I saw this film at Sundance, and after I stopped expecting a traditional plot, I was able to relax and enjoy the many wonderful moments that the filmmaker created. It opens with a naked Middle Eastern artist wearing only a head-scarf, discussing her bikini area with her assistant, a funny and direct take on the complexities of feminism and political radicalism in art that seems very much of this moment. In fact, the whole film seems to take place in a bubble of time that has since burst -- post 9/11, during the height of Bush-era paranoia, before the economic collapse and Obama, when jet-setting leftists gave voice to trendy ideologies at exclusive nightclubs and art galleries. It's unclear how much director Zeina Durra is lampooning her subjects, but that very ambiguity makes the film all the more interesting.
The plot is relatively thin -- a friend of the main character, Asya, has disappeared in what may be a government rendition. He's engaged to a blonde model, Tatiana, who drinks herself into a stupor to cope. Asya meets and falls in love with a wealthy Mexican ex-pat. There's little overt drama to any of these scenes, and once you get used to that, they're fun. The actress Marianna Kulukundis is a real treat as Athena, providing much of the film's comic relief.
The film doesn't say much politically -- war is bad, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is bad, Israel should not bomb Lebanon, immigration is good. We agree, but that's besides the point. The film's lack of a strong political message mirrors Asya's own work -- she wants to say something political, but really she's just standing before us naked, with a nicely groomed Bush. Instead, what's interesting is the window Durra opens onto a very specific world of young New York elites -- not the boarding school WASPS of movies like Metropolitan, but a hodge-podge of the world's upper crust. The irony of their status -- politically disenfranchised but economically privileged -- lends a certain comedy to the whole movie. Asya sits in a limo, eating petit fours and discussing government surveillance. Later, her Mexican boyfriend "surveils" the conversation of her housekeeper, an altogether different class of immigrant.
Now for the spoiler. In the end, we don't find out what happened to Asya's friend. There's no real ending per se, the movie just runs out of things it wants to show us, and stops. Considering this is Durra's first film, and she already has another one in the works, it seems like a great place to pause and take a breath.
The plot is relatively thin -- a friend of the main character, Asya, has disappeared in what may be a government rendition. He's engaged to a blonde model, Tatiana, who drinks herself into a stupor to cope. Asya meets and falls in love with a wealthy Mexican ex-pat. There's little overt drama to any of these scenes, and once you get used to that, they're fun. The actress Marianna Kulukundis is a real treat as Athena, providing much of the film's comic relief.
The film doesn't say much politically -- war is bad, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is bad, Israel should not bomb Lebanon, immigration is good. We agree, but that's besides the point. The film's lack of a strong political message mirrors Asya's own work -- she wants to say something political, but really she's just standing before us naked, with a nicely groomed Bush. Instead, what's interesting is the window Durra opens onto a very specific world of young New York elites -- not the boarding school WASPS of movies like Metropolitan, but a hodge-podge of the world's upper crust. The irony of their status -- politically disenfranchised but economically privileged -- lends a certain comedy to the whole movie. Asya sits in a limo, eating petit fours and discussing government surveillance. Later, her Mexican boyfriend "surveils" the conversation of her housekeeper, an altogether different class of immigrant.
Now for the spoiler. In the end, we don't find out what happened to Asya's friend. There's no real ending per se, the movie just runs out of things it wants to show us, and stops. Considering this is Durra's first film, and she already has another one in the works, it seems like a great place to pause and take a breath.
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