From the Report to Charlie's Angels, Hollywood Has Shown Us a String Of

Community Community Nearsightedness Attended happens when by over P4cornea — the P16 600 people. clear front surface of Indonesian products the eye — is curved too exhibition ‘Indonesia much or when the eye Expo 2019’ comes is longer than normal. to a close. Friday, November 22, 2019 Rabia I 25, 1441 AH Doha today: 180 - 240 Clarion call COVER STORY From The Report to Charlie’s Angels, Hollywood has shown us a string of heroes calling out corruption this year. P2-3 CUISINE SHOWBIZ Suppli vs Dwayne Johnson opens up about Arancini. possibility of third Jumanji. Page 6 Page 15 2 GULF TIMES Friday, November 22, 2019 COMMUNITY COVER STORY Standing up for the count PRAYER TIME Fajr 4.35am With upper-level malfeasances all over the place and Shorooq (sunrise) 5.57am Zuhr (noon) 11.21am Asr (afternoon) 2.25pm citizens desperate for someone to do something, Maghreb (sunset) 4.45pm Isha (night) 6.15pm the past year or so has seen an odd spike in movies USEFUL NUMBERS about people speaking truth to power, no matter the consequences, writes Charles Bramesco Emergency 999 Worldwide Emergency Number 112 Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Qatar Airways 44496000 Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444 Humanitarian Services Offi ce (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 Qatar Airways 40253374 ote Unquo Qu te “Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” — Zig Ziglar Community Editor Kamran Rehmat e-mail: [email protected] Telephone: 44466405 Fax: 44350474 Friday, November 22, 2019 GULF TIMES 3 COVER STORY COMMUNITY arim Amer and the line to get some justice for the light. As Dan Jones, the Senate Jehane Noujaim’s common folk, possibly unaware investigator responsible for documentary The that they’ve been victimised. uncovering the horrifi c torture Great Hack, released The 2000 fi lm Erin Brockovich practices utilised by American directly to Netfl ix managed the triple crown of box- forces at black sites in the “war Kthis past summer, opens at offi ce returns, critical praise, and on terror”, Adam Driver leads Burning Man. It’s there that we Oscar glory for the retelling of a Scott Z Burns’ terrifi c procedural fi nd Brittany Kaiser, one-time single mother’s mission to mount The Report. The drum-tight business director of Cambridge a lawsuit against a gas-and- script focuses on Jones’ quest to Analytica, the consulting fi rm electric behemoth. It pushed all get his scandalous memo on the outed for misusing data harvested the right buttons: an incredible ineffi cacy of torture out into the from Facebook and potentially true instance of victory for the world, and while his eff orts were aff ecting the outcomes of the little guy, hard proof that good can hindered both by Republicans 2016 presidential election and still win out over evil. and the hesitation of his overseer the Brexit referendum. The fi lm That sure sounds like the model Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette gets up close and personal with for Dark Waters, Todd Haynes’ Bening), the fi lm concludes with Kaiser as she fl ees to Thailand account of the corporate lawyer him triumphant. and returns to Europe to testify Robert Bilott’s decision to switch Same goes for Offi cial Secrets, against her former employer, CEO teams and prosecute DuPont in which Keira Knightley plays the Alexander Nix. Chemical for contaminating huge British translator Katharine Gun, She provides valuable insight swaths of West Virginian land. But leaker of confi dential documents on the extent of the company’s in interviews, Haynes has clarifi ed revealing that the US had illegally wrongdoing, but the fi lm refrains that his central point of reference spied on diplomats deciding a UN from making her out to be a hero. was in fact All the President’s Men, resolution on the Iraq war. Like Amer and Noujaim instead go the the classic retelling of Woodward Jones, Gun cuts an admirable fi gure, print-the-legend route and cover and Bernstein’s investigation unquestionably correct even in her the entire fog of controversy that that uncovered Richard Nixon’s diffi cult choices. These fi lms sell a soon surrounded Kaiser, as some wiretapping at the Watergate Hotel. relatively sober version of a fantasy, applauded her stand in the face In any case, all three fi lms revolve in which sunlight really can be the of power, and others denounced around what Haynes articulated best disinfectant. The revelation of her as a complicit party looking to to this writer in a soon-to-run ill deeds is all it takes to place the get some money or attention by interview as “the sensation of whistleblower in the right, while turning on her boss. discovering something covered back on planet Earth, the people Going by pure verisimilitude, up”. The truth would be that will dig their heels in on whatever documentary cinema has the covered-up something, and once beliefs they’ve already held. Look edge on fi ctionalised fi lms our protagonist shines a light on no further than the current hubbub about real life, and the gulf of it, whatever resistance may have over the mystery agent who pulled diff erence in how the two fields come from management or ornery back the curtain on Donald Trump’s have approached portraying the townspeople evaporates. These possibly impeachable conduct on whistleblower — as a concept, fi lms court a feel-good response, a phone call with the president of These narrative works make use of a universal model THE FLIP SIDE: In the new reboot of Charlie’s Angels, our everywoman Elena (Naomi Scott) discovers that the miracle doohickey manufactured by the tech of struggle, pitting a morally upstanding David against giant she works for can be turned into a weapon. a sinister, institutional Goliath. This approach may amount to stirring drama, having someone easy to root for, but it all bears little resemblance to how similar events have played out beyond the Cineplex and as a human individual — lays even if the fi nal moments of Dark Ukraine. In the future, when Jay that bare. With upper-level Waters cycle through title cards Roach or whoever turns this all malfeasances all over the place and explaining that DuPont continues into an Oscar horse fall release, citizens desperate for someone to wreak wide-scale ruin on the the anonymous subversive will to do something, the past year environment. At least we’ve got undoubtedly get a swell of string or so has seen an odd spike in someone out there fi ghting the good music and a vindicating third act. movies about people speaking fi ght. Meanwhile, those at the uppermost truth to power, no matter the This draws a harsh contrast with levels of authority are fi guring out consequences. These narrative the reception of whistleblowers how to get this person in prison, works make use of a universal in the US and UK of today, which with ardent support from huge model of struggle, pitting a has not been nearly as universally swaths of the populace. morally upstanding David against positive. Once again, documentary A greater ethical clarity sadly a sinister, institutional Goliath. tells the real story; such recent absent from everyday life can exist This approach may amount to fi lms as Laura Poitras’s Citizenfour in these fi lms, where it’s not that stirring drama, having someone and Risk, along with this past the moral nuance gets fl attened as easy to root for, but it all bears summer’s XY Chelsea, have all much as our relation to it. In the little resemblance to how similar focused on the public’s polarised new reboot of Charlie’s Angels, events have played out beyond the impression of the political our everywoman Elena (Naomi cineplex. Everyone loves someone whistleblowers Edward Snowden Scott) discovers that the miracle who does the right thing, but for and Chelsea Manning. Their doohickey manufactured by the the audience, only within the four supporters have vaunted them as tech giant she works for can be walls of the theatre can the right defenders of the republic, courting turned into a weapon, and she does thing be so clear-cut. charges of treason just to expose what she thinks she’s supposed to. The whistleblower is something crimes at the highest level of For reporting the problem, she’s of an American myth, a type classifi ed intelligence. Detractors rewarded with a dismissal from ossifi ed over decades of pop have branded them traitors, their the offi ce and later an attempt on culture valorising those who actions having jeopardised the her life, but the fi lm takes good dare to go up against The System. security of American operatives care of her. She’s a feminist icon, Those are the terms of the confl ict, just to promote a partisan agenda. both for her scientifi c acumen always an all-but-independent An honest assessment lies and her moral compass, and she operator (if they are a lawyer, the somewhere in between, far closer makes it offi cial in the final scenes head of the fi rm will gruffl y tell to the former take, but these fi lms by becoming an Angel herself.

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