Favorite films
Don’t forget to select your favorite films!
Don’t forget to select your favorite films!
The movie felt like a missed opportunity. It was jarring to see this world depicted in the present day when the events it was inspired by happened in the 80s and 90s. This just made the film feel forced and fictional and without any basis in the true drama of the city. The power of the book was its realism and the way it spun real life events into a journalistic and dramatic narrative. I think the director should have found a…
I like New York through this German lens.. It still feels like a unique place especially compared to the endless towns of the interior that the movie begins with but it doesn’t feel completely exceptional (Even though this is how the main character seems to view America as a whole). The vibe is everyday and normal, just as it is when the characters move on to Amsterdam and the German towns.
Hisham’s Harlem. The director himself is a French born Algerian, a testament to the magnetic effect the neighbourhood seems to have on Francophone 3rd worlders. Seen through his lens it becomes a meeting place for global flows and imperial legacies, an African post colony alongside Goree, the Casbah of Algiers, and the Parisian suburbs. It was released just months before 9/11 so everything feels more organic, grounded and less buzzy to me, from the prewoke reckoning with slavery and identity to the street level vibes that point more towards the 80s and 90s than the decades that were to come
Was one of my favourite movies when I first watched it 7-8 years ago. Seeing it again removed the shine a bit. These days the 2000s settings carry it for me. Kinda nostalgic