DTFF

[belishabeacon]

I know I'm not in Doha anymore, but filmfests always get me in a giddy mood, aso I'm so excited about the DTFF!!!! Be sure to post your reviews, and I hope at least one of us here gets to walk the red carpet!

[Qatarcat]

And if someone goes to watch tennis, I want to hear from you too!!

[unanimous]

we might be hanging out in the city center for most of the day/night today! ;D got four films to watch today, three tomorrow and then 2 on sunday.

must do a bag check today and bag should contain the ff:
1. comic book to read in between films
2. visine - or any sort of eye balm.....maybe a cucumber! if you anyone sitting in the coffee shop in the city center today with cucumber on their eyes....just walk along people!!
3. pillow? ....not yet sure on that, but we'd be watching until the last screening!!
4. taser gun .... should there be pesky ones with their mobiles on.

GOOD PLAN!!

here's our list and justifications:
1. Capitalism - it's the easiest to watch, got no other movie showing alongside it - bad reviews but what the heck - this one sold out so lots of people into the spirit of the filmfest is watching it, so that should get you into the filmfest mode! ...we gave the red digital carpet thing a pass - were watching southpark and ab fab last night!lol!

2. London River - it has london! it has bombing! it has river! heard it's decent and plot is interesting!

3. Harry Brown - It has michael caine and i liked gran torino and hot fuzz - there's something about badass pepaws that's quite entertaining to watch!

4.Big River Man - It looks funny and i wanna end the night on a light note!

5. About Elly - Im having second thoughts about this one, i thought this was something else! I'ts an iranian film and ive not seen a good one yet so i dunno know...i hope it's not a soapeperaishhh. im suspish of critically aclaimed melodramas, but whaddaheck!

6. SEPTEMBER ISSUE - Helloooooooooo....anna wintour and grace coddington are like my batman and robin in the fashion world!!! this and samson and delilah is actually the reason why i was glad tribeca came here!!!

7. SAMSON AND DELILAH - im not really into duos on films but i heard good reviews about this one - drug addicts inlove have a soft spot in my heart ;D

8. No one knows about persian cat - this one i actually find interesting. heard bout this film from cannes, it's political so no weeping for this one. if it's a middle eastern film/docu - i'd rather it be political...something with a touch of persopolis is fiiiine....not sure about the music side, but ive heard worse.

9. Serious Man - it better be funny!! ;D

On other updates for you ex-dohaers - imax finally made it here! there's a number of theaters which opened in villagio last week so parking problems should be more dispersed ;D


ON the tennis side:

Only caught one game last Tuesday by Azarenka and Jankovich - man the weather is still quite humid, it's hard to breathe while watchign the game - and not from excitement! game was actually a sleeper, lots of unforced errors and whenever they mention azarenka's name, i dunno why but i kept thinking of anasarca. but i heard the game after that, where venus lost, was much more exciting - bless her previous champion's heart! Wednesday night, a friend of mine who volunteers for the tennis games said there was one tennis racket that seriously got hurt....

more laters gotta hit the groceries, have early lunch and get our butts off to the theaters! i heard nobody counted the seats availability for this festival so there's chance that tickets sold outnumbers the sitting capacity! aaarrrggghhh!!

[Qatarcat]

I am so jealous.. nothing is going on here

[unanimous]

Capitalism

- The thing with michael moore is....he has a point. It's just that his way of presenting it can sometimes get to your nerves. I sometimes find him saccharineish and 'dumbing down', but when he gets past that, it's bearable and you can concentrate on what he's trying to say. I guess he does that coz he thinks those who do not agree with him are dumb? If you're a bonafide liberal or democrat - or at least open to learn other views, most likely you already agree with most of what he is saying or at least can see his point. but if his aim is to give information and educate those who are in the middle or on the opposite side of spectrum, he can try harder.

As a non-american here in the middle east watching this film, I cant be totally symphathetic. All isms has a point and there is not a system yet that does not have its flaws, eventually it's the people who apply them that creates the chaos. greed is inherent to everyone, it takes two to tango blah blah blah. i am never in agreement of blaming others fully for ones follies - and i guess that's what irks me on this film. you have a vote. you can sue people's butt off. you can travel around most of the world without other country's embassies digging into your bank records. you can move around the world just showing up with just your passport. you have free public highschools at least. you can get paid for the job you do - FOR THE JOB, without your employer adjusting your salary because of the color of your skin. you have the right to a lot of things, yet a number of you mess it up, and help proliferate sensationalism, famewhores and reality tv! aaaaaarghhhhhh!!!! anyhoo, back to the docu - it or something like it should be part of people's education.


London River

This film had a good premise. It's about a christian mother who couldnt find her daughter and a muslim father who couldnt find his son after the july london bombing. unfortunately, that is all it's about. this film would have been interesting and have more layers, but somehow it failed to deliver. and gahhh the female character seems one dimensional. good films and good directors have a knack for finding choice scenes that would enable to drive a point and get their audiences involved and connect with the film and it fails to do that. While the male actor was good, it was still not enough to elevate the film.


Harry Brown

This has the movie Taken and Gran Torino written all over it. i kid i kiddddd!!! but only half. but hear this people in doha: THERE WAS NO CENSORSHIP!! for those outside doha, you may not understand it, but you see.....there were kissing scenes! and some pornographic scenes!! im not celebrating those per se, just the fact that at least during the dtff, those were allowed and doha and its people did not self combust!! this movie had dark tones, violence, sex, drugs, for me to call it entertaining seems irresponsible and low. but ironically, michael caine said it himself during the film: it's entertainment. it's not something to ponder on or any of that sort unless you're travelling to UK and wanna scare yourself shitless. it is violence and all forms of what would have shocked us all before as debasement. there was no attempt at moral highground, pepaw caine was a geriatric jack bauer! and my main beef on this film?.....GAH!!WHY!?WHY!?..the female character was soooo annoying. it seems the only way that she can portray her character is by blinking a lot and making her chin and lips quiver!? have you not seen jodie foster or at least agent scully at all?!! anyhoo, it's a nice change to see the grannies getting badass this time although i have to admit it reminded me a bit of spongebob's mermaid man and barnacle boy a bit!

Big River Man

Go see this one for its amazing.....amaaaaaazing....story. strip off the technicalities of movie making and hints of a 'stage son' (you know like the stage mom?see what i did there?!) and focus on his story and it's awe inspiring. throw away his 'navigator' assistant and....actually, ok, he went nuts so he can be excused...but really go see this one as it's an amazing story. we saw this last and it's the only one we stayed for for the Q&A portion....and ...hmmm....wow, i didnt even notice that he was nekkid in the film and i shook his hands afterwards......aheeee!!! i hope they get the $50,000 price and gamble away the money!

[unanimous]

I AM EATING CROW WITH CHERRY ON TOP!!!

I was so wrong about the iranian film "About Elly" - it was well done - execution was tight, plot was simple, but it was quite engaging. it's not soapoperaish at all, but sort of mystery, thriller - without serial killers or evil kids involved.

No One Knows About Persian Cats went more than --- WAAAAAYYYYY - more than my expectations. not to build it up too much for those who havent seen it yet, but i was really impressed with it and enjoyed the movie. Hafta say i have more respect now for the iranian youth.......not that i had none, i just never thought of it one way or another until now! but was really pleasantly surprised and impressed that they have a subculture of musicians who had to go underground to pursue what they like. one of the characters talked like he was on some speed but the rest were kewl. belish, try to catch this one, they were really good players. the actors were just right, quite a pro - they were so kewl it's not like acting at all. the movie used music to tell the story and express social commentaries.....those people were really dedicated and talented. i saw from one of the interviews of the director that the movie put a lot of the musicians featured in it in danger, but they went with it anyways.

Samson and Delilah was a powerful movie....no, the movie does not have super powers and flying and stuff, but it is not a movie of simple statements at the very least. paradoxically, every scene is interspersed with different layers of sound yet almost went on without dialogue, and what little dialogue was spoken by the main characters were spoken in their native aboriginal tongue. it's about a love story of a young aboriginal couple who ventured into the city and ran to even more difficulties than where they came from. movie was unique (at least to me) and shocking at times, and sad, yet still depicts the good side of human spirit, survival and resiliency.

September Issue. what did i say!?! Grace Coddington is sooooooo kewl! this movie is my indulgence. it's like devil wears prada, the docu version. it's sooo awesome watching people who do well in their jobs, it's inspirational. sunday morning when i went to work and i didnt comb my hair...it was an ode to grace coddington!! everytime i'd get pissed off i was like: i am grace coddington and grace coddignton is me....rinse. repeat.

Serious Man was hilarious. It's like a long running joke the entire film. it reminded me so much of quentin tarantino's bar jokes in his movies but like 2 hours long. the coen brothers are one of the masters of bullshit. it is just way funny, it must be fun getting stuck in an elevator with them.

Overall, i really enjoyed this film festival. all the movies we saw were interesting and fun to watch - none of pretentious artsy stuff, but just well put together films in general. harry brown is a no brainer but at least it wouldnt put you to sleep, london river's script was lacking but as i said it's still ok to watch.

we didnt run into much troubles attending dtff - but we got our tickets the second day they started selling so the day itself we just needed to show up at least 15 minutes before time and we only paid 10 riyals for each of the film we watched. only difference is we have the choice to meet people involved in the making of the film - but i am not really into that - i just really enjoy watching movies and appreciate the geniuses who are able to put them together. but was quite honored to shake the hand of the guy who swam the amazon - the dude is apeshit nuts, but somehow 'unconventionally' wise...

the audience in most of the films we've seen seemed theatrically civilized. in the beginning though, a couple of western audience were insisting to seat on the reserved seats......really? must you insist even though the ushers were saying these were reserved for whatever? shaame, thought at least you'd know better...and the usher caved in! aargghh! most agitated audience was while we were watching september issue...gaahhh there was this woman who kept commenting on the movie most of the time, pointing on the personality on the screen introducing them to her companion..this despite the name of said personality is flashed on the screen....wwaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! i was way excited too to watch this film but there's this little thing called: DO NOT BE ANNOYING!!! ;D

the volunteers were hardworking kudos to them. most were kewl except for few who must have been auditioning for a reality show exuding much drama and panic adjusting their headsets....despite that we were maybe like just 20 people lining up....lolol.....was quite funny. i think one was soo strung up, he kept shouting if we have tickets like 4x every time he'd pass by!roflll! maybe next time it would be more civilized to just put up signs with clear, large fonts, so no one has to shout instructions, then just make sure people are not cutting on lines. movie goers side was quite organized i think, at least to the movies we went to watch - doesnt take a genius to line up to your preferred movie then show your tickets right? i heard for the 'privilleged' audience it's another story - but as i said, for us ordinary film watchers, it was quite kewl ;D

hope they have good selections again next year!!

[belishabeacon]

I sooo want to see No One Knows About Persian Cats and September Issue now! Great reviews, off to try to find a copy on the internets!!!