Recap: April 2021

roundup

Nomadland continued dominating the award season; Taylor Swift released the rerecording of Fearless; and more international news from the month of April

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- Nomadland won the Best Film trophy at every award ceremony that was held in the known universe.

- Production of the second Downton Abbey film commenced. The sequel will be out in time for Christmas because something good finally has to happen this year, right? RIGHT?!!

- The release of the Top Gun sequel was delayed for the 9271835th time.

- Nia Vardalos confirmed that a third My Big Fat Greek Wedding film is in the works, leaving us all with the question: there was a second My Big Fat Greek Wedding film?!

- There is going to be a fifth Indiana Jones movie? Meh.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has joined the cast of the fifth Indiana Jones movie? Ok, now we’re listening…

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- More anachronistic corsets and striking sideburns are coming your way. Star Regé-Jean Page may be out but the show’s creator Chris Van Dusen confirmed that Bridgerton has been renewed for a third and fourth season, even before the unveiling of its sophomore outing.

- Apparently it takes three years to make a dozen or so episodes of Stranger Things. Fans were not pleased when Finn Wolfhard revealed that we will have to wait till next year for our reunion with the residents of Hawkins. The previous season was released two years ago; that’s 24 in dog years, which is pretty much how long it feels in human years as well.

- The MacGyver reboot was cancelled. It ran for five seasons, so basically five seasons longer than it should have.

- Dominic Purcell was either angry or upset or joking or trolling the press as he announced his departure from DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

- Hank Azaria, who voiced Indian character Apu on The Simpsons for decades before stepping away from the role earlier this year, apologized for reinforcing negative South Asian stereotypes.

- Just when we thought we were finally getting rid of them, Kim Kardashian revealed that her famous family will now have a new show on Hulu that will premiere after Keeping Up with the Kardashians ends. Woe is us.

- There was drama in the world of beauty pageants. Mrs. Ireland, Kate Schneider, was appointed Mrs. World 2020 after reigning titleholder, Caroline Jurie from Sri Lanka, took the crown off the head of the 2021 Mrs. Sri Lanka World winner, Pushpika De Silva, claiming she was divorced and ineligible to win, leaving us appalled by the fact that beauty pageants are still a thing.

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- Following her Scooter Braun masters drama, Taylor Swift released the rerecording of her 2008 album Fearless. Swifties rejoiced, because, being fans of Swift’s music, they clearly like listening to slightly different versions of the same song over and over again anyway.

- Following the release of a YouTube documentary that covered, among other topics, her near-fatal overdose in 2018, Demi Lovato unveiled her first album in four years, Dancing with the Devil... The Art of Starting Over. She then got into a feud with … a froyo shop (!) because … they sell options catering to dietary restrictions … which somehow triggered the singer who has battled an eating disorder.

- The Wallflowers, Twenty One Pilots, The Black Keys, and Steps all announced new albums.

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- Rapper DMX died at the age of 50 after reportedly suffering an overdose that resulted in a heart attack.

- We also lost the lovely Helen McCrory, who died of cancer at age 52.

- Prince Philip, the longest serving consort in British history, passed away at age 99. The fallout from Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah, meanwhile, continued, although the problematic prince did reunite with his family for the funeral of his grandfather.

- Ashley Cain’s eight month old baby daughter Azaylia’s battle with terminal leukaemia broke everyone’s heart.

- Harvey Weinstein, currently incarcerated in New York, was indicted on sexual assault charges in California.

- The downfall of Armie Hammer continued. After dropping out of pretty much all his upcoming film projects, the actor – who is under investigation for sexual assault – will now no longer star in the Broadway play The Minutes.

- After trying to squash breakup rumours weeks earlier, J.Lo and A-Rod changed their minds and broke up. 

- Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song had a baby … is a sentence guaranteed to instantly make you feel old.

- Dwayne Johnson might run for U.S. President. Matthew McConaughey might run for governor of Texas. Caitlyn Jenner might run for governor of California. 

The rest of us might run away to another planet because this one is just getting ridiculous at this point.

- By Sameen Amer

Instep, The News International - 25th April, 2021 *

In the picture: Love and Monsters

movie review

With its amusing tone and touching relationships, Love and Monsters makes for fun viewing

Love and Monsters

Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Jessica Henwick, Dan Ewing, Michael Rooker, and Ariana Greenblatt

Directed by: Michael Matthews

Had the coronavirus pandemic not thrown a spanner in the works, we would have had the chance to watch Love and Monsters in cinemas earlier this year. But instead of its intended big screen release, the film has now arrived for streaming on significantly smaller screens via Netflix. 

Seeing how impressive the film looks visually might leave you wishing you were watching it in a movie theatre instead.

The dystopian comedy adventure takes us to a post-apocalyptic world where giant mutated creepy crawlies – from cockroaches and spiders to crabs and frogs – have taken over the planet, sending the decimated human population into hiding. Among the survivors is Joel (Dylan O’Brien), a young man who has spent the last seven years living in an underground bunker with a colony of people, all of whom have paired up. All, that is, except him.

The lovelorn Joel – who has an unfortunate habit of freezing when faced with danger – finally decides he must venture out of the safety of the bunker and go on a quest in the hopes of reuniting with his pre-apocalypse girlfriend, Aimee (Jessica Henwick).

His journey is, of course, riddled with peril. But he fortunately finds quite a bit of help along the way as he encounters a plucky dog named Boy (played primarily by the wonderful Australian Kelpie Hero), a damaged Mav1s robot (voiced by Melanie Zanetti), and two fellow travellers, survival expert Clyde (Michael Rooker) and his young sidekick Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt).

It’s in his relationships with those who cross his path that the film truly excels. The premise isn’t exactly fresh and the route the movie takes is fairly predictable, but the writers make sure that you stay invested in the adventure through the strength of the relationships and interactions. Joel and Boy make wonderful companions. Minnow is endearing, and, surprisingly, so is Mav1s; you know a movie is doing something right when even a robot manages to elicit emotions from the audience.

The timing of its release – an apocalypse movie in the middle of a pandemic, one that suggests we should venture out of our bunkers? – may not be perfect, but with its impressive world-building and delightful Zombieland-like vibes, Love and Monsters makes for fun, entertaining viewing. Here’s hoping that by the time the inevitable sequel arrives (they’ve built a sturdy base, now they need more inventive stories), the circumstances will be more favourable and we’ll be able to watch it in all its visual glory on the big screen.

Rating: 3 out of 5

- By Sameen Amer

Instep, The News on Sunday - 25th April, 2021 *

Aria - Iran's Doctor Zhivago?

book review

Book: Aria

Author: Nazanine Hozar

Reach for just about any book on your shelf and you will find a couple of enthusiastic blurbs on its cover. Each line of praise will try its best to draw you towards the novel, each recommendation raising your expectations of what you are about to read. And when that endorsement comes from an author as well-known as Margaret Atwood, who compares the book to a tome as celebrated as Doctor Zhivago, you are bound to think that what you have in your hands is the next literary classic.

It is with these high expectations that we are introduced to Aria, Iranian-Canadian writer Nazanine Hozar’s debut novel and, as per Atwood, “a Doctor Zhivago of Iran.”

True to the comparison, the novel attempts to deliver a sweeping drama set against the backdrop of political turmoil, as the Iranian revolution collides with a young girl’s life. But the result, ultimately, isn’t quite as riveting as you might hope.

Spanning nearly three decades, Aria opens in the early 1950s in a turbulent Tehran and ends in the early 1980s, soon after the downfall of the last Shah of Iran and the instatement of Ayatollah Khomeini as the country’s Supreme Leader. At the centre of the tale is the titular protagonist, who experiences several trials and tribulations through the various stages of her life, just as the winds of change are sweeping her country.

The book is divided into four main parts, the first three of which are named after her three maternal figures — “a mother who left her, a mother who beat her, and a mother who loved her but couldn’t say so” — while the last reflects Aria’s own journey of motherhood (although none of the sections fully focuses on the character it is named after).

As the novel begins, a newborn infant is abandoned in an alleyway, from where she is rescued by a kind army driver, Behrouz, who names her Aria, “after all the world’s pains and all the world’s loves.” Not pleased with her husband’s decision to adopt a discarded, blue-eyed, red-haired baby, Behrouz’s wife, Zahra, treats the child cruelly, raising her with abuse and neglect.

A series of events eventually lead Aria to her next surrogate mother, the affluent Fereshteh, who provides the girl with a significantly better home and upbringing, but remains emotionally distant. Behrouz and Fereshteh soon start sending the young girl to help out the impoverished family of a woman who, unbeknownst to Aria, is her birth mother, Mehri.

Her parents aren’t the only source of complications in her life. Drama follows Aria wherever she goes. Her friendships — from her childhood pal Kamran, to schoolmates Mitra and Hamlet — all lead to misfortune in one way or another. And then, of course, there is the socio-political turmoil shadowing every turn of the story, as a revolution alters the life of every character in the tale.

Hozar displays a talent for bringing a complex setting to vivid life, and her ability to create unique, fascinating characters shines throughout the novel. Many interesting individuals appear in the proceedings, such as Aria’s friend Kamran — who makes beaded bracelets for her — or Kamran’s father, Kazem, who injures and infects his hand, but continues working as a bricklayer. Or Rameen, a captain in the army who forms an entanglement with Behrouz. But these characters don’t always get the satisfying arcs they deserve. Instead, they often just disappear till the story needs them again.

It is peculiar that, despite all the melodrama constantly surrounding her, somehow Aria is not the most intriguing character in her own book. Far from it. You get the feeling that someone such as, say, Rameen, has a much more interesting story to tell, if only Hozar would let him tell it.

The novel’s scope, perhaps, is a little too ambitious. The author populates her yarn with too many characters and weaves a tapestry that doesn’t quite cohere. Pacing issues plague the narrative, as the story goes from a laconic build-up to a rushed wrap-up. Some incidents are described in more detail than seems necessary, while others don’t get the space they require. Plus, the dry, distant prose makes it hard to stay absorbed in the events or really connect with the strong, but flawed, protagonist.

It also doesn’t help that, all too often, the most important development in the book relies on contrived coincidences (especially towards the jarring end) and the characters behave in ways that don’t seem entirely credible.

Where Hozar excels, though, is in creating a fascinating portrait of a complex nation — one inhabited by Muslims and Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians — on the precipice of change, her vivid descriptions relaying the stark realities of a divided region and poor populace. You will, however, need prior knowledge of the historical developments and figures to fully understand the depth and breadth of the various settings and situations.

All in all, Aria may not be an instant classic, but it certainly has its merits. The story would have benefited from some fine-tuning and the novel could have used some editing, but it is still likely to please readers who enjoy slow-paced, character-driven family sagas and are both knowledgeable about, and intrigued by, Iran’s culture and history.

- By Sameen Amer

Books & Authors, Dawn - 11th April, 2021 *