September, whose breath even now dampens our necks, will see the UAE release of Inglourious Basterds. Anticipation runs hot for this, the sixth feature from the banana-jawed American auteur Quentin Tarantino, if one agrees for charity's sake to overlook Four Rooms.
I'm not a huge Tarantino fan but even so, I confess I am curious to see this film when it finally plays in Abu Dhabi. For one thing, having followed the voluminous and excitable coverage heaped upon it since its debut at Cannes in May, it has proven remarkably difficult to get any clear sense of what manner of beast the film really is.
We know that it's an homage to pulpy Second World War thrillers, that it references the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone and that there's a splendid villain in it - an SS "Jew-hunter" played by the German television actor Christoph Waltz, hoisted from obscurity by Tarantino for this film.
But is it, in the words of the great critic Roger Ebert, "a big, bold, audacious war movie", an additional proof of the director's ability to deliver "quixotic delights"? Or is it rather, as the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw claims, "a gigantic two-and-a-half-hour anticlimax" boasting only "great heavy lumps of nothing"?
As a potential viewer, one is placed in a position of unusual ignorance, a state of doubt rarely achieved in this age of online spoilers and rottentomatoes.com. It is, I'm surprised to find, all quite exciting. What, when you get down to it, is Inglourious Basterds?
My own thrilling sense of uncertainty seems not to have been diminished by the fact that I've already seen it. I was, as it happens, one of the film's first reviewers, crammed into that Cannes screening. An hour or so later I had composed The National's slightly giddy write-up. I gave it four stars, noting that it was "sadistic, jingoistic, inauthentic" but, all the same, "a blast".
At the time I wasn't entirely sure what I'd seen, except that it was in doubtful taste and that I'd enjoyed it. My review was, I thought, the kind of delicate hedge that shouldn't blow up on me. And then I started to hear what other people were saying.
Incoherent. Botched. Tarantino still has nothing to say, except now he's saying it about the Holocaust. That was the gist of it.
My colleague Kaleem Aftab appeared sunk in gloom at the whole thing. In the press office there was a rumbling consensus that Tarantino had finally lost the plot. Most perplexingly, several critics appeared to have found it very boring. (It does, in fairness, run to a talky 153 minutes, many of them subtitled.)
The more I listened, the more convinced I became by the case for the prosecution. Why was it called Inglourious Basterds when the guerrilla group of the same name played so small a part in it? Why did it feel like Brad Pitt, the top-billed actor on the marquee, was just pulling a whimsical cameo between smug caper films? Why exactly was Eli Roth, that gleaming-eyed Squirrel Nutkin of torture porn, allowed on screen at all? It all mounted up. Ah well, I thought, perhaps I can spin my review as a piece of Armond White-style contrarianism. It is still possible to carve out a career as an idiot about films, after all.
Imagine my puzzlement when the first wave of pre-release commentary seemed to vindicate my first impression. American reviewers seemed as entertained by its pop-art vacuity and hokey sensationalism as I had been ("for anyone professing true movie love," said Rolling Stone in a representative take, "there's no resisting it").
The Brits pretty uniformly hated it, but mainly for irritable, hand-wavy reasons. Sukdev Sandhu complained in the Telegraph that Pitt "carries himself like a cross between Popeye the Sailorman and Clark Gable," but who could see that as a bad thing?
Indeed, the spread of opinions has been so wide, the factions so evenly matched, that any firm view looks like a hostage to posterity. Misshapes like Inglorious Basterds make fools of us all, especially reviewers. Best to steer clear. Still, I wouldn't mind another look. Just to check, you understand.
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
From Conquest to Deportation
Jeronim Perovic, Hurst
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJune%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMohammed%20Alnamara%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EMicrofinance%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E16%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFamily%20offices%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
Most F1 world titles
7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)
7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)
5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)
4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)
4 — Sebastian Vettel (2010, ’11, ’12, ’13)
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
SPECS%3A%20Polestar%203
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UAE%20athletes%20heading%20to%20Paris%202024
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo and dual electric motors
Power: 300hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 520Nm at 1,500-3,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.0L/100km
Price: from Dh199,900
On sale: now
The specs
Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.6-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 285bhp
Torque: 353Nm
Price: TBA
On sale: Q2, 2020