President Donald Trump released his farewell speech on Tuesday afternoon, saying he will pray for the success of the forthcoming administration. âWe are -and must always be – a land of hope, of light, and of glory to all the world. This week we inaugurate a new administration and pray …
Read More »Pop art representation of Muslims still falls short of expectations
In 2017, Emmy-winning actor and activist Riz Ahmed gave a speech in Parliament about diversity on screen. âRepresentation is not an added thrill [because] what people are looking for is a message that they belong,â he said. Soon after, the Riz test â the equivalent of the Bechdel test for the representation of Muslims in …
Read More »The Unruly âTenetâ in the House: Christopher Nolan on Art after-before-after the Empire
Iâve been struggling to write a review of this little sci-fi action masterpiece Tenet (2020) for quite some time now if only because itâs such a hard movie to understand. And Iâm saying this as a sci-fi buff whose watched and read his fair share of reverse flow time travel …
Read More »Many Faces of Eve: Mackenzie Davis on the State of Americaâs Female Union! – PART III
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD CONTINUED from yesterday… A Parting of Genders, a Meeting of Minds? When I began to dream up this article some time ago Iâd stumbled onto a fan of MDâs on Twitter, a fellow Arab, Nayli Yasmeen (@nayli_yasmeen), and we got to talking about …
Read More »Many Faces of Eve: Mackenzie Davis on the State of Americaâs Female Union! – PART II
 By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD CONTINUED from yesterday… Everybodyâs âBestestâ Big Sister Now Christian Papierniakâs little masterpiece Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town (2017), which he also wrote. I could write a whole book about the movie and still not get completely to the bottom of it. I …
Read More »Many Faces of Eve: Mackenzie Davis on the State of Americaâs Female Union! – PART I
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD âI myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute.â — Rebecca West âThe more identities …
Read More »Lessons from the Flophouse: Late night cinema and picking on the wrong species of helpless white male – Part II
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD âAn artist should be as impartial as God.â — Wyndham Lewis âThe summary of the advice of all prophets is this; Find yourself a mirror.â — Shams Tabrizi Well, as luck would have it, some time ago Iâd written a review …
Read More »Lessons from the Flophouse: Late night cinema and picking on the wrong species of helpless white male – Part I
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD âWith most people, not describable as artists, all the finer part of their vitality goes into sex. They become third-rate poets during their courtship. All their instincts of drama come out freshly with their wives. The artist is he in whom this emotionality …
Read More »Escaped Nissan executive wanted Hollywood movie about his sotry
A Turkish jet executive on trial over Carlos Ghosnâs dramatic escape from Japan told a court on Friday that the former Nissan (7201.T) boss spoke about Hollywood making a movie of his getaway as he flew in a private jet to Beirut. Ghosn, once a leading light of the global …
Read More »The Follow-Up of Follow-Ups: What does the lighter side of an alien invasion-abduction have in common with Hollywoodâs crisis of manhood?
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD I have written an article a long time ago about a horror-SF movie I watched largely against my will, Dark Skies (2013), which fits into my longstanding research on sexual anxieties and alien abduction scenarios. Iâd been thinking of writing a follow-up for some time …
Read More »Pakistanis erect statue in honour of legendary Turkish hero Ertugrul
Residents of the Pakistani city of Lahore have erected statues to commemorate a medieval Turkish leader, a sign of the growing popularity, and cultural impact, of a television series imported from Turkey depicting the origins of the Ottoman Empire. The series, Ertugrul Gazi, which ran in Turkey until 2019, is …
Read More »Decoding the Male Gaze: The Good, the Bad, and the Worse… in Light of the latest Terminator movie!
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD âIt is very true that one cannot always go by the principles of Marxism in deciding whether to reject or to accept a work of art. A work of art should, in the first place, be judged by its own law, that is, …
Read More »Joker: Politics isnât everything in this not-so-new age Gotham City
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD Iâve steadfastly avoided watching any of the Batman and Batman-related movies after The Dark Knight Rises (2012), which was incredible, but Iâd heard that there were security procedures being taken against Joaquin Phoenixâs Joker in the US itself, so I simply had to go!! …
Read More »A Call to Arms: Egyptâs âAl-Mamarâ and the New War of Cinematic Attrition
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD I havenât been to a movie theatre for quite a while now, let alone to watch an Arabic movie. But, I couldnât resist this time, with Sherif Arafaâs Al-Mamar (or The Passage) portraying one of those sadly forgotten battles during the war of …
Read More »Klaus Kinski â Toshiro Mifune â Dhanush Kasturiraja: State of Madness And Art of Madness
By Gouthama Siddarthan* If a debate is initiated on the art of histrionics in the world cinema, it will pivot on German personality Klaus Kinski. Shunning the acting style born out of a directorâs dictation, scenes which break out from the inner inspiration can be seen in the film, âAguirre, the …
Read More »Prasanna Vithanage: A Political Proof of Western Cinema
 By Gouthama Siddarthan* The famous school of post-modernist art and literary thought enjoins one to study a work of art not only from just an artistic perspective but also from a multi-dimensional viewpoint which will ferret out the subtle features of the work. We are living in a criticsâ …
Read More »Whatâs the boon youâre asking for?
By Gouthama Siddarthan* My recent article about Washerman community had got more attention. Following that, whether the washerman people around the world will come under in ‘Community’? What is their life condition? In the context of which the answers are not available, it is a small Anthropology walk. About …
Read More »Can a Horror Be an Evilma?
By Gouthama Siddarthan* — Speculative fiction has, of late, been catching up in the world of writing which is highly enamoured of it. But there is a great danger of this fascination falling into the groove of popular legal thriller. The danger bristles with the risky possibility of …
Read More »Memory Check: â7 Days in Entebbeâ tries to set the record straight, four decades later
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD Typically for me, after watching and debunking The Angel (2018), I couldnât help but watch 7 Days in Entebbe (2018) by a director I really do not like, JosĂ© Padilha, on account of the mess he made with the Robocop (2014) remake. I thought, …
Read More »The Pigeon Hole of Peace: Taking Down Israelâs âAngelâ on the Silver Screen
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD* Just watched The Angel (2018), the so-called Ashraf Marwan story (President Abdel Nasserâs son-in-law), purely out of curiosity. And Iâm glad to say I did not like it. Thatâs not just on account of my personal and political biases. Marwan Kenzari, playing the aforementioned son …
Read More »Wajib (2017): A Palestinian Road Movie for a Nation Caught Between Two Ages
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD* Just got invited to watch a wonderful little movie at the Cairo Cinema Days festival. The invite came from the Palestinian Womenâs Union no less, and quite a lot of the organiser at the event were from BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions]. As you can …
Read More »Why does the US have so many child brides?
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-41727495/why-does-the-us-have-so-many-child-brides Angel was 13 when her mother forced her to marry and start a family. “I felt like a slave,” she says of her childhood. While countries like Zimbabwe, Malawi and El Salvador have recently banned child marriage, it remains legal in the US – and half of states have …
Read More »Blade Runner 2049: Running on Empty After a Too Long Wait
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD Well, I canât say that I was surprised that I didnât like Blade Runner 2049. Iâd sussed its weak points out early on whilst watching the trailer. And if a trailer canât make something look good â and trailers can make anything look good â …
Read More »UN blacklists Saudi Arabia-led military coalition for killing or injuring hundreds of children in Yemen
The United Nations has blacklisted the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition in Yemen for killing or injuring 683 children, and attacking dozens of schools and hospitals. The coalition had been briefly added to last yearâs blacklist, and then removed by then-UN chief Ban Ki-moon pending review. At the time, Mr Ban accused …
Read More »British Power Plays â You’ve Only Got ‘6 Days’ to Make a New World!
By Emad El-Din Aysha I watched 6 Days initially with some hesitation since it was about a hostage situation involving Muslim terrorists. It tells the true story, the untold story, of the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London and the technically brilliant SAS operation that saved the day. The …
Read More »Oscars: Palestine Selects ‘Wajib’ for Foreign-Language Category
Palestine has picked Annemarie Jacir’s Wajib as its official contender for the 2018 Oscars in the foreign-language category. The film, which premiered in Locarno’s official competition, where it won three independent prizes, pairs father and son Mohammad Bakri and Saleh Bakri for the first time, teaming the celebrated Palestinian actors …
Read More »Hezbollah on the roll in eastern Lebanon, ISIS expelled from a number of hills
VIDEO: Hezbollah on the roll in eastern Lebanon, ISIS expelled from a number of hills
Read More »UPDATED – Ridley Scottâs Alien in the Cupboard!
By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhDÂ Finally forced myself to watch Alien Convent (2017). I wasnât impressed by the âcontentâ of the trailers for the movie (see below) with the cute cast and the apparent rehash of the original horror format (with the unsuspecting âdopeâ getting impregnated by the …
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