Aardman Animations, Ajami, Alessandro Camon, An Education, Anastasia Masaro, Anna Kendrick, Armando Iannucci, Avatar, award season, Bob Peterson, Carey Mulligan, Caroline Smith, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Plummer, Coen Brothers, Colin Firth, Coraline, Crazy Heart, Das Weisse Band, Dave Warren, Disney, District 9, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, english, Ethan Coen, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Faubourg 36, Gabourey Sidibe, Geoffrey Fletcher, George Clooney, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Helen Mirren, Henry Selick, In the Loop, Inglourious Basterds, Instead of Abracadabra, Invictus, James Cameron, Jason Reitman, Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, Jesse Armstrong, Joel Coen, Kathry Bigelow, La teta asustade, Lee Daniels, Logorama, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Marion Cotillard, Mark Boal, Matt Damon, Mauro Fiore, Meryl Streep, Mo'Nique, Morgan Freeman, Movies, Neill Blomkamp, Nick Hornby, Nine, Oren Moverman, Oscar, Paris 36, Penélope Cruz, Pete Doctor, Pixar, Precious, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, Quentin Tarantino, Randy Newman, Sandra Bullock, Sheldon Turner, Sherlock Holmes, Simon Blackwell, Stanley Tucci, Star Trek, T-Bone Burnett, Terri Tatchell, The Blind Side, The Door, The Hurt Locker, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Messenger, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells, The White Ribbon, Tom McCarthy, Tony Roche, Un Prophète, Up, Up in the Air, Vera Farmiga, Wallace & Gromit, Wes Anderson, Woody Harrelson
Posted in Movies | No Comments »
Loading ...