Film review: 'Surviving Paradise'
A very poor attempt to continue the neorealist wave of modern Iranian cinema in a Los Angeles setting, "Surviving Paradise" is the feature debut of Iranian-
American filmmaker Kamshad Kooshan, whose rudimentary skills behind the camera are well-matched with the amateurish material heralded in press materials as "a finalist in the 1997 Sundance Screenwriters Lab."
Not that the world will cease to function with the limited release of another RBM (Really Bad Movie), but survivors of "Surviving" among even the ethnic target audience might wonder what hit them. Of particular offense -- along with the atrocious acting by most supporting players, the vapid dialogue and completely unbelievable plot -- is the blatantly ignorant portrayal of central Los Angeles and its various neighborhoods.
The story hinges on missing parts of Aristotle's "Poetics" recently found in Iran. Incompetent bad guys set out to kidnap the wife of an antiques dealer when she travels to the United States. They nab the wrong woman, Pari (Shohreh Aghdashloo), an architect on her way to America to start a new life, and her children are left abandoned at the airport. Showing courage and utter stupidity in the guise of gutsy disregard for law enforcement, Pari's son Sam and daughter Sara (played by real-life siblings Keyan Arman Abedini and Lauren Pariss Abedini) duck out of the hands of authorities and begin looking for their mother alone.
Nobody, of course, looks for them, except a conscience-torn underworld goon, code-dubbed F (Joe Alvarez) for the purposes of the ill-fated caper, who orginally hails from Iran and is so thick-headed he takes days to decide that Pari is not the right kidnappee.
The film has little Sam and Sara sleeping unmolested on public benches and downtown L.A. sidewalks. When they wander aimlessly in search of their uncle's office and make friends with Latino gangbangers in Echo Park, Chinese restaurant owners and a kindly black family, the proceedings become downright comical and utterly false.
If only it didn't result in the kids being supported with guns and gumbo in a truly dreadful parade of cliched characters, as well as a pandering, Los Angeles-is-
paradise/hell attitude -- but it does, and Kooshan lamely tries to get away with cutting between the children hoofing the mean streets and Mom being grilled by the kidnappers. He doesn't get away with it for long.
By the time the children's lowrider allies come in for a heroic drive-by shooting to help save the day -- and it's supposed to be OK -- "Surviving" has long degenerated into exploitation, but even then it's so wretchedly filmed and edited that there's no tension and no real emotional dimension beyond the worrisomeness of the kids and their mother over their ridiculously unrealistic predicaments.
SURVIVING PARADISE
New Light Entertainment
In association with International Film & Video and Tweedle Music
Screenwriter-director: Kamshad Kooshan
Producers: Bahman Maghsoudlou, Kamshad Kooshan
Executive producers: Fred Afsbar, Torange Yeghiazarjan, Kambiz Kuschan
Director of photography: Paul Mayne
Production designer: Jay Vetter
Music: Richard Herrara Lopez
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sam: Keyan Arman Abedini
Sara: Lauren Pariss Abedini
Pari: Shohreh Aghdashloo
F: Joe Alvarez
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
American filmmaker Kamshad Kooshan, whose rudimentary skills behind the camera are well-matched with the amateurish material heralded in press materials as "a finalist in the 1997 Sundance Screenwriters Lab."
Not that the world will cease to function with the limited release of another RBM (Really Bad Movie), but survivors of "Surviving" among even the ethnic target audience might wonder what hit them. Of particular offense -- along with the atrocious acting by most supporting players, the vapid dialogue and completely unbelievable plot -- is the blatantly ignorant portrayal of central Los Angeles and its various neighborhoods.
The story hinges on missing parts of Aristotle's "Poetics" recently found in Iran. Incompetent bad guys set out to kidnap the wife of an antiques dealer when she travels to the United States. They nab the wrong woman, Pari (Shohreh Aghdashloo), an architect on her way to America to start a new life, and her children are left abandoned at the airport. Showing courage and utter stupidity in the guise of gutsy disregard for law enforcement, Pari's son Sam and daughter Sara (played by real-life siblings Keyan Arman Abedini and Lauren Pariss Abedini) duck out of the hands of authorities and begin looking for their mother alone.
Nobody, of course, looks for them, except a conscience-torn underworld goon, code-dubbed F (Joe Alvarez) for the purposes of the ill-fated caper, who orginally hails from Iran and is so thick-headed he takes days to decide that Pari is not the right kidnappee.
The film has little Sam and Sara sleeping unmolested on public benches and downtown L.A. sidewalks. When they wander aimlessly in search of their uncle's office and make friends with Latino gangbangers in Echo Park, Chinese restaurant owners and a kindly black family, the proceedings become downright comical and utterly false.
If only it didn't result in the kids being supported with guns and gumbo in a truly dreadful parade of cliched characters, as well as a pandering, Los Angeles-is-
paradise/hell attitude -- but it does, and Kooshan lamely tries to get away with cutting between the children hoofing the mean streets and Mom being grilled by the kidnappers. He doesn't get away with it for long.
By the time the children's lowrider allies come in for a heroic drive-by shooting to help save the day -- and it's supposed to be OK -- "Surviving" has long degenerated into exploitation, but even then it's so wretchedly filmed and edited that there's no tension and no real emotional dimension beyond the worrisomeness of the kids and their mother over their ridiculously unrealistic predicaments.
SURVIVING PARADISE
New Light Entertainment
In association with International Film & Video and Tweedle Music
Screenwriter-director: Kamshad Kooshan
Producers: Bahman Maghsoudlou, Kamshad Kooshan
Executive producers: Fred Afsbar, Torange Yeghiazarjan, Kambiz Kuschan
Director of photography: Paul Mayne
Production designer: Jay Vetter
Music: Richard Herrara Lopez
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sam: Keyan Arman Abedini
Sara: Lauren Pariss Abedini
Pari: Shohreh Aghdashloo
F: Joe Alvarez
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 7/5/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film review: 'Surviving Paradise'
A very poor attempt to continue the neorealist wave of modern Iranian cinema in a Los Angeles setting, "Surviving Paradise" is the feature debut of Iranian-
American filmmaker Kamshad Kooshan, whose rudimentary skills behind the camera are well-matched with the amateurish material heralded in press materials as "a finalist in the 1997 Sundance Screenwriters Lab."
Not that the world will cease to function with the limited release of another RBM (Really Bad Movie), but survivors of "Surviving" among even the ethnic target audience might wonder what hit them. Of particular offense -- along with the atrocious acting by most supporting players, the vapid dialogue and completely unbelievable plot -- is the blatantly ignorant portrayal of central Los Angeles and its various neighborhoods.
The story hinges on missing parts of Aristotle's "Poetics" recently found in Iran. Incompetent bad guys set out to kidnap the wife of an antiques dealer when she travels to the United States. They nab the wrong woman, Pari (Shohreh Aghdashloo), an architect on her way to America to start a new life, and her children are left abandoned at the airport. Showing courage and utter stupidity in the guise of gutsy disregard for law enforcement, Pari's son Sam and daughter Sara (played by real-life siblings Keyan Arman Abedini and Lauren Pariss Abedini) duck out of the hands of authorities and begin looking for their mother alone.
Nobody, of course, looks for them, except a conscience-torn underworld goon, code-dubbed F (Joe Alvarez) for the purposes of the ill-fated caper, who orginally hails from Iran and is so thick-headed he takes days to decide that Pari is not the right kidnappee.
The film has little Sam and Sara sleeping unmolested on public benches and downtown L.A. sidewalks. When they wander aimlessly in search of their uncle's office and make friends with Latino gangbangers in Echo Park, Chinese restaurant owners and a kindly black family, the proceedings become downright comical and utterly false.
If only it didn't result in the kids being supported with guns and gumbo in a truly dreadful parade of cliched characters, as well as a pandering, Los Angeles-is-
paradise/hell attitude -- but it does, and Kooshan lamely tries to get away with cutting between the children hoofing the mean streets and Mom being grilled by the kidnappers. He doesn't get away with it for long.
By the time the children's lowrider allies come in for a heroic drive-by shooting to help save the day -- and it's supposed to be OK -- "Surviving" has long degenerated into exploitation, but even then it's so wretchedly filmed and edited that there's no tension and no real emotional dimension beyond the worrisomeness of the kids and their mother over their ridiculously unrealistic predicaments.
SURVIVING PARADISE
New Light Entertainment
In association with International Film & Video and Tweedle Music
Screenwriter-director: Kamshad Kooshan
Producers: Bahman Maghsoudlou, Kamshad Kooshan
Executive producers: Fred Afsbar, Torange Yeghiazarjan, Kambiz Kuschan
Director of photography: Paul Mayne
Production designer: Jay Vetter
Music: Richard Herrara Lopez
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sam: Keyan Arman Abedini
Sara: Lauren Pariss Abedini
Pari: Shohreh Aghdashloo
F: Joe Alvarez
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
American filmmaker Kamshad Kooshan, whose rudimentary skills behind the camera are well-matched with the amateurish material heralded in press materials as "a finalist in the 1997 Sundance Screenwriters Lab."
Not that the world will cease to function with the limited release of another RBM (Really Bad Movie), but survivors of "Surviving" among even the ethnic target audience might wonder what hit them. Of particular offense -- along with the atrocious acting by most supporting players, the vapid dialogue and completely unbelievable plot -- is the blatantly ignorant portrayal of central Los Angeles and its various neighborhoods.
The story hinges on missing parts of Aristotle's "Poetics" recently found in Iran. Incompetent bad guys set out to kidnap the wife of an antiques dealer when she travels to the United States. They nab the wrong woman, Pari (Shohreh Aghdashloo), an architect on her way to America to start a new life, and her children are left abandoned at the airport. Showing courage and utter stupidity in the guise of gutsy disregard for law enforcement, Pari's son Sam and daughter Sara (played by real-life siblings Keyan Arman Abedini and Lauren Pariss Abedini) duck out of the hands of authorities and begin looking for their mother alone.
Nobody, of course, looks for them, except a conscience-torn underworld goon, code-dubbed F (Joe Alvarez) for the purposes of the ill-fated caper, who orginally hails from Iran and is so thick-headed he takes days to decide that Pari is not the right kidnappee.
The film has little Sam and Sara sleeping unmolested on public benches and downtown L.A. sidewalks. When they wander aimlessly in search of their uncle's office and make friends with Latino gangbangers in Echo Park, Chinese restaurant owners and a kindly black family, the proceedings become downright comical and utterly false.
If only it didn't result in the kids being supported with guns and gumbo in a truly dreadful parade of cliched characters, as well as a pandering, Los Angeles-is-
paradise/hell attitude -- but it does, and Kooshan lamely tries to get away with cutting between the children hoofing the mean streets and Mom being grilled by the kidnappers. He doesn't get away with it for long.
By the time the children's lowrider allies come in for a heroic drive-by shooting to help save the day -- and it's supposed to be OK -- "Surviving" has long degenerated into exploitation, but even then it's so wretchedly filmed and edited that there's no tension and no real emotional dimension beyond the worrisomeness of the kids and their mother over their ridiculously unrealistic predicaments.
SURVIVING PARADISE
New Light Entertainment
In association with International Film & Video and Tweedle Music
Screenwriter-director: Kamshad Kooshan
Producers: Bahman Maghsoudlou, Kamshad Kooshan
Executive producers: Fred Afsbar, Torange Yeghiazarjan, Kambiz Kuschan
Director of photography: Paul Mayne
Production designer: Jay Vetter
Music: Richard Herrara Lopez
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sam: Keyan Arman Abedini
Sara: Lauren Pariss Abedini
Pari: Shohreh Aghdashloo
F: Joe Alvarez
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 7/5/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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