THE ROAD (Jaddeh Khaki)<\/p>\n
Kino Lorber
\nReviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten
\nDirector: Panah Panahi
\nScreenwriter: Panah Panahi
\nCast: Hassan Madjooni, Pantea Panahiha, Rayan Sarlak, Amin Simiar
\nScreened at: Critics\u2019 link, NYC, 4\/8\/22
\nOpens: April 22, 2022<\/p>\n
\u201cHit the Road\u201d takes place in a car but is unlike most of what you might see in a Hollywood project. Like \u201cThe White Balloon\u201d of director Panah Panahi\u2019s father, Jafar Panahi, \u201cHit the Road\u201d devotes much attention on one child. Like Panahi senior\u2019s film, which features a seven-year-old who years for a goldfish when all the stores are closed, \u201cHit the Road\u201d reaches comic peaks when Amin Jafari\u2019s lenses catch close-ups of an alternately bratty and adorable six-year-old boy (Rayan Sarlak). He quietly \u201cplays\u201d piano on a drawn keyboard in tune with classical piece on the soundtrack, bursting into song and spirited interjections as though to make up for the near silence of his older brother (Amin Simiar) <\/p>\n
The film\u2019s mood changes from the small boy\u2019s boisterousness to the cynical responses of his father (Pantea Panahiha); from the sad countenance of the boy\u2019s mother (Pantea Panahiha) to the same woman\u2019s hitting karaoke to one of the several popular songs on the radio.<\/p>\n
Much of the action takes place in the interior of the car driven by the boy\u2019s mother while his dad reclines in the back seat, his leg, encumbered by a cast, draped over the side. He has a way of kidding with the kid, calling him a shit in the most loving way. We in the audience can see soon enough that this is not family vacation. The SUV heads from the paved roads near a city to the dusty surfaces deep into villages and uninhabited spaces. There is sadness all around: the six-year-old pouts when dad takes away his cell phone after making the boy dig inside his pants where the equipment is hiding. The parents are dejected in one sense because their dying dog is to be buried within the vast terrain but far more because their older son is about to leave the family once a mysterious smuggler (coyote?) will take him over the border in the north.<\/p>\n
Some who see the film are going to wonder what\u2019s up with the taciturn fellow though if you blink to you may miss a quick comment about a house that has been put up for the man\u2019s bail. Still, no thought appears to be given by the parents who might face the loss of the living quarters when their son crosses the border. <\/p>\n
One shot is breathtaking, near the conclusion when the father, arms outstretched together with the six-year-old seem to float way into outer space, becoming a star. Though \u201cHit the Road\u201d is said to be a Cannes favorite, with Panahi making his debut at film festivals in London where it won best feature, also in Cannes and New York. While Rayan Sarlak is so spirited with a command of dialogue rare in someone that young, I longed for more narrative momentum rather than what looks like a series of skits craftily demonstrating the ability to change from rollicking laughs and song to periods of moroseness. <\/p>\n
In Farsi with English subtitles. <\/p>\n
93 minutes. \u00a9 2022 by Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online<\/p>\n
Story \u2013 C
\nActing \u2013 B+
\nTechnical \u2013 B+
\nOverall \u2013 C+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE ROAD (Jaddeh Khaki) Kino Lorber Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Panah Panahi Screenwriter: Panah Panahi Cast: Hassan Madjooni, Pantea Panahiha, Rayan Sarlak, Amin Simiar Screened at: Critics\u2019 link, NYC, 4\/8\/22 Opens: April 22, 2022 \u201cHit the Road\u201d takes place in a car but is unlike most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":195297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-04-22T21:51:56Z","apple_news_api_id":"06a61cb1-2f91-420a-8149-0ee24719e9c4","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-06-09T02:50:13Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ABqYcsS-RQgqBSQ7iRxnpxA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":["https:\/\/news-api.apple.com\/sections\/a256d957-d5f8-3bec-b93f-7f862cadbf92"],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-reviews"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n