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Showing posts from June, 2013

Movie Critic Article: King of Cool

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Edward Morehouse was a student at HB studio in the early fifties. Coming from class one day, he was climbing down the narrow, dilapidated stairway when a rather messy-looking fellow with grease-stained clothes pushed by him. "Hey! Your fly is open," the fellow called. Morehouse looked and sure enough, it was. He had hurriedly changed out of his costume after presenting a scene and neglected to zip up. Morehouse turned to say, "Thank you"- and saw that the boy's jeans were riding dangerously low. "Hey! Your ass is out," he called. And Steve McQueen laughed. From then on, they called each other "Bare Ass" and "Smart Ass." Morehouse was Smart Ass because Steve had noticed something about him: Morehouse always carried with him a book or two. Over greasy corn beef and dime beer at Louie's, Steve would quiz Morehouse on what he was reading and why, what it meant. They were an odd pairing, the scholarly, genteel Morehouse and t

UFO Text: Cinema By Yahya Fadlalla

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Cinema Yahya Fadlalla * Y. Fadlalla Sakral Joe had two options. To share with as little as he had in coins in buying a can of Celsion. Actually, he did not have enough to pay a matching share. Shaitan Doe, his good friend, would appreciate his situation. The other option was to give up the idea of buying the can and try to wet the piece of cloth that lay in his pocket from the gas tank of the nearest car that was unheeded by some one, especially that gasoline had a stronger effect than Celcion. This way he would be able to buy a third class ticket and enjoy the cowboy film which was showing that night at Banet cinema house. Only a ticket could beat the huge guy nicknamed Amigo who was the ticket controller at the entry and also the cinema thug. Joe had a series of fights and had tried various tricks to infiltrate the cinema house but he had always had his tricks foiled by this giant of a beast who kept a constant eye him. Joe had always been under so much surveilla

Movie Critic Review: The Attack 2012

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Article by: Amal Mustafa The Tarantino Crew Member Shocked by Arab Boycott! Arab-Israeli Art and Artillery! Ziad Doueiri L ebanese filmmaker Ziad Doueiri is back on the international scene with a new movie  The Attack .  His previous movie  West Beirut  had met with great success and awards. The Attack which is based on a novel by Algerian writer  Yasmina Khadra , has been banned from Lebanese theaters as a large part of it was shot on location in Israel and its cast included Israeli actors! The debate is still on as to whether it will be allowed to screen it in Lebanon and other Arab countries. The movie is a bold attempt at tackling the same old daring questions about the Arab-Israeli conflict. But how does the movie present these questions? Who is shocked in the shock of  The Attack?  Who is the culprit? When innocent kids are killed who is the freedom-fighter and who is the terrorist? Can sacrifice and patriotism be reduced to mere comma

MovieGlobe: Iranian Farhadi at Cannes 2013

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This article is based on a Facebook post by Amal Mustafa "The  Past " , a movie by Iranian movie maker Farhadi is one of the most powerful movies to be seen this year 2013 . Farhadi's "A Separation" had won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Movie in 2012 after a fierce competition  with the Israeli movie "Footnote".  Farhadi went on to win the Golden Globe Award for that year and more. He was announced as one of the hundred most influential people in the last ten years!     The carefully written script for "The Past" is accurately executed for each sequence to tell a layered story that invokes unanswered questions. The f ilm is an analysis of the self, psychologically and existentially,  which  makes it utterly beautiful and spiritual. It bears a closeness in style to Farhadi's award-winning "A Separation" but differs from it in the subject matter, in cinematography and in the language o

Movie Critic Review: Darfur Now (2007)

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"How do you overcome hatred? some got the stupid idea that they are better than others because of the color of their skin, or religion; they are being consumed by shameless pride, become monsters... Darfur, Rwanda, Sarajevo and many more. How can you make human beings out of such horrific monsters?" A reader's comment. "This was a great documentary and it was extremely sad. After watching this its hard to believe that people in america still complain about stupid things when these people in Darfur would do anything to come to america. Its good to see that Don Cheadle and George Clooney really want to do something about the genocide. Even if you don't like documentaries I would still suggest this to you." A reader's comment. Don Cheadle Darfur Now "Hard to watch but impossible to turn away from, Darfur Now aims to educate, illuminate, and, most of all, motivate viewers to somehow get involved in bringing the calamitous situation in that A