The Imperialists Are Still Alive! (2010)

Strong and Moving!

People are voting emotionally.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is a pseudo intellectual mess of that is way too pleased with its own perceived cleverness. Elodie Bouchez, despite her obvious physical beauty, is annoying as a pouty supposedly daring artist. The story is disjointed not because it is trying to make a stylistic point but because of the poor construct of the screenplay and the message it is trying to make is lost in all the pointless dialog and the bad acting. Ironically Zeina Durra makes fun of plays and artwork that are exactly like her own work. If you want proof that the imperialists are still alive just read the news and save the 91 minutes needed to watch this rambling film for something more fruitful, like watching paint dry.

I saw this film at the opening night of the Williamsburg Film Festival on Kent Ave at South 2nd street. It is a great portrayal of a life in NYC. I have lived in NYC for 17 yrs and could relate to the characters and scenes, even though I am 1/2 Swedish and 1/2 Jewish. The movie is unbelievably funny... I laughed and laughed. It is not a serious film, but it is not meant to be serious... it is a window into the world of this artist that touches on political issues... as I think for many of us living in the States experience global issues... horrors go on across the world and we still go to parties and benefits. The dichotomy between silly and serious, paranoid and real, superficial and important are acutely captured in a way that is representative of young culture today... At the same time, it is a charming love story. The directing is fantastic - I was really amazed at the complexity of the shots... the Chinatown scenes, the cars, the parties... so many people and elements in so many of the scenes for such a young director. Enjoyable on so many levels - to be seen!!

I saw this film at Sundance, and after I stopped expecting a traditional plot, I was able to relax and enjoy the many wonderful moments that the filmmaker created. It opens with a naked Middle Eastern artist wearing only a head-scarf, discussing her bikini area with her assistant, a funny and direct take on the complexities of feminism and political radicalism in art that seems very much of this moment. In fact, the whole film seems to take place in a bubble of time that has since burst -- post 9/11, during the height of Bush-era paranoia, before the economic collapse and Obama, when jet-setting leftists gave voice to trendy ideologies at exclusive nightclubs and art galleries. It's unclear how much director Zeina Durra is lampooning her subjects, but that very ambiguity makes the film all the more interesting.The plot is relatively thin -- a friend of the main character, Asya, has disappeared in what may be a government rendition. He's engaged to a blonde model, Tatiana, who drinks herself into a stupor to cope. Asya meets and falls in love with a wealthy Mexican ex-pat. There's little overt drama to any of these scenes, and once you get used to that, they're fun. The actress Marianna Kulukundis is a real treat as Athena, providing much of the film's comic relief.The film doesn't say much politically -- war is bad, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is bad, Israel should not bomb Lebanon, immigration is good. We agree, but that's besides the point. The film's lack of a strong political message mirrors Asya's own work -- she wants to say something political, but really she's just standing before us naked, with a nicely groomed Bush. Instead, what's interesting is the window Durra opens onto a very specific world of young New York elites -- not the boarding school WASPS of movies like Metropolitan, but a hodge-podge of the world's upper crust. The irony of their status -- politically disenfranchised but economically privileged -- lends a certain comedy to the whole movie. Asya sits in a limo, eating petit fours and discussing government surveillance. Later, her Mexican boyfriend "surveils" the conversation of her housekeeper, an altogether different class of immigrant.Now for the spoiler. In the end, we don't find out what happened to Asya's friend. There's no real ending per se, the movie just runs out of things it wants to show us, and stops. Considering this is Durra's first film, and she already has another one in the works, it seems like a great place to pause and take a breath.

This is not a good movie.The script and direction are terrible and its supposed use of New York locations was pretty much a waste. It looks like the whole thing was shot within a limited set of blocks in the East Village and rarely ventured elsewhere. They pretty much could have shot this entire film in a warehouse in Toronto, saved themselves a bunch of money and been no worse off for it.The acting of the male roles was fair, but all the woman's roles were both written and acted terribly, leading me to believe that the director doesn't know how to direct or cast women.I gave this movie one star at Sundance. Summary: not good, skip it.