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Top 5 UAE theatrical releases of 2020

We’ve been lucky to go to cinemas in this country this year! Here’s what we liked best

WITH A PROMISING start to what was shaping up to be a strong cinematic year, in March movie theatres around the world took the unprecedented step of closing down. While globally cinemas on the whole remain shut to this day, the UAE was one of the only countries on Earth to get blockbusters up and running by summer. So this year we feel very privileged to bring you our top five movies we watched on the big screen in 2020.

1917. It was January 10 when Sam Mendes’ epic opened in the UAE and we were there, front and centre, as soon as tickets went on sale. The hype the pictured had garnered from advanced screenings around the world turned out to be fully justified. Seemingly captured in one continuous shot, 1917 is ostensibly a standard A to B film: following a British World War One soldier (George MacKay) carrying vital life-saving information from one trench to another. Teased out from that plot, however, is a plethora of tear jerking, terrifying and at points heart-warming emotion echoing some of the greatest war poets of the period in which the action is set.

Little Women. Another from before the #StayHome measures were put in place, we had somehow missed out on the 1868 novel and previous filmed versions thereof. Thus what greeted us was a fresh, compelling story of the four March sisters navigating adolescence to adulthood in Civil War-era America. Stand-out performances from Saoirse Ronan as Josephine and Florence Pugh playing Amy, not to mention expert direction by the outstanding Greta Gerwig, made for a five-star 135 minutes filled with jeopardy and joy.

Mr. Jones. Our first movie back in cinemas the day they reopened on May 27 was actually a rerun of Birds of Prey. New films remained a few weeks off. Then came Korean zombie flick Peninsula which was decent, Christopher Nolan’s much-lauded feast for the eyes Tenet (a tad over-complicated) and finally our off-beat September pick, Mr. Jones. Somewhat flying under the radar, this gripping biographical thriller stars James Norton as Welsh Journalist Gareth Jones who travels to the Soviet Union in 1933 with the aim to interview Stalin about his apparently successful five-year development plan. While there Jones escapes the confines of prosperous Moscow and travels to Ukraine where he discovers evidence of widespread famine. Will he get the story out into the world and, more importantly, will anyone believe him over the propaganda?

Mulan. It became a battle between Mulan and Antebellum when trying to hone down choices, but in the end Disney and its might won out. This live action interpretation of a cartoon we loved growing up was a surprisingly bold take on the retelling of what is essentially marketed as a kids’ story; doing away with comedy dragon Mushu and giving the depiction of war a far more realistic touch than we were expecting. A tour de force from Yifei Liu as the eponymous hero and Gong Li playing witch Xianniang created a familiar though novel experience we will forever remember fondly.

Wonder Woman 1984. Many observers favourably compare this franchise’s first instalment to 1978’s comic book hero classic Superman, though we feel its sequel WW84 should hold the compliment. Colourful, fun and crucially upbeat even in the more dramatic scenes, Gal Gadot’s winks to camera when taking down the bad guys early in the movie and naturally warm presence are a revelation for the genre. In a world where superheroes became far too serious even before the world took a turn for the melancholy, Wonder Woman shines an invaluable beacon of light.