Golshifteh Farahani

  • Extraction (2020)

    Extraction (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, January 2021) I definitely have mixed feelings about the recent spate of action movies heading out to less fortunate countries in order for their white male leads to have explosive adventures. While you can make a case that such movies expose viewers to more diverse landscapes, while you can argue that such settings can accommodate more extreme action sequences, while you can make a serious argument that a filmmaking dollar goes further in such environments—it doesn’t negate the problematic aspects of white protagonists gunning down dozens of foreigners, nor the negative portrayal of portraying such disadvantaged countries as hotbeds of villainy justifying carnage. Extraction doesn’t get a free pass here, as an Australian mercenary (a capable Chris Hemsworth) is recruited to go to Dhaka, Bangladesh, to rescue the child of a drug lord kidnapped by a rival. Very quickly, we come to understand the dark and merciless nature of the world portrayed here, with extreme violence (rather than money) being the currency by which the plot advances. Double-crosses are stupefyingly common, and it’s hard to find any moral advantage in the half-dozen leads fighting it out. Dhaka becomes a playground for big action sequences, and it’s in portraying action that Extraction shines most brightly. Scripted by Joe Russo and directed by stuntman Sam Hargrave (who also pops up in a secondary role), Extraction is best experienced as an anthology of good-to-great action sequences loosely strung together. The final set piece, set on a bridge, is expansive and convincing in a way that probably would have been impossible to shoot in an American city. Hargrave, who also choreographed that scene from Atomic Blonde, is up to his best tricks here with a directing style that immerses viewers in the unfolding mayhem, stitching multiple beats together in seemingly continuous scenes. I suppose that many who watched the film (a top streamer for Netflix with a surprising number of votes on IMDB) did so for Hemsworth, who easily commands the films—that’s okay, I was watching for the always-fascinating Golshifteh Farahani, especially as her role becomes more action-centric in the film’s third act. Had it been less successful in its execution, or featured lesser actors, Extraction could have easily become one of these bleak generic action thrillers that seem to come out by the dozens every year. But Extraction is what happens when the execution outstrips the premise—the result is easily better on screen than on paper.

  • Un divan à Tunis [Arab Blues] (2019)

    Un divan à Tunis [Arab Blues] (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, September 2020) Only one word was needed to get me watching Un divan à Tunis: Golshifteh. The delightful Golshifteh Farahani, specifically—an actress of Iranian origin (now exiled due to her playing in films that the government did not approve) living in France who’s been catching my eye since 2010’s Body of Lies. While she’s been in various films on both sides of the Atlantic since then, Un divan à Tunis gives us the opportunity to see her in a comic leading role, as a Tunisian-born psychiatrist who returns home from France with the intention of setting up a psychoanalytic practice of her own. Much of the comedy consists of seeing this very liberal and educated woman encounter various prejudices and try to improve people’s lives despite many obstacles. As many Tunisian cinephiles have commented, this is ideologically far more of a French film than a Tunisian one—although the local colour of the film is strong and the sense of place of Tunis is charming. As for Farahani, she is wonderful in a film designed as a showcase—funny, attractive, clever and sensible. (Even her terrific hair gets a subplot of its own, as an ill-advised haircut gets immediately nixed in favour of a better curly alternative.) I like the actress a lot—she’s better than the material—but if Un divan à Tunis is not meant to be particularly deep or nuanced, it’s quite a bit of fun by itself.

  • Body Of Lies (2008)

    Body Of Lies (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, October 2008) Never mind that this adaptation seems to have dispensed with the rationale for the original novel’s title: Even in a pumped-up, slightly dumbed-down Hollywood version, this story has the heft of a solid contemporary thriller, not unlike Syriana even if it doesn’t satisfies as completely. As a look at current American covert intelligence operations, it’s credible and merciless: the lack of compassion is biting, the rivalries are omnipresent and even the so-called good-guys have their less-admirable qualities. It’s slightly too long for its own good, but director Ridley Scott delivers the goods when comes the time to deliver the showcase sequences: There’s a jeep/helicopter chase early in the film that makes little tactical sense, yet crackles with energy. Throughout, we’re treated with superb cinematography and capable acting: While the spotlights will go to a scruffier-than-ever Leonardo DiCaprio and a rotund Russel Crowe, two of the film’s most remarkable performers, in entirely different registers, are an unflappable Mark Strong as a jordanian spymaster and an irresistible Golshifteh Farahani as an Iranian nurse stuck in the middle of an espionage plot. The best part of the film is how it’s absorbed like a good novel, watching the pieces set up and running in different directions. It’s hardly perfect, but it’s pretty good at what it tries to do, and that’s already not bad.