Movie Review Huda's Salon

Huda's Salon 

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad

Written by Hany Abu-Assad

Starring Maisa Abd Elhadi, Manal Awad, Samer Bisharat

Release Date September 30th, 2021

Huda’s Salon begins on the most mundane note. Two women in a hair salon are having a conversation typical of the setting. Huda (Manal Awad) is a kindly hairdresser having a friendly working friendship with Reema (Maisa Abd Elhadi). For nearly 10 minutes we listen as Reema explains the trouble in her marriage to Said (Samer Bisharat) and how controlling and jealous he is. If you are paying attention you can see a quick shift in Huda’s demeanor as the conversation turns to Said and his jealousy. It’s subtle but it’s there and it is the trigger for the rest of the story. 

What Reema doesn’t know and we are about to find out is that, Huda, though she is Palestinian and living right on the border with Israel, is a traitor working with Israeli occupiers. Huda’s treachery involves blackmailing young women such as Reema into becoming unwilling spies. How Huda organizes her blackmail scheme, I won’t reveal here. I will only say it is shocking and viscerally presented. Director Hany Abu-Assad uses the mundane nature of the opening 10 minutes of Huda’s Salon to set up a punch that lingers for the remainder of Huda’s Salon.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review The Mountain Between Us

The Mountain Between Us (2017) 

Directed by Hany Abu-Assad 

Written by Chris Weitz, J. Mills Goodloe 

Starring Idris Elba, Kate Winslet, Dermot Mulroney Beau Bridges

Release Date October 6th, 2017

The Mountain Between Us is damn near comedy gold. This so bad it’s fun nonsense romance posits two attractive leads delivering silly dialogue and rote drama in the midst of hyper-circumstances. When Dr. Ben, played by Idris Elba, responds to his new friend Alex, played by Kate Winslet, saying that ‘the heart is just a muscle,’ try to control your gag reflex and for the sake of the few who might be able to process such schmaltz, stifle your giggles.

At an airport in Idaho, Dr. Ben apparently believes he can reason his way onto a cancelled flight to New York where he’s supposed to operate on the brain of a 10-year-old child while reuniting the child’s parents and saving the boy’s puppy from a fire. Alex overhears Dr. Ben’s frustration and hatches a plan. She can’t afford to charter a plane on her own but she could go halfsies with the heartthrob doctor and they can maybe get to Denver before the big storm hits.

So, our two new acquaintances kick in some cash and make the dire mistake of hiring Beau Bridges to pilot a small plane to Denver airport. I wouldn’t hire Beau Bridges to drive me to the grocery store, let alone pilot a single-engine plane at his age but that’s just me. I’m probably only saying this, however, because I have seen the trailer for The Mountain Between Us and I know that ol'Beau isn't long for this movie.

If I am being flippant in this review, it is only because I was supremely bored when I wasn’t politely stifling my giggles. The Mountain Between Us is a silly, silly movie that stacks the odds against Ben and Alex to such a ludicrous degree that all we can do is laugh. I’m no Bear Grylls but I have seen a Bear Grylls on TV, so I know that much of what happens in The Mountain Between Us is nonsense from a survival standpoint. With the believability of this adventure out of the way we are left with Winslet and Elba and wow!

How can two people as beautiful and talented as Kate Winslet and Idris Elba have so little chemistry? It’s not even a lack of romantic spark, at times I had a hard time believing they were human beings who relate normally to other human beings. At one point, Elba’s Ben, thinking he might be walking to his doom, asks Alex to take his picture, she’s a professional photog and he quite awkwardly wants to be ready for when he ends up in one of those Top 5 YouTube Videos of the creepy last pictures of people who died.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal