Pluskylang Great Film overall

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Alexander Formenius (aformenius) After being a long term resident in dubai i feel that the movie touched on some key aspects. although city of life did resemble movies such as crash i feel this was a huge change from the rest. Where it was similar was that it followed multiple main characters and their stories converged in more than one case. but the difference was that the movie at hand touched on a world that has not been portrayed properly to the outside world. Many people have heard the stories of dubai about the money and the cars and the houses, but this movie not only displayed that but also showed how the culture affects all of this. In the case of the story line of the local emirati, I personally felt that it showed an aspect of the young emirati's that is not shown normally to the rest of the world. Although there is some cultural taboo's shown in the movie, the core values of the culture are still represented. such as loyalty and respect for one's family. in today's media the 'arab' world is extremely mis-represented and i feel that this movie shed an extremely positive light on it. I also feel that the movie represented the split of classes in the UAE very well. There is a clear split in the classes of people in the UAE. although it is not always bad, it is present in day-to-day life. The Split between and Arab male, a European expat Woman and an Indian Expat male was portrayed very well in the film. I don't want to make this review sound like a puff piece that just compliments the film so i will name some negatives to balance it. The movie didn't focus heavily on some aspects of UAE life. The fact that all the stories ended happy made me feel like the film was a little bit Hollywood-ized. although it was a fantastic ending to the film and an end to an extreme emotional roller coaster, i feel that the movie maybe should have also had one story that didn't end happily. This would have shown viewers that even in this city of life, there are people who don't get their happy ending. That being said, in hind sight i would not have wished the director to chance the ending of the film as personally i did love the film in its entirety!

bhatian Prior to viewing this film in the cinema in Dubai, I had already heard some good reviews of the film having a potential to enter mainstream cinema. Therefore last night I decided on viewing this film without expecting much.The storytelling is basically similar to the likes of Babel and Crash, and the film style is "done that, did that". In spite of all the similarities I was impressed by production quality and cinematography. Film touches on lives of three people living in Dubai, and their experiences based on their dreams. Dubai has always been a city of dream rather than a city of life, where people come to fulfill their dream on making more money, buying a bigger better car and home, or simply living a lavish life. This has been well portrayed in the film.The acting quality is excellent and the costumes, make-ups, and production designs are all well picked. But somehow watching this film in a cinema felt a bit awkward as it had a television production feel rather than cinema house quality. My overall experience just like everyone else was good.I recommend you watch this film if you have never lived in Dubai, as it does speak out well about Dubai's lifestyle and the dreams people carry here. Dubai is simply a place for dreamers and its best lived short and sweet.My score: 6 out of 10Neeil Bhatia

Tristan Marchetti I've convinced my movie-addict French neighbor to come discovering the first Emirati movie with me last night and we've both been thrilled by this experience! We've both been living in Dubai for a few years and everything in this movie was talking to us: the character, the story, the atmosphere and the sets of course. Debuting director Ali F. Mostafa has done an excellent work in depicting these different lives and their destiny in this cosmopolitan city, capturing smartly the essence of the Dubai "cultural melting pot" without falling in the stereotype. Acting was good in general for the whole cast (special mention to Yassin Alsalman aka Khalfan and Sonu Sood aka Basu), the photography was capturing Dubai atmosphere with just the right tone and the cool soundtrack was giving a arty note to the movie, reminding me a bit of what is being done in the US independent production the last years (Anderson or Reitman). City of Life is not free of defects though: the fighting scenes look a bit like cartoon (watch the local martial art in dish dash!), the social class rivalry between Emiratis would have benefited from further development and some elapse effect in the narration dilute the emotional impact of certain scenes (the scene with Natalia at the hospital), but these minor reproaches do not erode the pleasure you will feel watching City of Life and remember this is only the first movie of Ali F. Mostafa! Now would this movie talk to somebody not living in Dubai? I would say definitely yes as City of Life stands alone as a good piece of cinematography with a captivating story. I hope this movie will get the chance to have an international career and I wish foreign audience will witness the birth of a new talented Emirati director as we did yesterday. Spread the word!!!

Faisal Khatib Directed, written and produced by Ali F. Mostafa, a UAE based film maker, being the first Emirati full length feature, I was looking forward to seeing how Dubai had been depictedIt revolves around the life of an Emirati called Faisal (played by Saoud Al Kaabi) who's unsure about his identity in society, an Indian taxi driver called Basu (played by Sonu Sood) dreaming to become a big Indian actor, a flight attendant called Natalia Moldovan (played by Alexandra Maria Lara) looking for companionship and an old Filipino cardboard collector (played by Itlanas Jr) and how their lives converge in the end for better or worse.'City of life' is a drama set in the urban environment that is Dubai. How people from different cultural/ethnic backgrounds are trying to find themselves, figure things out and live. It also shows how certain actions and their reactions leads to a domino effect in their lives where some find hope and some find a reason to live.Saoud Al Kaabi played his role well though he was completely over shadowed by Yassin Alsalman who plays his aggressive emotional friend to perfection. Sonu Sood as the taxi driver dreaming big was good in patches as I thought at some points in the film he could have showed more emotions to get the viewers really involved in his plight. Alexandra Maria Lara and Jason Flemyng (playing the playboy Guy Berger) were not very convincing while Natalie Dormer (playing Natalia's roommate Olga) was quite good in comparison. Ahmed Ahmed (playing restaurant owner Nasser) and Javed Jaffery (playing Suresh Khan) didn't have big enough roles to make any impact on the viewer while Habib Ghuloom (playing Faisal's father) was quite poor in his single style of dialog delivery but I suppose his role didn't have anything else to offer either.For a person who's directing his first full length feature, Ali F. Mostafa did a fantastic job. I love the opening bicycle scene and the way he incorporated shots from old Dubai i.e. Satwa with the modern Dubai i.e. SZR road. I also like the way he included the various point of views and lifestyles i.e. covering the local, western and Asian. The story was well written though a little cliché but then that is Dubai in a lot of ways. The camera work in some places was a bit shaky but maybe that's how they wanted it to be.What I didn't like about the movie was that it seemed to be just another thing out of the UAE that was trying to promote 'Brand Dubai'. I know most movies do that when it comes to the locations they use and I'm being a little too critical about it but I just felt it could have been avoided in some areas.It was a nice night out. A movie I recommend to any person who's lived in the UAE or the gulf even if you might not be able to relate to any of the characters cause just watching Dubai on the big screen and trying to figure out the various locations is fun in its own way plus you get a good story to enjoy on the side...