Infinite Icon: A Visual Memoir review – Paris Hilton’s act of self-love shows there’s nothing behind the mask

A look behind the scenes of the star’s second album turns out to reveal exactly what you’d expect, at arduous length Paris Hilton here presents us with an unbearable act of docu-self-love, avowedly a behind-the-scenes study of her second studio album, Infinite Icon, and where she’s at as a musician, survivor and mom. But maybe there is, in fact, nothing behind the scenes; judging by this, the scenes are all there is: Insta-exhibitionism, empty phrases and show. Hilton’s second album no doubt has its admirers and detractors, and her fans are perfectly happy with it. But this film, for which she is executive producer, is an indiscriminate non-curation of narcissism and torpid self-importance that seems to go on and on and on for ever; the longest two hours of anyone’s life, finally signing off with a splodge of uninteresting and unedited concert footage. Continue reading... from Film | The Guardian https://ift.tt/BNvDRxa via IFTTT

The Teacher review – a Palestinian educator is troubled by his radical past

Saleh Bakri commands the screen as a teacher promoting nonviolence, who falls for British volunteer Imogen Poots while trying to protect a student looking for revenge

Here is a drama-thriller from British-Palestinian film-maker Farah Nabulsi, set in the West Bank: a geopolitical vale of angry tears. There is some pretty broad-brush storytelling here, but it is really well acted, particularly by its male lead, Saleh Bakri, who might be remembered from his performance in Elia Suleiman’s autobiographical film The Time That Remains, playing the director’s father Fuad. (I also remember him in the 2013 Sicilian mob thriller Salvo.)

Here Bakri plays Basem, a hardworking, idealistic and careworn Palestinian teacher of English, estranged from his wife (who is now living in Hebron) and troubled by his past. Basem has evolved away from his former life of radical resistance, now espousing nonviolent action; he is therefore deeply worried by a neighbouring boy and pupil Adam (Muhammad Abed Elrahman) – almost a son to him – whose house has been bulldozed and brother shot dead by a settler, and who now wants to take bloody revenge. Meanwhile, Basem is starting to fall poignantly in love with a volunteer teacher from the UK called Lisa (Imogen Poots), cheerfully nicknamed “Miss United Nations” by the pupils, and his whole story unfolds in parallel with that of a kidnapped IDF soldier, whose freedom is contingent on the release of over a thousand Palestinian prisoners.

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