As Jafar picks up passengers, meets friends, and runs into others, key political and economic issues get discussed. The film feels realistic, much like the conversations and performances in “Before Sunset” and “Conversations with Other Women” have the ring of real interactions. But even as the film touches on imprisonment from unsubstantiated charges, interrogation and torture, rampant crime, and government censorship of films, it does so with a light touch. Because the characters treat these things as commonplace, as casual conversation topics, we understand just how deep the problems run. And Jafar remains an affable presence even as some of his passengers’ actions would try anyone’s patience.
Film Reviews
Here you will find every film review we've written. These include: festival films, new releases, and older films.
3000 Nights explores motherhood behind bars
Mais Masri’s 3000 Nights was a highlight of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, a film by a female director that flew largely under-the-radar. Check out our coverage of other great films directed by women here. Mai Masri’s 3000 Nights shares some plot points with the TIFF audience-award-winner, Room: an unjustly imprisoned woman finds new hope and […]
Born to Dance is a winning Maori Hip Hop Musical
f the sub-genre Maori Hip Hop Musical isn’t enough of a hook to get you to see “Born to Dance,” let me add that it’s heaps of fun. Like a cross between “Bring it On” and “Billy Elliot,” there’s plenty of dance talent on display in this film.
Granny’s Dancing On The Table is a great debut
Easily the winner of the “most evocative title of the festival” award, “Granny’s Dancing on the Table” tells two stories: the present-day struggles of thirteen-year-old Eini (Bianca Engström) who lives alone with her abusive and religious father in rural Sweden, and Eini’s accounts of her grandmother’s (Karin Bertling) colorful adventures in decades past.
Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) ends with a whimper
Éva Husson’s Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) finds a sweet romance in a tale of teenagers these days and their orgies. The film opens on a pubescents-gone-wild party in a small-town mansion in France. The camera pans around the room to reveal that couples are having sex in the open, people are sitting around naked, […]
Victoria is a trying tale of an endless night of excitement
In the last act of Victoria, the male protagonist Sonne (Frederick Lau) asks a quivering man, who has obeyed his orders made at gunpoint, “Just how stupid are you?” I burst out laughing. It’s a tense moment, but the entire film has been an exercise in finding out just how stupid Sonne, and his infatuated […]