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Alice (2019)
Many artists around the world, in many languages, have written heart-wrenching stories about women getting into (not those who are trafficked) the oldest profession due to utter despair in order to earn a living and save their loved ones. Alice (2019), an award-winning French film is a modern-day, realistic version of this. The film was not about being sensual, but about the hardships and struggles faced by Alice, the Protoganist who was a loving and caring wife being cheated by her husband both financially and in their marriage. It is available on Kanopy. Married to a hard-working manager in a firm who is also a writer, Alice with a young…
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The Man Without Gravity (2019)
The Man Without Gravity (2019) is an Italian fictional drama about a boy born with the ability to float away if not weighed down. What should’ve been a perfect entertainer gets bogged down by covering familiar issues. The film gets a Mangoidiots rating of ‘Raw’ and is available on Netflix. Born to a single mother in a village in Italy, Oscar has the supernatural ability to defy gravity and float. To hide his secret from the villagers who might then outcast them, his mother and grandmother keep him mostly indoors and home school him. Many years later when he grows up as a man, how Oscar adapts to the world…
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Wadjda (2012)
What a simple yet inspirational film this was! The first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, that too by a female Saudi director in her debut film: Wadjda (2012). It was about a little girl who wants to buy a cycle and race with it against her neighbour’s boy. In a conservative society like Saudi, this was not so easy. The film traces her journey. Wadjda is a 10-year girl living in Riyadh with her mother who works in a school that requires a long commute and her father visits them once in a while. She is friends with a boy named Abdullah of the same age next door.…
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Corniche Kennedy (2016)
Corniche Kennedy (2016) is a French drama about a bunch of teenagers over a summer enjoying themselves on the beaches of Marseille, France. In the beginning, the film impresses you with its authenticity but later slides into cliche territory. Hence it gets a Raw rating from Mangoidiots. It is available for free viewing from the Institut francais website till the 10th of April 2021. The film by director Dominique Cabrera starts on a highway bridge overlooking the sea below. A bunch of kids are risking a jump from there to a depth of several tens of feet. These are kids from the poorer background of the town, they are just…
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Lulu femme nue (2013)
Lulu femme nue (2013) is a French comedy-drama about the midlife crisis of a housewife who runs away from her home & kids while travelling outstation for a job interview. Even with brilliant acting by the protagonist Lulu, because the film feels familiar throughout, it fails to jazz you. Still, it is a good watch due to its simplicity. It is available for free viewing from the Institut francais website till the 10th of April 2021. Karin Viard plays Lucie (Lulu) who has three kids and a loveless marriage. One day she is in an outstation town appearing for a job interview, where she gets rejected. Due to some minor…
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Double Dad (2021)
Double Dad (2021) is a Portuguese youth comedy film from Brazil that was loveable. It is available on Netflix. Tracing the journey of a young girl living in a remote commune who comes to Rio de Janeiro in search of her biological father, the film was predictable throughout, yet I liked it. It gets a mangoidiots rating of Ripe for being a feel-good film that was unostentatious. Vicenza is living with her single mother in a nature commune. As soon as Vicenza turns eighteen her mother goes on a spiritual trip to India, and after seeing a hidden photo of a man named Paco in an embrace with her mother,…
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Who Am I (2014)
Who Am I (2014) is a German film about a cyber-hacking group run by a group of friends for fun getting caught in dangerous espionage. Rather than show mysterious computer code, the story uses social engineering as the entry point for the hackings that follow – this makes the film understandable to most. I liked the film and it gets a mangoidiots rating of “Ripe”. Available on Netflix. Benjamin Engel is a lonely teenager living with his grandma in Berlin, he is an expert on software and can easily break into any computer system. For popularity, he joins a group of hackers who do harmless pranks to gain social media…
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Train to Busan: Peninsula (2020)
Train to Busan: Peninsula (2020) is a sequel to the famous original film that came four years earlier. It follows a group going back to the Korean Peninsula which has been sealed from the outside world due to the Zombie infection. The film is engaging and thrilling and gets a mangoidiots rating of “Ripe”. It is four years after the apocalypse in South Korea. Captain Jung-Seok and his brother-in-law who are living as refugees in Hong Kong are recruited along with two others by local mobsters to retrieve a truck loaded with currencies of US Dollars from Incheon where it is stuck. Though the outside world has sealed off the…
