Category Archives: Entertainment

Nadine Labaki’s New Movie, Where Do We Go Now (W Halla2 La Wein), Wins Best Film at Toronto Film Festival

Lebanon, WE REPRESENT! Finally!

Nadine Labaki’s new movie, set for a Thursday release in Lebanon, has shocked everyone by winning the People’s Choice Award for best movie at the Toronto Film Festival. To put this in perspective, Slumdog Millionaire and The King’s Speech won this award before their Academy Award rampage.

This festival is renowned for picking movies that end up winning big in award shows, so my hope for a Lebanese nomination for Nadine’s movie at the Oscars has suddenly exponentially increased.

Telling the story of the women of a closely-knit town, where people of both Christian and Muslim faith coexist, trying to keep their town united, the movie debuted at Cannes without winning anything there. However, it came out on top at this festival beating other movies like George Clooney’s The Descendants, thought by many to be his best work to date and Sundance winner Like Crazy.

Is anyone suddenly more excited than they could possibly be to watch the movie Thursday? Cause I sure can’t wait for Thursday to come.

And if the movie is as good as some Lebanese who already watched the movie in Paris are saying, I think we’re all in for a treat.

 

For my review of the movie, click here.

Crazy, Stupid, Love – Movie Review


Oh Crazy, Stupid, Love how high my expectations were for you.

In my head, Emma Stone can’t go wrong in a movie. Especially after the awesome Easy A. Put her in a mix with Steve Carell, Julianne Moore and Ryan Gosling and the movie result shouldn’t be that bad, right?

Wrong.

Crazy, Stupid, Love was atrocious.

Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) and Emily Weaver (Juliane Moore) are a not so happily married couple out on a date when the wife blurts out that she wants a divorce and that she has cheated on him. Five minutes later, they are divorced and living in separate homes. So naturally, like any devastated husband, Cal goes out to one bar over and over again, repeating his sad story so everyone can hear, over and over again. It is then that he catches the attention of the bar’s prime womanizer Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling) who decides to give Cal a makeover and become his wingman. Soon enough, Jacob’s efforts succeed and Cal starts hooking up with every woman he can get.

At the same time, Jacob meets Hannah (Emma Stone), an aspiring lawyer preparing for her Bar examination and sooner or later, the two fall in love. Add to the mix Cal and Emily’s son having a crush on his older babysitter who has a crush on his dad, Cal. And then Cal sleeping with his son’s teacher, played by Marisa Tomei and you get a sense of what Crazy, Stupid, Love is.

Perhaps it’s the super weak script, perhaps it’s the unclarity that faces the film but Crazy, Stupid, Love had too many things going for it. And it failed to deliver on every single account, even on the laughing part. Sometimes, a comedy movie gets you to laugh. But at the end of the day, you can say it wasn’t a good movie. What if a “comedy” movie doesn’t get a chuckle out of you and is a bad movie? That’s Crazy, Stupid, Love right there.

Out of the bunch of actors and actresses in it, Emma Stone is probably the best. And no, I’m not biased. She delivers the movie’s rare funny lines and gives life to her character that all the other characters lack, and it’s not really the actors’ fault. Julianne Moore has such an underdeveloped character that it could have been omitted altogether. Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell lack chemistry as the movie’s main protagonists. The cast should have known better than to take on such a project.

The movie, moreover, has not one but two directors. It’s hard for me to believe how two “creative” heads thinking about making one movie could miss the mark in the way that they did. And none of it is fun to watch. The pace drags and lulls like the rickety joints of an arthritic ninety year old man.

And the script. Let’s talk about how ridiculously cliche the script is. There’s one point where one of the characters blurts out on screen: “Rain… how cliche.” Care to guess what happened before the rain? Yes, there was a fight. Sometimes, screenwriters can turn a cliche idea and make something good out of it. After all, not all aspects of life are out of the box. This is not the case here.

Crazy, Stupid, Love’s title is a very wrong representation of the movie. At least two thirds of the title. No, it’s not crazy. It’s as tame as movies go. No, there’s nothing to love about it. And yes, it is totally stupid. The movie’s fault? It never gets crazy or stupid enough to make you love it.

LMFAO Not Coming to Lebanon After All: Cancel Concert

Talk about ultimate weirdness… but the group responsible for this year’s summer dance anthem has canceled their Lebanese concert, according to NRJ, the event organizers.

The cause of the cancellation?

“LMFAO have canceled their event in Lebanon due to threats they received from some fanatical extremist Christians who think their Extremism is the voice of Jesus.
These extremists think that the guy featured in the LMFAO music videos is dressed like Jesus.”

Here’s the broadcast NRJ released announcing the cancellation.

I had no idea such groups existed in Lebanon in the first place. Is anyone else familiar with extreme Christian Lebanese groups? If so, what exactly are their resources to get a death threat all the way to the band?

I’m sarcastically impressed.

NRJ’s statement continues with them wondering if, in the future, Lebanon won’t be able to host eccentric artists like Lady Gaga or Madonna.

And while I’m pretty sure neither would want to come for a concert here, they do have a point…

But I digress. I’m still pretty caught up with the idea of the extreme Christian group sending a threat to LMFAO and them buying it.

I really hope this turns out to be some joke.

LMFAO in Lebanon – October 1st

Everyday they’re shufflin’ – across the world that is.

The band that brought this summer’s song, Party Rock Anthem, are bringing their party rocking to Lebanon in less than a month, courtesy of NRJ.

Tickets go on sale today at all Virgin Megastore outlets in Lebanon.. The teen and dance floor sections are selling for $40 while the ENERGY and teen lounges go for $70.

Star Academy’s Lara Scandar is making an appearance. The concert’s closing set will be mixed by my AUB friend, DJ Base.

More info can be found here.

 

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this:

 

We Owned The Night (Single Review) – Lady Antebellum

Lady Antebellum’s second single off their upcoming third album, Own The Night, is called We Owned The Night and it was released while I was backpacking across Spain. As I was the middle of a million people in the streets of Madrid, I felt like listening to the song. So I streamed it on YouTube. Five minutes later, I purchased it via iTunes.

Opening with an infectious mandolin rhythm, the song is fun and upbeat from the beginning. “Tell me have you ever wanted someone so much it hurts? Your lips keep trying to speak but you just can’t find the words. Well I had this dream once; I held it in my hands” Charles Kelley warmly and affectionately sings as the song begins.

“She was the purest beauty,” he continues, “But not the common kind. She had a way about her that made you feel alive. And for a moment, you made the world stand still…” as Hillary Scott provides harmonies in the background. And then the song’s chorus kicks in. “Yeah, we owned the night.”

And that’s it. Yes, that’s the whole chorus. And it works marvelously. Why go into more details when it can all be summed up in one line and have that line hit its target perfectly? Yeah, they owned the line – and they make the song’s hook out of it.

We Owned The Night is a song about a one night stand, and not the kind you forget the following night, similarly to Need You Now‘s ultimate meaning. But the two songs are drastically different. Where Need You Now is a song about hurt and longing, this is a song about one last night with a summer flame that the song’s narrator will forever keep in mind. And where Need You Now is a song that is quite mellow in its musical composition and rhythm, We Owned The Night is the total opposite. But they are telling a similarly ending story.

We Owned The Night ends with Charles Kelley, in synchrony with Hillary Scott’s harmonies, asks the girl if she remembers “we woke under a blanket all tangled up in skin not knowing in that moment we’d never speak again. But it was perfect;  I never will forget when we owned the night,” wondering where she is and if she’s “looking at those same stars again” but the most important thing is that they owned the night.

This song’s biggest strength is it’s relatability. Lady Antebellum are telling their listens a story that happened towards the end of one summer, a story that could have taken place with any of those listeners. It’s drastically different in style than their latest offering, Just A Kiss, but there’s no doubt in my mind it will be another big hit for them.

We Owned The Night is very different from most songs you hear on the radio – even country songs. You can’t help but smile when you listen to it. The song is captivating. Why? because it’s very easy to remember when you were a love-stricken teenager, saying goodbye to your summer days when you listen to it. And your heart fills up with joy and you just feel like holding a girl in the streets of Madrid and dancing with her. At least that’s what I did.

Listen to We Owned The Night: