Mother of All Lies (2023) opens Friday

This is a repost of my DOC NYC review

A young woman, her father an neighbors build a scale model of their neighborhood and use it to attempt to come to terms with the Riots of 1981.

This film is kick in the ass. It’s a film with a clever trick to suck us into it- which is to watch Amae El Moudir and her dad put the sets together for the film. We lean in as w try to really see what they are doing. At the same time we listen to them simply discuss what they are doing and get hooked as they turn that conversation into the story itself. By the time we realize what they did we are too far down the rabbit hole to ever turn back.

This is a magnificent film. It’s taking what could have been a run of the mill tale and turning it into an emotionally stunning (in the true sense of the word) film that gets under our skin and moves us.  If you want to know what the magic of the movies is all about see this film. I say that because through the use of sets, puppets, talking heads and genuine magic, THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES bypasses our heads and hearts and burns itself on our soul. It’s a film that shows us that there are no rules when making a film other than doing whatever is necessary to tell your story.

In al seriousness this is a film that anyone who loves film or the movies must see, even if they are not interested in the story because it is so amazing….so much so the story being told will move you

This is truly a great film- buy a ticket and see it.

Mother Of All Lies(2023) Sundance 2024

This is a repost of my DOC NYC review

A young woman, her father an neighbors build a scale model of their neighborhood and use it to attempt to come to terms with the Riots of 1981.

This film is kick in the ass. It’s a film with a clever trick to suck us into it- which is to watch Amae El Moudir and her dad put the sets together for the film. We lean in as w try to really see what they are doing. At the same time we listen to them simply discuss what they are doing and get hooked as they turn that conversation into the story itself. By the time we realize what they did we are too far down the rabbit hole to ever turn back.

This is a magnificent film. It’s taking what could have been a run of the mill tale and turning it into an emotionally stunning (in the true sense of the word) film that gets under our skin and moves us.  If you want to know what the magic of the movies is all about see this film. I say that because through the use of sets, puppets, talking heads and genuine magic, THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES bypasses our heads and hearts and burns itself on our soul. It’s a film that shows us that there are no rules when making a film other than doing whatever is necessary to tell your story.

In al seriousness this is a film that anyone who loves film or the movies must see, even if they are not interested in the story because it is so amazing….so much so the story being told will move you

This is truly a great film- buy a ticket and see it.

MOTHER OF ALL LIES (2023) DOC NYC 2023

A young woman, her father an neighbors build a scale model of their neighborhood and use it to attempt to come to terms with the Riots of 1981.

This film is kick in the ass. It’s a film with a clever trick to suck us into it- which is to watch Amae El Moudir and her dad put the sets together for the film. We lean in as w try to really see what they are doing. At the same time we listen to them simply discuss what they are doing and get hooked as they turn that conversation into the story itself. By the time we realize what they did we are too far down the rabbit hole to ever turn back.

This is a magnificent film. It’s taking what could have been a run of the mill tale and turning it into an emotionally stunning (in the true sense of the word) film that gets under our skin and moves us.  If you want to know what the magic of the movies is all about see this film. I say that because through the use of sets, puppets, talking heads and genuine magic, THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES bypasses our heads and hearts and burns itself on our soul. It’s a film that shows us that there are no rules when making a film other than doing whatever is necessary to tell your story.

In al seriousness this is a film that anyone who loves film or the movies must see, even if they are not interested in the story because it is so amazing….so much so the story being told will move you

This is truly a great film- buy a ticket and see it.

Random thoughts on School of Hope (2021) Hot Docs 2021

The Oulad Buokais tribe in Morocco is one the last nomadic tribes. Almost every other tribe as given up the life because of over decade and a half of drought. Wanting to better the lives of their children they build a small school house and bring in a young teacher. Over the course of the film we watch how the students and teacher bond and how the teacher works to give the kids a better future.

I was moved to tears by this film repeatedly. There were so many moments where we see, I mean really see how educating our children brings hope for tomorrow. And don't get me started about the early scene where the teacher has to explain what hope is. The whole exchange just got me in the gut.

I love this film a great deal. Its a magnificent film that puts us very much in a place with the people on the screen. Its a film that really feels like real life in a way that many documentaries never achieve. Credit director Mohamed El Aboudi with giving us a real sense of where the school is and who everyone on screen is. Most documentaries never achieve that sense of place and sense of people.

Wow. Just wow.

I don't know what else to say other than SCHOOL OF HOPE will give you hope and make you feel good.

Highly recommended. This maybe my favorite film that I've seen that is playing Hot Docs.

Roads (2019) Tribeca 2019

An 18 year old English boy steals his stepfather’s RV while they are on holiday in Morocco and decides to drive it to France to see his real dad. Unfortunately he doesn’t really know how to drive. Fortunately he runs across his a young migrant who has a clue and they end up falling in together to travel across North Africa and Europe.

Roads is something special. At a festival like Tribeca where there are so many slots to fill the programmers tend to fall into familiar patterns in the films they choose. ROADS doesn’t take the road well-traveled by the rest. Yes, on the face of it Roads is the sort of film Tribeca has played before but the execution is different. This excellent story of friendship, coming of age and the migrant crisis in Europe is a small gem of a film. Refusing to take the easy road at any turn the film is grand adventure about the difficult road filled with questionable choices that end up forging who we are and who we call friend. I love that some hard lessons are learned about responsibility and friendship. Mostly I loved that we really can’t predict how this is going to play out. There was a point about half way in when I suddenly realized that I had no idea where the film was going. Yes it had hit some of the expected peaks but mostly this was taking its own path.

This is manna from heaven for any film goer.

Highly recommended.

Monsters (2018) Winter Film Awards 2019

My question about twenty minutes into MONSTERS was why wasn't this on anyone's radar?  Don't get me wrong I love that the Winter Film Awards picked it up but frankly I can't believe that any of the bigger name festivals didn't snap this gem of a film up.

MONSTERS is about three masked men who break into a house to rob it....well...that's what they say but there is a more going on then meets the eye and as a result it all goes horribly terribly wrong.

And that is all I am going to say about the plot because the less you know going in the farther forward on your seat you will be and the more uncomfortable you will become with each new revelation.

Small scale and claustrophobic MONSTERS takes place in a couple of rooms of one house in Morocco.  It has a real feel to it. We feel like we are flies on the wall where something bad is going down. I have no doubt that part of the way it is shot is a result of the budget but writer director Aksel Rifman turns what would have been a minus in the hands of some one else into a positive since the fact that we are largely anchored to a few rooms tricks us into thinking that this is happening in real time right before us.

The performances are all largely on target, and believable. My sole complaint is that one of the bad guys constant flipping of a knife is too much. It feels like he's doing it for the camera as opposed to something his character would do.

Please forgive me if this review reads slightly awkward but I am trying very hard not to spill the beans as to what is happening. This is a taut thriller where layers are peeled  away and the ground shifts as a result. I want very much to to discuss what happens and why this film is so good but I find that with each sentence or paragraph where I try to say something I end up leaking something out, so I cut it out and write something less thrilling.

Trust me this is a nifty little crime story that you really want to see before people start discussing it. Writer director Rifman has crafted a rough around the edges gem that has more heart soul and suspense than most of the big budget films that come from the big studios.

This is one of the finds of the year.

If you are in New York do yourself a favor and get down to the Winter Film Awards tonight and see this great film before your friends and neighbors. Tickets and more information can be had here.

Tangier Assignment (1955)

Legendary stuntman Bob Simmons occasionally took acting jobs. In the TANGIER ASSIGNMENT he takes a lead playing Peter Valentine, an American agent looking for smuggler and killer.

Shot on location as an English financed Spanish production this is a really odd film. The entire cast seems to be dubbed. It looks and feels like the Orson Welles films of the mid-1950's. Simmons leaps around like the heroes in some of the early poverty row like he was  Richard Talmadge in  the 1930's. The whole film seems like it was made in some other time on some other planet. That's not a bad thing rather more a statement that the film has it's own feel.

The plot of the film is nothing particularly special.  It's a story of a type we've seen before. at the same time it can be entertaining even if it is leisurely paced. To be certain the action sequences make this worth seeing, which is enough if you should run a cross it on a rain afternoon.

IMDB lists the film as running  82 minutes but I can't find any reference to the film curently running that long with all prints seeming to be 62.

A few words on Traitors (2013) Tribeca 2014

Malika, lead singer for an all girl punk band in Morocco, has to get money to pay for studio time after a big name producer agrees to produce their demo. After running into various dead ends she decides that perhaps the only way to do it is to make a drug run into the mountains for quick cash.

There is very little to say about this film except its a damn good little film. Starring Chaime Ben Acha in what may very well be a role to super stardom this is a film that grabs you from its first moments and then just goes straight on to the end. Its a just a tense little film that makes you wonder how this is all going to play out.

If there is any flaw in the film it's that the film kind of suffers from a true sense of danger. For whatever reason, despite the fact that you want to know how it's going to turn out, you really don't think that Malika is actually going to die. There is something about the tone of the film that keeps things a couple of degrees lower on the tension scale.

Definitely worth tracking down.

Salvation Army (2013) New Director New Films 2014

Based on director Abdellah Tal's own novel, Salvation Army tells the story of Abdellah,  a young man who leaves his family home to engage in random trysts with various men. The trysts are a means of escape from the unhappiness of his home life. The film then jumps ahead ten years...

I wish I hadn't read anything about the film since doing so set up a  false expectation that got knocked down pretty quick. The material on the film talks about it being about a young gay man's awakening. It is, but the film actually speaks to a larger audience. This isn't a gay film, its a film about a person who feels like an outsider. The feelings are universal. Watching the film I could to relate to the feelings of needing an escape.

The early part of the film is a wonderful look at Abdellah's life. There is a tactile nature to it where we feel not only the emotion but other things. We're in his house, and on the trip. We can almost smell and taste and feel it all physically. The e is the often repeated motif of washing that runs through the film. People wash themselves and each other. The sequences are extremely intense and frankly almost sexual in nature. Its rare that any film makes one feel as this one does...

Or does for the first hour or so.

At the point the film hits say the 55 minute mark it all implodes. Leaping a head to 10 years the film loses focus. Now we are with an older Abdellah. He is involved with a professor, but something has happened between them things aren't right. The film jumps through time and place and is extremely disorienting as the film rushes to a conclusion as if the director ripped out whole chapters from his novel and tossed them aside. We are thrown into the relationship between the two men with no explanation. Things happen then there is a shift to Geneva after more months have passed.  He's too early for classes, he meets the professor and there is a confrontation that means what exactly?

The real head scratcher of the final 25 minutes is the singing of the song that ends the film, what is it and what is it suppose to mean? The print I saw did not subtitle the lyrics so that the words, which clearly meant something to out hero, are lost. What is in them that provokes his reaction?

For me this odd choice not to reveal the lyrics completely sank the film.

To be honest I loved the first hour of the film. I thought it was great, and I was ready to hail it as one of my finds of the year. However as soon as the film lept ahead it became the wrong sort of obtuse, not explaining how we got here, nor giving us enough to work out what its suppose to mean (and I mean that on a level more than just missing lyrics)

Talk about crash and burn.

The film plays March 27th at Lincoln Center and March 28th at MoMA. Details and tickets can be found here.

Camera/Woman (2012) Human RIghts Watch FIlm Festival 2013

Khadija is divorced—she earns her living as a wedding photographer in Morocco. Pressured by her mom and family to remarry, she's torn between their wishes and the fact that she is the breadwinner of the family. She is also torn by what she wants for herself. Over the course of the film what feels she has to do to provide for her family collides with what the family expects for herself.

The film is made up of video shoots intercut with sequences showing Khadija's home life, where long deep discussions occur. Many of the questions that face Khadija are ones that face many women in the world, however, they are complicated by the society in which she lives.

More a slow and deliberate slice of life than a rip-roaring expose, this good little film is bound to suffer in comparison to the rest of the films at Human Right Watch Film festival. Not because it's a bad film, only because it's a film that takes a little bit to connect with the audience. It's a film that gains its strength once Khadija opens up and talks about her life and feelings with her friends. This is a film that rewards an audience with patience.

If there is any (minor) flaw in the film its a sense that while the emotion is real, some of the situations are not. What I mean by that I felt as though the people in the sequence were arranged and then set loose to talk, or walk or do. For me, the film felt more like a well staged drama rather than a document of real life.

The film plays Sunday and Tuesday where it is paired with Going Up the Stairs. Details can be found here.