Malalai is not only a politician - she also serves as a counsellor and and lawyer to the locals, offering advice to a young girl of 13 who is in danger of being forced into marriage with an opium dealer old enough to be her grandfather, and to a married couple whose marriage is being destroyed by a husband who is an opium addict. At one point she sits down with the opium dealer in an effort to talk him out of forcing the young girl into marriage (he already has multiple wives) and although we certainly don't side with him, we get to see that perhaps there is more than one side to this story and that although the father of the young girl wants to protect her desperately he may not have been completely honest with Malalai about what he accepted in exchange for his daughter. It is heart wrenching to see this young girl come to Malalai pleading for help, not wanting to marry this man and saying that if worse comes to worse she would rather set herself on fire than marry
The performances all around were fantastic, with Bishil effectively conveying the innocence and confusion of a 13 year old girl, and Macdissi fascinating and funny to watch as he vacillates between authoritarian tyrant and extremely dry comedian. Eckhart was great as well and IMHO took a heck of a risk playing the role of a pedoph
In the end the family manages to at least partially gain back the trust of the art world by finally documenting on film themselves Marla creating a painting called "Ocean" from start to finish. Although that particular painting does share similarities to prior paintings, it actually seems less sophisticated than those that have come before. Since then they have documented another painting from start to finish called "Rain", which does seem to be closer to the style of the earlier painti
My Kid Could Paint That is a documentary directed by Amir Bar-Lev, exploring the story of Marla Olmstead, a 4-year-old abstract painter whose work garnered international attention and considerable market value. The film examines the ensuing media frenzy, accusations of fraud, and the ethics of exploiting a child prodigy for commercial gain, while questioning the authenticity and value of modern
There is no sense of self-awareness of heroism however, only a feeling that she is doing what she can because she can. She is an amazing woman, doing what she knows to be right despite many assasination attempts on her life and the constant threat of de
Martin Scorsese's Hugo led the way with eleven nominations, stacking up many a nod in the technical categories, while Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist was close behind with ten total. Academy members clearly love a good homage to the magic of old-fashioned cinema - be it a Hollywood flick set in Paris or a French production set in Hollywood. Moving o
It remains to be seen if this is something that will plague the Oscars for the next handful of years or is merely a blip on the radar. Looking ahead to 2015's award season (I know, bear with me...), there are offerings from filmmakers including Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and David O. Russell among others that could prove to be more lucrative endeavors than the crop we just got. The Academy will spend the next 12 months figuring out how to retool their telecast, but the odds of a ratings boost are in their fa
I really believe that director Deborah Kampmeier was earnestly trying to bring attention to the subject of sexual abuse of children, but I don't think showing a 12 year old girl acting seductively and peppering the Film Festival Games Rankings|Https://Moviefestivalhub.Com/ with scenes of her in her underwear was the way to go about
Hounddog takes place some time in the late 50's or early 60's in the rural south. Dakota Fanning plays Lewellen, a very precocious 12 year old. It seems that right from the start the goal of the film is to make viewers uncomfortable as it opens with a scene between her and a boy that looks a bit younger that is her best friend. They're in the woods and she wants him to drop his pants and underwear for a peek in exchange for a kiss. She talks about wanting to kill her father, which led me to believe that there may have been some sexual abuse going on, but it's never alluded to ag
The other issue that some will raise is the bloated nature of the telecast. Beginning at 8:30 p.m. EST, Sean Penn didn't announce that Birdman had won Best Picture until 11:48 p.m. In between all the awards being handed out, viewers were expected to slog their way through comedy bits that arguably fell flat, musical performances, and several commercial breaks. In this day and age, fans can find out who wins in real time via social media and see any speeches they're interested in watching online shortly after the original telecast. The need to see the show live has decrea
So you've heard all the talk, accusations and screaming about the film Hounddog (or as many spelling-impaired people are writing it: Houndog ) screening at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival starring Dakota Fanning but haven't seen the film. The big question on people's mind is "Just how outrageous or explicit was that rape sce