My review of the movie “Whatever Lola Wants” that I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival is now up. I feel badly for disliking it so. I really wanted to like it…
The filmmaker spoke after the showing and he seemed like such a nice guy, but I had to be honest about my reasons for not liking his movie. I’m sure he got lots of good reviews, even though it is a small film. I wonder if critics always feel badly when they write negative reviews?
Sounds dreadful! I hate that weird idea that anyone who already knows how to dance can just learn a few bellydance moves and “fake it” – They did the same for “Charlie Wilson’s War” – not hiring a real bellydancer. (Though it sounds like “Lola” wasn’t much of a dancer to begin with!)
One thing they did get right though, is calling it “Oriental Dance”. The Egyptians call it “Raks Sharki” which does translate to “Oriental Dance”. Most American dancers use “belly dance” when promoting themselves outside the dance community because it is the term that most people are familiar with, but within the dance community people will use it to identify their style of dance (as opposed to tribal style, or traditional folkloric styles)
Though from your summary the whole rest of the movie makes no sense. Like it’s some kind of wishful picture of Egyptian society that has little or no connection to reality! I’ll probably still try to see it when it turns up on DVD or IFC, but it sounds like a mess.