Roll'em

Movie without coherent story bad acting its a disappointment

As far as I know, Roll'em is the first Saudi film to be commercially screened in Saudi cinemas after lifting the ban on public theatres in 2017. Our Saudi cinema has a lot of catching up to do, so I went to watch this film with my expectations lowered, but I am happy to say it exceeded them by a lot.

The protagonist Omar is an a aspiring and frustrated filmmaker. He is a flawed yet well rounder character. He is hotheaded and broody, and he really hates his 9-5 job as a director in an ad agency, and despised the compromises he has to do to make ends meet. He is in love with a lovely woman Leena who has aspiration of her own and feel suffocated by him. She needs a distance to evaluate the relationship, which attributes to his depression and state of loss he ends up in. One day while scouting for location in Jeddah's Old Town (AlBalad) he finds Farid Lutfi, a 70somthing antique shop owner who he finds out was once accomplished but now a retired filmmaker. Omar convinces Farid to work with him on a film about Old Jeddah, and in the process he teaches him a lesson or two about live, love and how to overcome the odds against him.

What I liked about the film is how at brisk 90 min, it managed to tell a well rounded story with a few clunky moments here and there. The performances for the most part were good, considering most of the actors are not seasoned, but the two leading roled played by Khaled Yeslam and Shaher Al Qurashi were especially strong. The film is beautifully shot, and the director knows where to place the camera and and how to frame qnr shoot a scene, and plays with depth of field in the external shots to alternate the focus between the actors in the foreground and AlBalad in the background with its busy streets, stray animals, and flocks of pigeons flying everywhere. Such flourishes made the film always interesting to look at, and not your run of the mill boring film. The music and the score of film is another strong elemnt, as it stirrer nostalgia without overwhelming the narrative. The ending of the film was wrapped a little bit too neatly with a scene I could only describe as nothing more than wish fulfilment, but it did not really take away from the film overall message. I will be looking forward to the director's next film, but this was a good step in what I am hoping it will be a long and successful career.

Although I like the places they have chosen for shooting and background music , I don't know what massage the movie want to address to send it to the audience , the acting in most the film with no soul , they try to be spontaneous but not working , I guess choosing the actors and actress was not based on the talent or speciality or even experience it's likely based on relationships and friendships , it is like there no main issue but many issues without ending and many negativities and angry not in the right place , I suggest to chooses actors and actress who fit for roles by by make Auditions and I hope all the best for our cinema.

Only one thing wrong with this movie, it is showing unrealistic Saudi Arabia - Which is faraway from our way of living. Not saying it's bad or good, it's only fake unless Jeddah is totally different

To be honest, I was very excited to watch this movie. However, I lost that feeling in the first 10 minutes of the film. Actually, you cannot judge a whole movie in just 10 or 15 minutes, and I kept convincing myself that the movie will go better as time goes on. Unfortunately it did not. The performances were really weak, that is what upset me in the beginning. A good actor does not make you feel that he is acting, but in this movie, I could really see the "overacting". That was the first disappointment. The second disappointment was about the story. The Arabic screenwriters - in general- are very lazy! They just stick too much details without explaining or without a clear ending, and that is a disaster. There were a couple of characters that you will not understand the meaning of their existence. What the writers really failed in is that they stuck much minor points beside the main point, and these minor points will make the audience confused. What the writers should have done in the first place was to focus in one certain point, then they could have added the minor points as branches and with clear explanation and ending. I am saying that because there were many scenes that was not understood, and they had nothing to do with the story itself, that what I meant when I said "these minor points will make the audience confuesd". Finally, the Saudi cinema is still a "child", but we must critisice it hardly, because I am a Saudi, and I would love to see more Saudi movies. What I really would love is to see a good Saudi movie, unfortunately, Roll'em was not the movie I looked for.