DesertTalkies Film Reviews!

 Whitney Houston:  I Wanna Dance With Somebody [2022] Starring: Naomi Ackie, Nafessa Williams, Clarke Peters Dorection by Kasi Lemmons Language: English And here is the third and final installment of my airplane movie watching. This movie first came on my radar in December of 2022, but I never got the chance to watch it because I was on holiday when it was in theatres, and the country I was visiting wasn't showing the film. By the time I got back, the movie had swiftly exited the movie timetables. This flight was my chance. I have been obsessed with Whitney Houston for years, and I thought it was high time that a biopic came out celebrating her life. I don't care what the critics have said, but I loved this movie. And any true Whitney fan would love it too.  Everyone knows Whitney Houston, one of the biggest music stars in the 1980s and 1990s in the US. A figurehead for African-American representation in the music industry, Houston broke all sorts of records to ascend to ...

 Bi-Madar [2022] Starring: Pejman Jamshidi, Mitra Hajjar, Amir Aghaee Director: Seyyed Morteza Fatemi Language: Farsi 'A finger is sometimes cut by a blade, sometimes with a piece of glass, sometimes with a knife, sometimes with a piece of paper. But all bruises are different from one another. Some cuts are a never-healing pain.' If this little snippet doesn't give you an idea of what this movie is like, I don't know what will.  Nobody knows how to show class divide in a film like the Iranians. Here's installment two of me watching foreign language movies on my flight.  One would think that motherhood is universal, and this movie, if anything, proves that. The story follows Amirali and Marjane, a wealthy couple living in urban Iran. Marjane longs for motherhood, whilst Amirali is passionately against it. However, this changes when Marjane finds a surrogate, Mahrouz, who is a poor, single woman trying to escape from an abusive relationship with her brother whilst sim...

 Love Life [2022] Starring: Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada Direction by Koji Fukada Language: Japanese Watching this movie was a product of a) not knowing what else to watch on the plane on the way to my vacation, b) knowing that I would like to start watching movies in languages I have not had experiences with, and c) being too tired to sleep. My first perception of the movie was very different to what I actually thought of it - the movie's poster on my seat's screen was quite colourful, whereas the film explored pretty dark themes of failed marriages and relationships, familial issues, and premature deaths with a lack of acceptance. It was very strange, because I feel like there was nothing completely stand out about the movie: nothing really excelled (in my opinion), but the direction was very cohesive and so everything came together quite nicely. Sometimes, a good watch is not something that has to be 'the best', but something that is good overall.  This...

THE LAST QUEEN [2022] Starring: Adila Bendimerad, Dali Benssalah, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Imen Nouel Direction by Adila Bendimerad & Damien Ounouri Language: Arabic I can't lie: I tend not to enjoy historical films when they are set in time periods before the mid-1850s. I don't know why: it's just a personal preference, I guess. But the timings worked out for me so I went to see it. My only real motivation was the fact that the movie centered around a woman, unafraid to challenge stereotypes. Seeing characters like this on the big screen is always fun - and I am grateful that I dragged myself to see the movie, because it was amazing.  The film, set in early 16th century Algiers, follows the story of the pirate Barbarossa, masquerading as a 'liberator' Aruj, as he tries to convert Muslim land to Christianity. He penetrates into high Algiers society, but, he must overcome obstacles to reach his goal: most notably Queen Zaphira, the wife of the late King Salim Toumani...

  Persepolis [2007] Voice acting by Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Sean Penn, Gina Rowlands  Direction by Marjane Satrapi & Winshluss, Based off the original graphic novel by Satrapi Language: French I find it difficult to comprehend the fact that somebody like me, who is so into foreign film, different styles of filmmaking, and global affairs in general has not known about this production for so long. All I can say is that, after watching the movie, I regret all the years that I have lived ignoring its existence - it is fantastic.  The very fact that this movie was animated meant that the complex themes of the divide between the west and the east, the idea of hidden identity, difficult marriages and strict regimes were reduced to a point where they were intelligible and easy to empathise with, and was yet incredibly compelling and a tad mysterious, which I loved.  On a personal level, this movie resonated with me a lot. I am also from a country that is t...

  Kannathil Muthamittal [2002]  Starring  Direction by  Language: Tamil My friends have often told me that there is a stereotype with south Indian, especially Tamil, films. She told me that they are often incredibly overdramatic, and are unrealistic to the point where they lose a lot of its value. I thought that this movie would be quite relaxed, an uplifting thing that I could watch. The description described that of a girl's struggle with finding out that she was adopted, and the first few scenes were very serene. However, never would I have expected that the movie would bring such a domestic issue into one of high-stakes warfare.  The movie was just so unrealistic to the point where I was left guessing the entire time. In what world would an Tamil-speaking family go to Sri Lanka in the midst of a giant civil war? How did they escape various bombings? How did they survive a forced army evacuation in a small, rural village? How did the daughter in the film mana...

  First They Killed My Father [2017] Starring Sareum Srey Moch, Phoeung Kompheak, Mun Kimhak, Sveng Socheata  Direction by Angelina Jolie  Based off the novel by Loung Ung  Language: Khmer  This was the most singularly harrowing movie that I have ever seen. It is often the case that when famous actresses of celebrities direct movies, they are either awful or missing key elements. Therefore, I was positively shocked when I watched this movie: I found that this movie had so much depth and so much complexity: so much that directors such as Spielberg would envy.  Firstly, the subject of the movie was so, so interesting. I claim to have a general awareness of the conflict in Cambodia at the time, but after seeing this I realised that there was so much I didn't know. It was so compelling, especially considering that it was filmed from the viewpoint of an innocent child. Seeing the transition of the main family from a life of urban happiness, to migratory distress...