“Sun Children” opens with a series of striking shots. A montage rifles through images of swanky car hoods as a band of pint-size carjackers try to find their pick in a garage; a boy runs through Tehran, the streets rippling around him like water; kids frolic in a circular pool that, shot from above, sparkles like a blue sun. Majid Majidi’s latest feature doesn’t lack in style or charm, using a child’s perspective — a staple in Iranian cinema — to locate beauty and hope in a cynical world. As is often the case with the director’s work, however, precious…
Browsing: Film Reviews
Since I watched Amélie, the brilliant, romantic and poetic French film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet that carried a treasure of classy humor, I have been exploring the world cinema to find other films that could offer the same qualities. It took almost twenty years for me to watch another film as good as Amélie. NETFLIX’s Enola Holms holds an incredible level of delicate imagination and a wise and clever sense of humor. Enola Holmes is about a clever and independent teenage girl that happens to be Sherlock Holms younger sister. Enola has had a very close relationship with her imaginative…
After falling in love with Money Heist, the NETFLIX blockbuster, I called many of my friends in the film industry and film media in Iran and in Europe to find out if they share my passion towards this series. I was not surprised when most of them agreed with me on Money Heist’s uniqueness and beauty. It has been almost over 35 years that I am writing about movies and TV series and only God knows how many TV series I have watched over my lifetime. (I usually watch between 2 to five episodes of TV shows every day) but…
One of the magics of Netflix is making it possible for millions of people to be able to watch the masterpieces made by great international filmmakers of our time. It is also a favor to the international filmmakers that in the traditional way of film distribution, their films in theaters, could only attract a few thousands of audiences at most. Two times Oscar winner, Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows, which is also his latest film has been available on Netflix in the past few months. Like his other films, A separation and The Salesman, he’s focusing on characters and situations they…
I woke up today to a powerful and beautiful short film by Iranian/Dutch filmmaker, Reza Alamezadeh, My Corona Days Days Tale. This well thought and carefully shot using the social distancing rules by guidance of the filmmaker living in isolation at quarantine at his home from his granddaughter and her family. Reza Alamezadeh’s My Corona Days Days Tale with no doubt is the best short film I have seen so far dealing with our new way of life under the threat of the Coronavirus. Rexza casts a ray of hope to our lives and shows the way to other filmmakers to start…
Not only as a film critic, as someone that is under the spell of the silver screen, I love movies with fresh and new ideas. I rather watch an unperfect film that has a flame inside than a perfect cold movie. That is why watching Soroush Sehat’s Dance With Me! I loved it and enjoyed it, even if it has some flows and could have been even a better film. But it is one of the rare films from new wave of the Iranian films that does not have Asghar Farhadi or Abbas Kia Rostami syndrome. It stands well on…
Bahaman Maghsoudlou an Iranian/American filmmaker, has dedicated his life in recording valuable information about Iran’s contemporary art and culture. Bahman’s films are not only introducing Iranian artists and art to the world, but overtime it will turn into a treasure of information for future generations. I have always admired Bahaman Maghsoudlou for his tireless and continues work, but I had always been waiting for him to prove himself as a filmmaker with certain point of view. And all this has happened with his latest documentary feature, Bahram Beyzaie, A Mosaic Of Metaphors. Bahram Beyzaie,…. is a very powerful, artistic and…
It’s nearly the end of the year—reflecting on your favorite cultural moments of the year, whether in literary, musical, or on-screen formats, is de rigueur. Movies are a big one, but casting your mind all the way back can be a tricky exercise—did that film come out this year? Really? If you need a reminder, here are the films that excited, moved, and tickled us in 2019. https://youtu.be/MnoBx999MZM Everybody Knows Hollywood once led the world in glamorous melodramas, but these days the splashiest ones come from abroad. Take Everybody Knows, a platinum-level soap opera by Iranian Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi. Penélope…
A wandering camera follows a performance crew as they prepare for an upcoming show. This documentary style stops once we get to see an audition taking place, where a few old people are asked to play victims of an incident. They are asked to cry and scream and beg for their lives. The film immediately sets up its tone: It is going to be a dark comedy. I Don’t Care If We Go Down in History As Barbarians (Radu Jude, 2018) is about Mariana, who wants to direct a public performance recreating the 1941 Odessa massacre, or the Odessa Holocaust,…
Cold Sweat is one of those films that is right out of newspaper pages, or in this age, right out of social networks pages. A female futsal player of the Iranian national team (Afrooz) is banned by her husband from traveling abroad to play in a tournament’s final game. The husband is a famous TV show host. This story took place in the real world so recently that is still in the Iranians’ memory with all details and this is the film’s Achilles’ heel. The film does not have much more to offer to its viewers than what they already…