WAKE UP – Review by Justina Walford

Wake Up is a Gen Z vs The World kind of slasher film so it makes sense that we have angsty activist kids, carrying the weight of their parents’ economic trauma, trying to survive violent deaths in an IKEA. Yep. An IKEA. The film is a game of cat-and-mouse through a maze of prefab living rooms and industrial lighting. The meatballs even get an appearance. The obligatory attempt to put a piece of furniture together even happens. Every faux-bedroom and showroom kitchen becomes a stage for brutal violence or at least a weapon pick-up. Some kills are pretty inventive and fun. If you’ve ever looked at a coffee table and wondered if you could kill an intruder with it, you know, in a pinch —first, you’re my kind of people; second, this movie has you covered.

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MOVIE OF THE WEEK September 1, 2023: ORCA

Perseverance is at the heart of Sahar Mosayebi’s moving drama Orca, which is based on the true story of Elham Asghari, the Iranian open-water swimmer who defied the legal and cultural limitations placed on women in Iran by making and breaking world records. In the process, she’s helped bring attention to the challenges faced by Iran’s female athletes, who long for the opportunity to compete in all sports, not just the officially sanctioned ones.

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ORCA – Review by Pam Grady

Just like any typical sports movie, Orca is an uplifting story of an athlete striving for excellence. But there is nothing typical about Elham Asghari’s (Taraneh Alidoosti) journey as an endurance swimmer in Iran that is typical. A domestic abuse survivor, she recovers her sense of self in the water. But when she reaches out to Iran’s sports federation for its blessing in a swimming competition, the organization denies her. (This is, after all, a government body that won’t allow women to participate in kickboxing or Muay Thai because it might damage their reproductive organs – say what?)

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