Week Ending 9/15/23
Branagh and Christie chug along
It’s wild to me that Kenneth Branagh has another Agatha Christie adaption out today. I was very interested in ORIENT EXPRESS, even going so far as to watch the original, but I just never got around to it. Then came the ARTEMIS FOWL debacle and a BELFAST Oscar before DEATH ON THE NILE hit the Armie Hammer controversy that seemed to derail the whole thing.
Yet here we are with HAUNTING IN VENICE. If you go by his recent pattern of alternating studio pictures with personal pictures, one could argue this is the latter rather than the former. Maybe that’s why it’s happening? Lower budget? No need for glitz or glamor (it has kind of crept up on us with little fanfare)? They’re saying it’s the best yet while also admitting that doesn’t mean much.
Maybe I’ll get to the trilogy some day. With TIFF still at the forefront of my mind (see only one new release review below), however, it won’t be anytime soon.
What I Watched:
REBEL
(now in limited release)
I’ll admit I’m probably focusing on the wrong thing here, but it’s very weird that Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s latest film REBEL centers itself as being about the war in Syria. Yes, it plays a role—a big role—in tearing the Wasaki family apart, but the screenplay by Adil & Bilall, Kevin Meul, and Jan van Dyck never actually talks about it. Not what’s going on. Not who’s fighting who. Nothing. So, to have the final on-screen text be about the war and how many people have been harmed seems somewhat disingenuous since the film completely ignores the Syrian people.
Not only is the family at the heart of this film Belgium, but they hail from Morocco instead. The reason Kamal (Aboubakr Bensaihi) finds his way to Syria is because he’s looking for redemption after forfeiting his late father’s garage to the authorities and leaving his mother (Lubna Azabal’s Leila) to fend for herself and his little brother Nassim (Amir El Arbi). He goes there to help Arabs like him, Arabs who are being displaced by a war fought between ISIL and the Russian-backed Bashar al-Assad regime. I think Kamal joins the white helmets to help save these Syrians caught in the middle, but he isn’t there long enough to find out for sure.
That’s when ISIL takes him by force to fight on their side. Call Kamal a coward if you want, but he decides to try and survive as best he can by telling those in charge he’s good with a camera. The hope is that this task will save him from having to pick up a gun—that he can bide his time until a chance for escape arrives. But the longer he’s there and the more enemies and friends he makes, the odds of that result grow slimmer. Because those who like him are worse than those who don’t. The latter might put a bullet in his head. The former will take him under wing and see exactly how deep his dedication to the cause goes.
And while he’s losing his soul in Syria, Nassim is left wondering who his brother is. A rapper? A drug-dealer? A terrorist? It’s tough to truly know when all he has to go on is hearsay, so it’s no surprise when a local named Idriss (Fouad Hajji) tells him Kamal is actually a hero. Throw enough propaganda Nassim’s way that tells him exactly what he wants to hear and the indoctrination happens fast. Suddenly the boy is clamoring to join his brother on the frontlines. To participate in a jihad that will earn him a place in Paradise. All without ever actually speaking to his brother to try and figure out the truth. Because truth can’t compare to fantasy.
What follows is an intense thriller that moves in time between past and present as well as place between Belgium and Syria. A spark of uncertainty arises courtesy of a mass execution video online before Adil & Bilall start peeling back the layers to contextualize just how wrong preconceptions can prove. Because it’s not just Nassim at risk of being brainwashed. We are too. To see what we see is to think like everyone else in black and white. And we should—don’t get me wrong. The act itself is inexcusable no matter the reasons. Wearing a Nazi uniform only because you don’t want to die doesn’t stop you from being a Nazi.
The complexity of REBEL’s story is thus less about absolving Kamal than it is presenting the tragic ease of recruiting disaffected and displaced youths to a cause in direct opposition to who it is they should be. Even adding a subplot with a kidnapped wife (Tara Abboud’s Noor) doesn’t necessarily make us forgive Kamal for not shooting himself in the head. It’s simply another way to highlight how much worse this nightmarish situation and ISIL’s brutality can get. The notion that Adil & Bilall are throwing everything at us to coax an emotional reaction out is why I’m not harping solely on the ways they exploit Syria to tell that tale. This is a sensory experience to hopefully get you wanting to learn the details elsewhere.
It’s a powerful one too. With long-takes and stunningly choreographed music video-esque interludes, the filmmakers are using every cinematic trick in the book to overwhelm us into investing in the Wasakis’ plight. And it works since we do care about what happens. Yes, a lot of their troubles are a product of their own actions in a “you control your own luck” sort of way, but the world they live in does them no favors. I might have liked a bit more of that (like Leila accusing the police of letting ISIL recruit because it means less Arabs for them to worry about), but Adil & Bilall stick to their hands off treatment to stir us into action and leave our self-initiated education for later.
- 7/10
Cinematic F-Bombs:
This week saw GHOST TOWN (2008), POLITE SOCIETY (2023), SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS (2023), TRAITOR (2008), and WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY (2022) added to the archive. Always interesting to see which PG-13 films got multiple f-bombs. Wouldn’t have thought GHOST TOWN. And we’re not talking about one being muffled either. They got two in all their glory. cinematicfbombs.com
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 9/15/23 -
CAMP HIDEOUT at Dipson Capitol; Regal Transit & Quaker
A HAUNTING IN VENICE at Dipson Amherst, Flix, McKinley & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
THE INVENTOR at AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
MARK ANTONY at Regal Elmwood
OUTLAW JOHNNY BLACK at Dipson Capitol; Regal Galleria
THE RETIREMENT PLAN at Dipson Capitol; AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
Streaming from 9/15/23 -
EL CONDE – Netflix on 9/15
ELEVATOR GAME – Shudder on 9/15
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT – Netflix on 9/15
A MILLION MILES AWAY – Prime on 9/15
ROTTING IN THE SUN – MUBI on 9/15
“When ROTTING IN THE SUN is funny, though, it's very funny. Its pieces might overshadow the whole, but some of them are so good that sitting through the rest becomes a necessity.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
SUPERPOWER – Paramount+ on 9/18
THE SAINT OF SECOND CHANCES – Netflix on 9/19
YOUNG LOVE – Max on 9/21
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
GOOD BOY (9/9)
APORIA (9/12)
“APORIA feels akin to PRIMER in that way. Not as heady, but there are definitely aesthetic parallels. Merge that film's intelligence with the aching heart of LITTLE FISH and you get close to anticipating the vibe on-screen.” – Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
BARBIE (9/12)
THE COMMUNION GIRL (9/12)
FINAL CUT (9/12)
THE GETBACK (9/12)
THE HILL (9/12)
JULES (9/12)
KING ON SCREEN (9/12)
SHORTCOMINGS (9/12)
“So, while SHORTCOMINGS is objectively funny, it's also quite heartbreaking in the ways in which it depicts just how willing the Bens of the world are to stubbornly sabotage their own happiness than admit they're to blame.” – Full thoughts on HHYS.
TALK TO ME (9/12)
THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY (9/12)
VENUS (9/12)
YOU RESEMBLE ME (9/12)
MY ANIMAL (9/15)
RETRIBUTION (9/15)
A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE (9/15)
From the press kit archive:
