The Black Tulip

"Black Tulip" is a bore. It's an amateurish first film directed and starring an apparently talentless and inexperienced Beverly Hills socialite who decided to cast herself in a lead role. Reviewers have called the film "simplistic" "heavy-handed" and "obvious." Variety wrote, ""Tulip" has the conviction as well as the artlessness of a saber-rattling speech at a political fundraising dinner." The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Cole is similarly green as a director, sometimes clumsy with camera placement, but casting herself in a lead role was especially problematic. She's the weakest actor here, laughing her way through scenes in which laughter makes little sense."

I should have heeded my own red-flag warning and not wasted my time on this movie. What's the red flag? The star of the movie is also the writer and the director. The end result of such a troika is usually little more than blatant ego gratification, and this movie doesn't fail to fulfill that goal.

In addition to the glorification of the main character, seemingly unrelated characters and scenes pop in and out, with little or no background or transition. Maybe it all would have been united into a cohesive story by the time it painfully dragged itself to a conclusion, but I shut it down after 90 minutes and never had the benefit of whatever that conclusion might have been. And couldn't care less, BTW.

It's unfortunate that IMDb doesn't have a way to require reviewers to disclose their financial association with the film that they are reviewing. If such disclosures were possible, it's likely that many 10-star reviewers would be flagged as shills. And that includes the 10-star reviewers of The Black Tulip.

On the negative side is a not very strong dialogue, and the acting was obviously acting. Understandable in that this is an Afghan production where a history of film freedom & production is probably lacking. Amusingly obvious in street filming sequences where bystanders, with looks of uncertainty, stare at the camera as it films an actor in a scene.

Story is centered on a family having the courage to open a restaurant with a stage for poetry, other readings, and music. All under newly instilled Western style freedoms. The Taliban, as we all know, think these actions are prohibited according to their readings of the Qur'an.

The film shows us the new customs blending with the old traditions from rural areas where Taliban are plotting against the restaurant to a girl's school (8 girls, small but an important start) where the class discussion is of how cleanliness is supported by the Qur'an. A telling quote, "So you understand how common death has become in Afghanistan.", is behind the title "the black tulip" which refers to planes that carried the Soviet dead back home during their presence (1978 to 1989).

Interesting in the credits to see Sen.Feinstein (D) and former Sen. Kyl (R) and Anne Heche, amongst other notables, as sponsors. A personal aside, the Anti-American sentiment, to be expected, expressed by Taliban illustrates the care we should take with our military and political incursions around the world that involve Islam. That we do not become their lightning rod, principal antagonist. One simple step, to ameliorate that, would be to promote allowing the Palestinians their own country, and not an ever-decreasing sized reservation, analogous to what Native Americans faced.

This is the first time a movie about Afghanistan, created by Afghans and shot entirely in Afghanistan is being considered for the Oscars. I truly enjoyed watching this captivating movie which does not fail to show Afghanistan in it's entirety.

The scenes were simply fantastic and breathtaking. Many of my friends who have recently traveled there say it mimics Afghanistan exactly the way it is today: modern, classy, evolving and closer to freedom than ever before.

The music was beautiful and touching at the same time. Never have I seen music like that in my whole life and this film shows that music is a very big part of the Afghan culture.

The acting was superb, particularly that of the young gal playing the bride to be. There were parts in the film which were also quite funny and made the theater burst into laughter---nicely done.

Overall, I gave this film a 10/10 because so much was risked in making this film and despite every challenge faced by the crew, they managed to finish it up and give Afghanistan something to be proud of: That is, the world will know that Afghans are more than uncivilized people living in caves---

This movie grabbed me from the very beginning, and held on tightly till the end. HIGHLY recommended.

The art direction, casting, screenplay, and music were all superb. It's refreshing to see a foreign film that has all the important elements of a major studio release these days.

If you want to learn more about Afghanistan and the struggles going on there right now between everyday people and the Taliban, this is a wonderful film to check out. It blends an Afghan family's story with that of the insurgent group to produce a very real look at that country.

I'm not sure why it's got so many low ratings!