Review of The Imperialists Are Still Alive! (2010) by Sharon K — 27 Sep 2012

With both hilarious satire and gentle emotional authenticity, the filmmaker, Zeina Durra, really gets the texture of young upper-class expats living in New York. She shows, on one hand, the freedom quite particular to New York City, where nationalities mix, where classes confront each other in much more ambiguous circumstances than wherever back home is, and where everyone you know is engaged is some sort of vague, self-obsessed pursuit of accomplishment --all amidst endless taxi and limo rides to the next coolest place, where you only ever stay for five minutes. On the other hand, the movie captures the way that , when you come to America, you feel as if you're in a place where the wars, the struggles, the serious business of other places, somehow get sucked into a bubble that you can look at, but not touch. Durra does an admirable job of gathering these stray pieces together to show the strange, restless state in which her characters live.

The critics speak about the influence on Durra's work from Whit Stillman's films--which I love, and which always make me laugh out loud. She certainly has learned from his marvelous ability to capture social nuances and the characteristics of class and nationality, and to satirize them with an utterly straight face. The difference, I think, is that Stillman always remains slightly aloof, maybe even slightly aghast at his characters (or am I just projecting?), where Durra approaches them here with more compassion. She eventually lets you see the substance behind characters that start out as utterly frivolous.

I'll certainly be looking for Durra's next film.