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Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Once Upon a Time in Gaza' Review: An Altruistic but Scattered Palestinian Crime Farce
Directed by the twin duo of Tarzan and Arab Nasser, 'Once Upon a Time in Gaza' is about a collaboration of a different sort: a small-time drug scheme concocted by timid university student Yahya (Nader Abd Alhay) and burly restaurant owner Osama (Majd Eid). Although set in 2007, the well-meaning, tongue-in-cheek drama has a penchant for connecting its setting to the contemporary political zeitgeist, which it vocalizes loudly and overtly. However, its self-reflexive, bifurcated story — about using cinematic images to create a revolution — ends up ironically flaccid. Captured with careful compositional intent, the movie's first half sees Osama, the brains of the operation, sending Yahya to acquire pain meds using forged prescriptions, which they plan to sell by hiding them in pita sandwiches from Osama's hole-in-the-wall falafel joint. As this plot unfolds, it's buoyed by the light and humorous tension of the duo's disagreements — which the Nassers allow to play out to the point of absurdity — and by the corrupt police officer on their tails, Abou Sami (Ramzi Maqdisi). All the while, newspaper headlines and stories on TV tell of growing tensions, as Israel has recently declared Gaza 'hostile territory' and plans to literally wall them off. More from Variety 'Honey Don't!' Review: Margaret Qualley Is Back, with Even More Panache, in the 'Drive-Away Dolls' Companion Piece No One Asked For. But It's Throwaway Fun 'Yes' Review: Nadav Lapid's Blistering Attack on Israeli Nationalism is an Effectively Blunt Instrument Chilean AIDS Drama 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo' Wins Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes The looming presence of this political specter is seldom tethered to the ongoing rigamarole, except in the minor instance of Yahya being prevented, by the Israeli authority, from traveling to the West Bank to see his mother. On one hand, it's impossible to tell a story about modern Gaza without the shifting parameters of its existence coming up in some way. On the other, this seldom has an impact on the movie's larger goings-on. The moral dilemma faced by Osama, as Abou Sami offers him freedom in exchange for a cut, feels suddenly interrupted by each injection of the wider world, instead of the two being interwoven. Granted, there's a minor farcical streak that offers the film a bit of an escape hatch. It begins with recent audio clips from U.S. President Donald Trump claiming to want to turn Gaza into a private riviera, alongside recent clips of Gaza's buildings being razed to the ground. This, in effect, frames even the movie's unrelated, apolitical happenings as being at the mercy of this dangerous future, backed by Western powers. However, none of the news items ever truly feels like a premonition, given their swift and uninvolving appearance, verging on ironic in intent. There's also a greater farce at play, though it takes a while to arrive. The movie's opening images are of a low-budget production filmed in-world, called 'The Rebel,' billed as the first action movie shot in Gaza. It plays like a joke at first, but comes back around in the movie's second half, which pivots almost entirely to the actual making of this movie — about a heroic armed resistance — in which Yahya finds himself involved through sheer coincidence. This seeming act of fate recenters the movie's Hollywood-inspired title and images. Up to this point, a number of scenes feel inspired by major Hollywood influences, from 'Pulp Fiction'-esque banter to music that echoes Nino Rota's score for 'The Godfather' to a surreal close-up that mirrors the opening of 'Apocalypse Now.' These aren't references for the sake of reference, but rather, a seeming attempt to reckon with the dueling influence of American culture and American politics, with the former helping Gaza's filmmakers to build their images and identities, and the latter funding weaponry used to destroy them. The movie seems to shift in focus, toward the creation of revolutionaries as a cinematic idea, but it soon discards all these meta-textual flourishes in favor of a final act built around even more acts of destiny, which ends up going awry. Using coincidence to get a story going is one thing, but unless nihilism is the point and purpose — à la Coen brothers' 'A Serious Man' — using coincidence to end a story as well can be incredibly unsatisfying. This, coupled with the movie's refusal to fully dive into its characters' desires for vengeance (when things become especially violent), renders 'Once Upon a Time in Gaza' more facsimile than homage or self-reflection, and more distant observation than rigorous, tongue-in-cheek inquiry into life under occupation. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Margaret Qualley Teases Ethan Coen & Tricia Cooke's Continued Lesbian B-Movie Trilogy
Despite the lackluster reviews and box office performance of last year's Drive-Away Dolls, Margaret Qualley is re-teaming with Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke. As the 2x Golden Globe nominee reunites with the filmmaking couple on Honey Don't!, she recently teased her role as the titular gay private detective Honey required her 'to be a little more suave than I am, more mysterious,' in the upcoming second installment in their lesbian B-movie trilogy. More from Deadline Margaret Qualley To Reteam With Ethan Coen On 'Honey Don't!'; Aubrey Plaza & Chris Evans Also Set For Focus Features Comedy 'Drive-Away Dolls' Review: Ethan Coen Teams Up With Game Cast For Wacky Lesbian-Driven B-Movie Crime Comedy 'Blue Moon' Review: Richard Linklater's Broadway Chamber Piece Looks Back To A Lost Time And Mourns A Lost Soul - Berlin Film Festival 'I tend to want to defuse things before they even happen. [Whereas] Honey, she's like honey — she's skillful, she's smooth, she is slipping in and out undetected,' Qualley told i-D, explaining that she had to deny her 'natural Scooby-Doo' instincts in bringing the detective role to life. 'No girl needs to be taught how to be a detective,' she added. 'Women know what's happening even when they don't know what's happening. I remember in my early twenties, especially, my investigative skills on Instagram were really out of control. It's a combination of tools, craft, and gut instinct.' Qualley praised Coen and Cooke, noting that their time collaborating has been 'unlike anything else I've ever known. They respect and love each other so much. I love the world that they're living in.' After the couple revealed that they were making a queer spiritual trilogy that includes both films, Qualley said of the potential third and final installment, 'I have not read a script and I haven't been contacted. But let the record show that if I'm not in [the third film], I will be offended and I will be upset.' Ahead of Drive-Away Dolls' February 2024 release, Deadline exclusively revealed that the trio would next team up for Honey Don't! at Focus Features. Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans are also set to star. According to i-D, Evans plays a questionable church leader at the center of Honey's investigation. Best of Deadline 'The Last Of Us': Differences Between HBO Series & Video Game Across Seasons 1 And 2 'Ransom Canyon' Book Vs. Show Differences: From Quinn & Staten's Love Story To Yancy Grey's Plot Everything We Know About Netflix's 'Ransom Canyon' So Far
