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Reviews
Excuse My French (2014)
Nice but..
I liked the film, it was super artsy and enjoyable, except for a couple of bits that felt cheesy (even with the context of satire). The musical choices and soundtrack were honestly exhausting and repetitive and had a very generic vibe, like stock music (I was very surprised to find out it was original).
I really liked the art directing and the cinematography, but the editing fell a little short for me, because some scenes felt dull (maybe it was the lack of music or intentional), but they kinda drag and bored me.
The final sound mixing of the film made it very uncomfortable to watch on a big screen. The sound levels were off and the general quality was poor (I understand it's an indie production but still).
Overall it was a nice experience and the storytelling was decent.
Salma's Home (2022)
Ok.
The idea of the film (brining the three women together under one roof) is great but it was executed poorly. The best part of the film was Juliet Awwad's performance. I was hoping that Rania Kurdi's performance would get better as the story moved forward, but unfortunately it got worse to the point where it got embarrassing. She basically based the character on a mix of previous comedic characters she played and it was very, very, bad.
The twist in the film could have been hidden and withheld better, rather than having it partially exposed in one of the dialogues ahead of its time.
It was an okay experience overall.
Streams (2021)
Watched it at an AIFF Screening
I liked it, but I felt it dragged on more than it should have. It had a lot of unmotivated scenes that could have been cut out to make the film slightly shorter. The dialogues in a lot of scenes felt expository and "told more than it showed".
The chase scene that led to the climax of the film honestly felt like it led to nowhere and was kind of disappointing,
AlRawabi School for Girls (2021)
Loved it.
As someone who is really hard to impress, I am honestly quite bedazzled with the series in general. The premise of the show isn't really original (dare I say trite) and shares the tone and aesthetic of numerous high school dramas, but it came through as original because of rather local setting (which I personally think it could have been showed more). The plot and the structure of the story felt almost seamless and were sewn quite tight, except for the occasional over-dramatization of a couple of events. A main culprit that most of local productions fall through is the weak dialogues that feel translated right from English, and "Al Rawabi" was no exception. A lot of lines that sounded uneasy. The performances were pretty good if you take the weak dialogue out of the equation, yet a few stood out, like Rakeen Saad's, who in my opinion, carried most of the show, performance-wise. The way she managed to work around the weak lines and deliver them perfectly was quite impressive and is worth noting. Regarding the production and set design, they really did add a beautiful layer to the show, but I found them to be taken a tad too far with some unrealistic sets and the abundant use of the pink color palette. Overall I really enjoyed watching it and it definitely took Jordanian filmmaking to another level. Chapeau bas to everyone who worked on it and I really hope a second season goes into production, as the story has so much potential to be further explored.