Just Like Us, Dream Home, and My Brothers at the TFF!
As the festival continues, I have been watching so many movies I don’t have the time or the energy to update on every single one. And, as it is not BananaWho’s stance to bash emerging filmmakers, I will only be giving you the highlights.
Just Like Us
I have been waiting for a movie exactly like this to come along. Not since Persepolis has a movie made such a bold attempt to humanize the people of the Middle East to the Western world. Directed by the stand-up comedian Ahmed Ahmed, Just Like Us documents a troupe of stand-up comedians of diverse ethnic backgrounds through a whirlwind comedy tour of the Middle East. The tour had two aims: to reach out to the people of these war torn nations through the healing power of laughter, and, by way of film, to emulate the way the African-American stand-up comedy scene helped bridge the gap between black and white cultures in the U.S. Just Like Us briefly examines the way Middle Eastern culture has been skewed in the American media, from a long history of representing villains in cartoons and kids movies as turban-wearing Jafar-types, to showing how naïve the general public is about the range of Middle Eastern and Central Asian cultures. But the movie only waxes social-activism for long enough to set a backdrop for the comedy tour, and focuses less on the “look how unfair this is” aspect and more on the “look what we can do to change it.” Through Dubai, where there is a long list of what the comedians cannot say on stage, to Beirut where anything goes, to Saudi where entertainment is illegal, to Egypt, Ahmed Ahmed’s motherland, Just Like Us is educational and perennially funny. I highly recommend this doc!
Director: Ahmed Ahmed
Dream Home
This one really got my attention. Although I can’t say I particularly liked it, Dream Home definitely has something to offer the horror crowd. (Not to be confused with Open House which has nothing to offer anyone. Whoopsie! Broke my own rule.) I would equate this to the Chinese version of American Psycho, if Patrick Bateman was a woman and fetishized real estate instead of business cards.
From the opening credits to its last dying breath, Dream Home has a sharp stylistic presence and a humorous yet caustic stance on the fierce struggle for success among upper-middle class professionals in Hong Kong. Set in a Ballardian concrete jungle, Cheng Li-sheung has been saving her whole life for the dream apartment she can’t quite afford. But she is an industrious young lass, and she soon realizes she can drive down the property value and lower the building’s occupancy rate if she can just kill off enough of its residents.
This gore is sincere, creative, and borderline-offensive. (Actually, let’s just call it offensive.) It is so realistic I covered my eyes for more than half the film, but it somehow avoids Hostel-style torture porn. After all, Cheng is a busy woman with a job to do.
Writer/Director: Ho-Cheung Pang
My Brothers
Three Irish brothers take to the road to replace their dying father’s wristwatch. Don’t you love such an unassuming premise? A story like this relies on great writing and soulful performances, and My Brothers succeeds on both fronts. It is a rare road movie that can pull it off, but My Brothers avoids the guitar-scored montages that bash you over the head with the bittersweet freedom of the road, but still guides three brothers at different stages of life through their own metamorphoses. My favorite narrative film so far.
Director: Paul Fraser
Writer: Williams Collins