Drag queens are a huge part of contemporary pop culture. They are on TV, on social media and forever on the minds of conservative politicians who try to ostracize them and muffle their voices. Yet despite this ubiquity, they rarely appear as movie leads. Writer-director Amrou Al-Kadhi rectifies that with their debut feature “Layla,” unspooling in the World Dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Like most Sundance discoveries, it introduces a new voice trying to carve a space for themselves in the medium. And like most feature debuts, it shows how that voice needs to be honed and nurtured, so that their next feature might more successfully accomplish its goals.
Layla (Bilal Hasna) is a London drag queen living a double life. With their friends, they live their truth as a nonbinary person and drag performer. Yet when they visit their Palestinian family, they become Latif, the dutiful son.
Layla (Bilal Hasna) is a London drag queen living a double life. With their friends, they live their truth as a nonbinary person and drag performer. Yet when they visit their Palestinian family, they become Latif, the dutiful son.
- 1/18/2024
- by Murtada Elfadl
- Variety Film + TV
Director: Shekhar Kapur.
Cast: Lily James, Shazad Latif, Emma Thompson, Shabana Azmi, Sajal Aly and Jeff Mirza
Cinematography: Remi Adefarasin. Music: Nitin Sawhney.
Ians Rating: ***
Many Asians continue to embrace arranged marriages in the sub-continent. Even in the UK, modern arranged marriages involve a variety of matchmaking practices where each family tailors its own version to suit modern identities and ambitions.
For the sizeable migrant population comprising Indians and Pakistanis, it may not be a homogeneous tradition, though by and large it remains the preferred choice.
At the heart of the story is an enterprising London-based filmmaker Zoe (Lily James), who proposes to make a documentary about Muslims and their obsession with arranged marriages. "Or assisted marriages," as her neighbour and friend Kazim (Shahzad Latif) explains.
The Khans (Azmi and Jeff Mirza) are not just next-door neighbours; they are best friends too. Zoe barges into Kazim’s place unannounced and...
Cast: Lily James, Shazad Latif, Emma Thompson, Shabana Azmi, Sajal Aly and Jeff Mirza
Cinematography: Remi Adefarasin. Music: Nitin Sawhney.
Ians Rating: ***
Many Asians continue to embrace arranged marriages in the sub-continent. Even in the UK, modern arranged marriages involve a variety of matchmaking practices where each family tailors its own version to suit modern identities and ambitions.
For the sizeable migrant population comprising Indians and Pakistanis, it may not be a homogeneous tradition, though by and large it remains the preferred choice.
At the heart of the story is an enterprising London-based filmmaker Zoe (Lily James), who proposes to make a documentary about Muslims and their obsession with arranged marriages. "Or assisted marriages," as her neighbour and friend Kazim (Shahzad Latif) explains.
The Khans (Azmi and Jeff Mirza) are not just next-door neighbours; they are best friends too. Zoe barges into Kazim’s place unannounced and...
- 3/17/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
Love contractually? That’s the setup at the heart of “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” — a new cross-cultural rom-com starring Lily James and Shazad Latif that Shout! Factory released the trailer for Wednesday.
It’s also the name documentary filmmaker Zoe (James) chooses for her project following childhood friend and neighbor Kaz (Latif) on his journey to an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage. Zoe is a cynic who’s had no luck with dating apps; Kaz is optimistic that his marriage to Maymouna (Sajal Aly) will follow in his parents’ good example.
The trailer opens with a look at the neighborly rapport Zoe and her mother Cath (Emma Thompson) enjoy with their next-door neighbors. While she keeps coming up short swiping for Mr. Right, Shazad drops the news of his prospective marriage, introducing two different perspectives on the issue: “What about love?” versus “You grow to love the person you’re with.
It’s also the name documentary filmmaker Zoe (James) chooses for her project following childhood friend and neighbor Kaz (Latif) on his journey to an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage. Zoe is a cynic who’s had no luck with dating apps; Kaz is optimistic that his marriage to Maymouna (Sajal Aly) will follow in his parents’ good example.
The trailer opens with a look at the neighborly rapport Zoe and her mother Cath (Emma Thompson) enjoy with their next-door neighbors. While she keeps coming up short swiping for Mr. Right, Shazad drops the news of his prospective marriage, introducing two different perspectives on the issue: “What about love?” versus “You grow to love the person you’re with.
- 3/15/2023
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
Early on in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?,” enterprising London-based filmmaker Zoe (Lily James) pitches a proposed documentary about Muslim arranged marriages to a pair of white male commissioners. They’re bored and disengaged until they realize how the topic can be dressed up in the tropes and lingo of Western romantic comedy to appeal to a general British audience: One suggests interview inserts in the style of “When Harry Met Sally,” the other name-drops “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” as a reference point. When Zoe suggests titling the doc “Love Contractually,” the deal is done.
Sharper than anything else in Shekhar Kapur’s pleasant, easygoing comedy, the scene neatly satirizes how nuanced cross-cultural material can be blandly packaged and whitewashed for the mainstream — a point that would land harder if “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” didn’t proceed to do much the same thing. At a push,...
Sharper than anything else in Shekhar Kapur’s pleasant, easygoing comedy, the scene neatly satirizes how nuanced cross-cultural material can be blandly packaged and whitewashed for the mainstream — a point that would land harder if “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” didn’t proceed to do much the same thing. At a push,...
- 3/10/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Arranged marriage is a tried-and-true trope in Bollywood romcoms, which typically champion love and social progress over tradition, even if they’ve hardly moved the needle for decades despite the genre’s immense popularity. Though set in London and revolving around arranged marriage in the South Asian diaspora, it’s easy to make assumptions about Toronto Film Festival premiere “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” based on genre conventions and cliché.
But this is most definitely not what Bollywood romcom enthusiasts might expect. For starters, the story concerns overseas Pakistanis and not Indians. The film also doesn’t outright frame arranged marriage as something outdated and stifling. If anything, it encourages viewers to not rush to judgment.
Moreover, its protagonist is actually a white woman. Zoe (Lily James), is a socially conscious documentary filmmaker from an ethnically diverse part of London. Her mother, Cath (Emma Thompson), while fully embracing the multiculturalism around her,...
But this is most definitely not what Bollywood romcom enthusiasts might expect. For starters, the story concerns overseas Pakistanis and not Indians. The film also doesn’t outright frame arranged marriage as something outdated and stifling. If anything, it encourages viewers to not rush to judgment.
Moreover, its protagonist is actually a white woman. Zoe (Lily James), is a socially conscious documentary filmmaker from an ethnically diverse part of London. Her mother, Cath (Emma Thompson), while fully embracing the multiculturalism around her,...
- 9/20/2022
- by Martin Tsai
- The Wrap
If you’ve seen the British satire “Toast of London,” chances are that voiceover engineer Clem Fandango’s name still rings in your ears. Now Shazad Latif, the man behind Fandango, Ash Tyler on “Star Trek: Discovery” and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde on “Penny Dreadful,” has nabbed his first romantic lead in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”
The Shekhar Kapur-helmed acquisition title, which has a Gala world premiere Sept. 10 in Toronto, “has slightly more depth than a normal rom-com because it tackles arranged marriage,” Latif said. Lily James plays his character’s childhood friend, and complications ensue when she decides to make a documentary about the nuptials.
“Lily is one of my closest friends,” Latif said. “She’s like a sister to me.” They met when she did a play with his old roommate, and co-starred in the 2021 BBC miniseries “The Pursuit of Love.” “I read [“What’s Love”] a while back,...
The Shekhar Kapur-helmed acquisition title, which has a Gala world premiere Sept. 10 in Toronto, “has slightly more depth than a normal rom-com because it tackles arranged marriage,” Latif said. Lily James plays his character’s childhood friend, and complications ensue when she decides to make a documentary about the nuptials.
“Lily is one of my closest friends,” Latif said. “She’s like a sister to me.” They met when she did a play with his old roommate, and co-starred in the 2021 BBC miniseries “The Pursuit of Love.” “I read [“What’s Love”] a while back,...
- 9/10/2022
- by Gregg Goldstein
- Variety Film + TV
Love is complicated enough before factoring in culture clashes.
Lily James, Shazad Latif, and Emma Thompson star in the new cross-cultural romantic-comedy “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” A trailer for the movie was released on Wednesday by Studiocanal.
Read More: Jordan Peele & Keegan-Michael Key Reunite In Netflix’s ‘Wendell & Wild’ Trailer
“How do you find lasting love in today’s world?” the film’s logline asks. “For documentary-maker and dating app addict Zoe (James), swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Thompson) dismay.
“For Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbour Kaz (Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage to a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films his hopeful journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger, chosen by his parents, she begins...
Lily James, Shazad Latif, and Emma Thompson star in the new cross-cultural romantic-comedy “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” A trailer for the movie was released on Wednesday by Studiocanal.
Read More: Jordan Peele & Keegan-Michael Key Reunite In Netflix’s ‘Wendell & Wild’ Trailer
“How do you find lasting love in today’s world?” the film’s logline asks. “For documentary-maker and dating app addict Zoe (James), swiping right has only delivered an endless stream of Mr Wrongs, to her eccentric mother Cath’s (Thompson) dismay.
“For Zoe’s childhood friend and neighbour Kaz (Latif), the answer is to follow his parents’ example and opt for an arranged (or “assisted”) marriage to a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan. As Zoe films his hopeful journey from London to Lahore to marry a stranger, chosen by his parents, she begins...
- 9/7/2022
- by Shakiel Mahjouri
- ET Canada
Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” doesn’t have a trailer yet, but the overwhelming response to star Brendan Fraser, following a screening of the psychological drama at the Venice International Film Festival, is better promotion than any sizzle reel could buy.
In a pair of videos posted to Twitter by Ramin Setoodeh (co-editor in chief of Variety), the cast and top creative team behind the upcoming tearjerker can be seen reacting to a six-minute standing ovation after the film’s premiere on Sunday. Per Setoodeh, Fraser “sobbed” throughout the celebration and “tried to leave” but was forced to stay thanks to the raucous applause.
The standing ovation for #TheWhale was so enthusiastic, Brendan Fraser tried to leave the theater but the crowd’s applause made him stay. #Venezia79 pic.twitter.com/ZZ0vbFX7Rl
— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) September 4, 2022
Fraser’s “The Mummy Returns” co-star Dwayne Johnson re-tweeted the clip, writing:...
In a pair of videos posted to Twitter by Ramin Setoodeh (co-editor in chief of Variety), the cast and top creative team behind the upcoming tearjerker can be seen reacting to a six-minute standing ovation after the film’s premiere on Sunday. Per Setoodeh, Fraser “sobbed” throughout the celebration and “tried to leave” but was forced to stay thanks to the raucous applause.
The standing ovation for #TheWhale was so enthusiastic, Brendan Fraser tried to leave the theater but the crowd’s applause made him stay. #Venezia79 pic.twitter.com/ZZ0vbFX7Rl
— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) September 4, 2022
Fraser’s “The Mummy Returns” co-star Dwayne Johnson re-tweeted the clip, writing:...
- 9/5/2022
- by Alison Foreman
- Indiewire
On September 2, 2022, “Bones and All” was screened at the 79th Venice International Film Festival to both acclaim and a 10-minute standing ovation. The film centers on cannibalistic lovers portrayed by Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell on a road trip in the 1980s. The cast also includes Oscar winner Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Chloë Sevigny. With a score of 95 on Rotten Tomatoes, the film firmly establishes itself as an awards contender this season. But what exactly did the critics say?
See over 200 interviews with 2022 Emmy nominees
Jack King of The Playlist begins with the attention grabbing “To love is to want to consume someone whole, to pick their skin and sinews out of the gaps between your teeth, to swallow their pancreas and wash it all down with gulps of throat-fizzing stomach acid.” That sentence alone should catch the attention of most readers. He goes on to praise...
See over 200 interviews with 2022 Emmy nominees
Jack King of The Playlist begins with the attention grabbing “To love is to want to consume someone whole, to pick their skin and sinews out of the gaps between your teeth, to swallow their pancreas and wash it all down with gulps of throat-fizzing stomach acid.” That sentence alone should catch the attention of most readers. He goes on to praise...
- 9/3/2022
- by Vincent Mandile
- Gold Derby
Warning: contains spoilers for The Capture Series 1.
The most effective horror films are the ones that make menace out of everyday things – the TV in Poltergeist, the shower in Psycho, little girls with long, wet hair in… everything. Surveillance thriller The Capture does the same by turning the simple act of walking down a city street into a paranoid, pulse-raiser. Look up at the street corners and lampposts and you’ll see them, CCTV cameras feeding a data network that, combined with deepfake technology sufficiently advanced to make it indistinguishable from magic, can make you anybody’s puppet.
That’s what happens to Lance Corporal Shaun Emery (Callum Turner) in The Capture Series 1. First, Shaun’s barristers got him acquitted on the charge of unlawfully killing an unarmed Taliban insurgent on tour in Afghanistan. After serving six months in prison, Shaun was freed when his legal team called into question...
The most effective horror films are the ones that make menace out of everyday things – the TV in Poltergeist, the shower in Psycho, little girls with long, wet hair in… everything. Surveillance thriller The Capture does the same by turning the simple act of walking down a city street into a paranoid, pulse-raiser. Look up at the street corners and lampposts and you’ll see them, CCTV cameras feeding a data network that, combined with deepfake technology sufficiently advanced to make it indistinguishable from magic, can make you anybody’s puppet.
That’s what happens to Lance Corporal Shaun Emery (Callum Turner) in The Capture Series 1. First, Shaun’s barristers got him acquitted on the charge of unlawfully killing an unarmed Taliban insurgent on tour in Afghanistan. After serving six months in prison, Shaun was freed when his legal team called into question...
- 8/28/2022
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
Warning: contains spoilers for The Capture series one.
The Capture‘s first series saw Lance Corporal Shaun Emery (Callum Turner) go full circle. In episode one, he was released from prison – acquitted for a crime he had, in fact, committed – and then in episode six, he was imprisoned for a crime of which he was innocent. In between, the BBC surveillance thriller introduced viewers to a world in which you literally can’t believe your eyes. As Dci Rachel Carey (Strike‘s Holliday Grainger) discovered, the intelligence services were using ultra-sophisticated deepfake technology to conjure up court-admissible ‘evidence’ to ensure the criminal conviction of anybody they wanted convicted.
The situation turned out to be even more morally murky when the CIA whistle blower threatening to go public with the practice of CCTV footage “correction” turned out to be a double (triple?) agent planted by the CIA so that some elements...
The Capture‘s first series saw Lance Corporal Shaun Emery (Callum Turner) go full circle. In episode one, he was released from prison – acquitted for a crime he had, in fact, committed – and then in episode six, he was imprisoned for a crime of which he was innocent. In between, the BBC surveillance thriller introduced viewers to a world in which you literally can’t believe your eyes. As Dci Rachel Carey (Strike‘s Holliday Grainger) discovered, the intelligence services were using ultra-sophisticated deepfake technology to conjure up court-admissible ‘evidence’ to ensure the criminal conviction of anybody they wanted convicted.
The situation turned out to be even more morally murky when the CIA whistle blower threatening to go public with the practice of CCTV footage “correction” turned out to be a double (triple?) agent planted by the CIA so that some elements...
- 8/28/2022
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
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