Dear friends,
Most Iraq-war movies have been shot in Morocco, and precisely in my hometown of Salé. In American Sniper, not only could I recognize every corner (a main scene takes place in front of where my family usually buys honey) but all the extras spoke Moroccan Arabic, a dialect that Iraqis wouldn’t understand.
The same applies to Black Hawk Dawn, supposed to be set in Somalia, and Green Zone, which didn’t even change the license plates of cars. Imagine watching a movie set in London, but all the cars have Illinois plates.
But all of this is still not as bad as how those movies usually minimize Arab culture to stereotypes, and rarely offer any insight into them.
This week’s pick, written and directed by a Bosnian, and starring many actors of Arab descent is very different. The accents, the plates, but most importantly, the stories, all check out, offering unmatched and harrowing insight into what drives kids towards extremism.
THE TOP TV SHOW OF THE WEEK
Caliphate
New on Netflix last month. In Swedish.
This addictive thriller is about two groups of Swedish young people: one already radicalized, fighting in Syria, and the other, still in high-school and on the path to radicalization.
An anti-terrorism officer with a questionable past is put in contact with a woman who traveled to Syria and wants to get back to Sweden. In exchange, this woman offers information about an upcoming attack in Europe.
📰 Not yet reviewed by any major publications.
📺 on Netflix almost everywhere; 🍅 rating: - not yet rated
THE TOP MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Les Misérables
New on Amazon Prime U.S. today. In French.
This Oscar-nominated French movie is set in Montfermeil, the Paris suburb where Victor Hugo wrote Les Misérables but which today is a rough neighborhood.
Inspired by instances of police violence that happened in 2008, the movie follows a squad of police officers who try to keep the neighborhood under control. Their methods, or lack thereof, inevitably cause things to explode.
📰 Rolling Stone: “It's a portrait of a diverse France but also a divided one, ruled by geographical boundaries and racial barriers, [set in] a City of Light that sits on a powder keg.”
📺 on Netflix everywhere; 🍅 rating: 93%
Readers’ top picks
System Crasher, the intense German movie on Netflix, is our readers’ choice this week. It’s about a 9-year-old that exhausts every possible support measure in the German healthcare system.
For the third week in a row, Feel Good on Netflix is readers’ favorite TV show. It’s a smart sitcom take on LGBTQ+ love.
New titles worth your time
The Killing of a Sacred Deer, the absurd - to say the least - movie by Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, The Lobster) has been added to Netflix this week.
The Japanese reality TV show Terrace House premiered a new installment: Tokyo 2019-2020: Part 3.
Les Misérables, the top movie pick, is the only noteworthy new title on Amazon Prime today.
Great titles that will soon expire
An amazing little-known 2014 documentary, The Seven Five, leaves Netflix this Monday, April 13th. It's a crazy true story of a group of cops in 1980s Brooklyn who ran their own cocaine ring.
Nowhere Boy, a good music drama about a rebellious teenager by the name of John Lennon, also leaves Netflix the same day.
12 seasons of the romance show that sometimes involves crime, Bones, is leaving Amazon Prime Monday, the 13th. And for the little ones, all Lego movies are leaving Amazon Prime the next day, Tuesday the 14th. This includes Lego City, Lego DC, Lego Friends, Lego Marvel, and Lego Ninjago.
The Newsflash: new parental control features in Netflix
60% of Netflix’s global subscriber base watch kids and family content on a monthly basis, that’s what Melissa Cobb, the platform’s animation chief, told the New York Times a few months ago.
This week, Netflix announced a new set of features geared towards providing families with a more customizable experience. You can now:
Remove individual movies or shows from ever showing up on any profile
Customize age ratings for any profile as well
Add PINs to each profile to protect it from being accessed by children
View kids’ past activity
Disable autoplay for kids to restrict viewing time
Those two first features, the highlights of this update, can be accessed for each account by going to www.netflix.com/YourAccount, and in the “profile and parental control” section, choosing the profile and clicking “viewing restrictions”. The screen looks like this:
This feature doesn’t have to be used just for kids, it can also be for shows that scarred you as an adult:
That’s it for today, I hope there is something in there for you.
The next edition will be in your inbox on Friday, April 17th.
Until then,
Bilal Zou, founder [bilal@agoodmovietowatch.com]
Carried with the support of the Creative Europe Program – MEDIA.