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    ‘The Mauritanian’ Review: A Tale of Truth-Seeking

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    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘The Mauritanian’ Review: A Tale of Truth-SeekingTahar Rahim and Jodie Foster star in this dogged, uninvolving drama based on the story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi.Tahar RahimJodie and Foster in “The Mauritanian.”Credit…Graham Bartholomew/STX FilmsFeb. 11, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETThe MauritanianDirected by Kevin MacdonaldDrama, ThrillerR2h 9mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.The most enjoyable moments of the Guantánamo drama “The Mauritanian” occur during the end credits as the film’s real-life subject, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, listens to a Bob Dylan song. Laughing delightedly and singing along, he’s the picture of contentment — not of someone who just spent more than 14 years in an infamous American prison.That extraordinary resilience will, if you’re lucky, be your most vivid takeaway from this dogged and punishing tale of torture and truth-seeking. Trapped for the most part in featureless rooms, a stellar cast — including Jodie Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch and Shailene Woodley — deliver dull speeches and sift through redacted documents, brows furrowed and lips compressed. In parallel scenes, Slahi (an exceptional Tahar Rahim), arrested after the Sept. 11 attacks because of connections to Al Qaeda, endures the kind of abuse and deprivation that multiple movies and television shows have rendered all too familiar.[embedded content]Directed by Kevin Macdonald and based on Slahi’s 2015 memoir, the story focuses mainly on the efforts of the defense lawyer Nancy Hollander (Foster) to obtain a hearing for Slahi and, hopefully, his release. She’s more hindered than helped in this endeavor by a junior associate, Teri Duncan (Woodley), who’s written with a gullibility that borders on unprofessional.“We know that you’re innocent!” Teri blurts out during an interview with their client, undermining the movie’s emphasis on the universal right to due process. Flavorless characters and a blizzard of flashbacks further repel our involvement in a drama whose timing, to say the least, is unfortunate. After weathering almost five years of rolling political scandals, American audiences could be less than eager to be reminded of one more.The MauritanianRated R for torture, including sexual assault. Running time: 2 hours 9 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Life in a Day 2020’ Review: A Video Diary of a Difficult Year

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }At HomeExplore: A Cubist CollageFollow: Cooking AdviceVisit: Famous Old HomesLearn: About the VaccineAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Life in a Day 2020’ Review: A Video Diary of a Difficult YearThis YouTube documentary seeks to be a time capsule during a period of great racial divide and pandemic distress.A scene from the YouTube documentary “Life in a Day 2020.”Credit…YouTube OriginalsFeb. 5, 2021Updated 6:29 p.m. ETLife in a Day 2020Directed by Kevin MacdonaldDocumentary1h 30mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Will we ever fully be ready to remember 2020? The masks. The quarantines. Racial injustice. So much death.Assembled from video footage shot by people from around the world on July 25 of last year, “Life in a Day” is a well-meaning but unnecessary crowdsourced documentary, a companion piece to a 2011 version of the same name, that thinks we’re ready.The film gets off to an obvious start: with a symphony of child birth. Mostly, though, the breezy snippets capture everyday mundanities that encompass a vast range of human experiences and multicultural behavior, juxtaposing beauty and darkness, birth and death. It’s a call for empathy with some genuinely moving moments. What this video portrait doesn’t do is focus enough on its subjects to allow for any true investment in their lives.[embedded content]Though participants’ experiences are singular, their clips are cut together into montages to create a sense of pandemic-era interrelational connection. A few subjects get extended screen time, their narratives stitched throughout this patchwork of life. The result is a tediously formatted stream of categorized segments that might as well fall into hashtagged classifications: Environmental Conservation, Zoom Life, Class of 2020, Love Is Love and You Weren’t the Only One Cooking All the Time.The film indicates that the director Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”) and the producer Ridley Scott received 324,000 videos submitted from 192 countries for this project. That’s a lot of videos. And yet, amid Black Lives Matter marches and medical workers in hazmat suits, the filmmakers devote considerable time to a man who drives around chasing trains on all seven Class 1 railroads. Spoiler alert — he succeeds at whatever he’s trying to achieve (the film assumes you understand why this is an accomplishment). And, honestly, good for that guy. I know his pursuit is meant to be a quaint respite. But over and over in a film about 2020? When a young Black woman is only briefly shown lamenting the death of two of her brothers who died while in police custody? I want her story.“Life in a Day” seeks to be a time capsule during a period of great racial divide and pandemic distress. But since the time it’s memorializing is still fresh, the film arrives about 10 years too soon. As it stands, it hasn’t captured anything that 90 minutes of TikTok surfing can’t.Life in a Day 2020Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Watch on YouTube.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More