Cinema Roundup - March 2026: “Remember, everything will be alright”
March has been a mostly depressing month in Dubai because of the war. I only watched four films in the cinema, one of them twice. There were hardly any new releases during Ramadan or films I wanted to see, so it was from the Eid Al Fitr holidays onwards that I found myself wanting to go back to the cinema.
At home I spent a lot of time watching and rewatchingng Industry which I started in February. I knew nothing about it except that it stars Marisa Abela. I had only seen her in Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag (a favourite from last year) and was curious to see what she’s like in this TV show. Turns out there’s a great ensemble cast, and even though I still don’t understand any of the financial parts, it is still very watchable, especially seasons 3 and 4. It was also a good distraction from the news.
But back to films.
Favourite film:
Project Hail Mary (Phil Lord, Christopher Miller)
VOX Cinemas, IMAX, Festival City, Dubai - went twice
This was a bit schmaltzy for a sci-fi, and wasn’t expecting it to be so child friendly. But I enjoyed watching it and went to see it again. A hopeful and uplifting film which I suppose is what I needed to see. It also looks great. I was happy to learn most of what we saw on the screen were physical sets and no green screens were used. “Amaze, amaze, amaze.”
Felt emotional when I heard the following lyrics from the Harry Styles' song Sign of the Times sung by Sandra Hüller in the karaoke scene, because of the stress and anxiety caused by the daily sounds of loud explosions of intercepted missiles/drones from Iran targeting Dubai, and the news in general.
“Remember everything will be alright
We can meet again somewhere
Somewhere far away from here”
Also, was happy to see Industry’s Ken Leung in the film. Wish he had a bigger part.
The other big releases this month were Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie) and The Bride (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Watched both on IMAX at VOX Cinemas, Festival City. Had mixed feelings for both, and wanted to like them a lot more.
The dud of the month was Good Boy (Jan Komasa) also known as Heel.
Sirat (Óliver Laxe) was another new release in our cinemas. I saw it last October in Vienna and contemplated watching it, only because of its end of the world theme which suited one’s mood. But in the end, I decided not to go. I wrote a few words about it in my Favourite Films of 2025 post.
The other big cinema related happening in March was the Oscars award ceremony. I watched the live broadcast and a couple of hours into it I heard loud explosions of intercepted drones/missiles from Iran. So it was hard to switch off a little from the a war, even for a few hours.
I was happy Sinners and One Battle After Another won several awards, but was sad The Secret Agent didn’t get any. A film about political repression and its impact through generations, it should have at least won Best International Film. But sadly the Academy members are mostly apolitical voters, just like most of the ceremony itself this year.
The most political statements made on stage were:
“No to war, and free Palestine”
— Javier Bardem
“There are some countries whose leaders don’t support free speech. I’m not at liberty to say which. Let’s just leave it at North Korea and CBS…There’s an international community of filmmakers dedicated to telling the truth, oftentimes at great risk. To make films that teach us, that call out injustice, that inspire us to take action. And there are also documentaries where you walk around the White House trying on shoes…Oh man, is he going to be mad his wife isn’t nominated.”
— Jimmy Kimmel (the White House documentary is a reference to the Amazon funded documentary Melania
“The film is about how you lose your country, and what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small, little acts of complicity. When we act complicit, when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don’t say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it, we all make a moral choice…But luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think.”
— David Borenstein, writer, co-director and producer of the winning documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin
The speeches by the rest were mostly soft and inoffensive and hardly any statements against ICE, AI, tech companies trying to destroy the film industry, or the general state of politics in America.
Film critic A. S. Hamrah shared a link on Twitter to a piece by Sarah Milled titled Soup to Nuts to Blood - Thoughts on the Academy that perfectly articulates why the ceremony was problematic. Below are a couple of extracts, but I strongly urge you to read the whole piece.
“My least favorite moment that wasn’t merely silly but in fact offensive was Jessie Buckley’s acceptance speech, about Hamnet and the importance of a mother’s love. She dedicated her Oscar to the “beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.” Must we keep enduring this depiction of motherhood as so wild and profound we can’t possibly wrap our minds around it? Nothing that is presently wrong with the world has anything to do with any lack of understanding that other human beings have about how much women love their children. People who kill children know how much mothers love their children, for example. That’s why they kill them.”
and
“The movie One Battle After Another was the big winner. The movie is about state violence and people who fight back against it. The world shown in the movie is the world we live in. Some of the characters in the movie fighting back against the state repression could qualify as what the federal government and the media call “Antifa” as if “Antifa” were a thing, like the AFL-CIO, or the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Last Friday, nine people in North Texas were convicted of various felonies for fighting back against state violence. The prosecution leaned heavily on their being members of “Antifa” to convict them.
Paul Thomas Anderson, coming to the podium in a double-breasted tux for three awards, used none of these opportunities to mention these people, all now in federal prison for doing exactly what his movie praised. He did not mention Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman who was detained for over a year after 2024 protests at Columbia University and released last week. He did not mention ICE at all, even though his movie is, in large part, about ICE.”
I must also direct you to A.S. Hamrah’s always excellent annual piece about the nominated films which I wait for eagerly, this year’s edition was titled Pulling Bolts Out of the Ferris Wheel.
The other icky thing about the Oscars and adjacent events this year:
- Several winners were cut off from completing their speeches, many of whom of are filmmakers of colour which feels sickeningly deliberate, as if anyone beyond white American celebrity status don’t deserve the same airtime to celebrate their wins.
- Influencers with no knowledge of cinema or interview skills interviewing celebrities.
- CEOs of evil tech companies invited to the Vanity Fair party - the same companies that are trying to ‘disrupt’ governments, journalism, cinemas and the film industry.
Just like last year, Conan O’Brien did a great good job at hosting the ceremony, and at least made jokes in his opening monologue about AI and Netflix’s CEO Ted Sarandos who keeps harping on that cinema theatres don’t matter because most people don’t watch films there even though it’s not true. He just wants us to stay home glued to TV or computer screens.
Here are my favourite parts with Conan O’Brien from the night that I could find online: