Amira Casar Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Honeyjoon,’ starring Ayden Mayeri, Amira Casar and José Condessa

June 22, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Honeyjoon”

Directed by Lilian Mehrel

Some language in Portuguese with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place on the São Miguel island in Portugal’s Azores region, the dramatic film “Honeyjoon” features a Portuguese and Middle Eastern cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An Iranian British widow and her U.S.-raised young adult daughter take a vacation together, and the women grapple with their grief and some unresolved issues between them.

Culture Audience: “Honeyjoon” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching competently acted dramas about mother-daughter relationships and how immigration affects people’s lives.

The drama “Honeyjoon” takes a low-key approach to a mother and a daughter reconnecting during a vacation in Portugal, where they confront their emotional wounds. The pacing can get dull, but a friendly tour guide brings intrigue to the family dynamics. The movie also has thoughtful observations about the immigrant experience from the perspectives of an immigrant parent and a non-immigrant child.

Written and directed by Lilian T. Mehrel, “Honeyjoon” is her feature-film directorial debut. “Honeyjoon” had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. The movie was film takes place on the São Miguel island in Portugal’s Azores region, where “Honeyjoon” was filmed on location. The two family members who are at the center of the story are recently widowed Lela Mer (played by Amira Casar) and her bachelorette daughter June (played Ayden Mayeri), who have more differences than similarities in their personalities.

“Honeyjoon” is a conversation-driven movie that focuses only on a few characters, even though the locations are filled with other people. The movie skillfully conveys that even on this vacation trip, Lela and June prefer to keep to themselves. The circumstances of this trip are unusual because June (who is in her early 20s and who is Lela’s only child) didn’t expect to be on this vacation with Lela.

The trip was originally planned as a wedding anniversary celebration for Lela and her husband (June’s father), who unexpectedly died of cancer one year before this trip takes place. São Miguel holds special memories for Lela because it’s where she and her late husband spent some time during their courtship. Instead of canceling these vacation plans, Lela asks June to accompany her on this trip.

It’s mentioned at the beginning of the movie that Lela and June, who both live in the United States, don’t see each other in person very often because Lela lives on the East Coast, while June lives on the West Coast. But the distance between Lela and June has a lot more to do with emotional estrangement than physical locations. The conversations in the movie reveal that mother and daughter have had tensions for quite some time about Lela’s opinions of how June is living her life.

Lela thinks that June (who is a medical school dropout) needs to have more defined and planned goals for June’s career and personal life. June would rather have a “go with the flow” approach to her life and doesn’t want to put strict deadlines on herself. June mentions at one point in the movie that she’s taking a break from dating because she hasn’t had much luck in finding someone special, but she’s still open to finding true love.

Lela was born in Iran and is of Kurdish heritage. Lela was a child when she and her family fled Iran sometime during the Iranian Revolution (also known as the Islamic Revolution) period from February 1978 to January 1979, when the monarchical government was overthrown by a rebel faction that established the Islamic Republic of Iran. Lela and her refugee family settled in the United Kingdom (she still has a British accent), she met her future husband when she was in he 20s, and the couple lived in the United States, where June was born.

Early on in the movie, it’s easy to see how different Lela and June are from each other. Lela has brought a plastic pouch bag of her deceased husband’s hair with her and wants to give some of the hair to June. June declines the offer and thinks it’s morbid that Lela is carrying around this plastic bag of a dead person’s hair.

Lela is very much caught up in following news about the Women, Life, Freedom movement that advocates for women’s rights in Iran. It affects Lela emotionally when she sees news reports about women from the movement getting arrested. By contrast, June wants to tune out that type of news during this vacation because she thinks it’s too depressing.

“Honeyjoon” has a few moments of discomfort that are supposed to be somewhat amusing. The hotel booking for Lela was for a couple’s honeymoon-style accommodations, such as one bed in the room and activities such as couple’s massages. When Lela and June check into hotel, June has to explain the front desk clerk that she and Lela are not lovers but are actually mother and daughter.

June and Lela find out that the room that was booked for them has only one bed. They can’t switch rooms because the hotel is fully booked up, and it’s too late to cancel the booking because it would involve a hefty fee that Lela doesn’t want to pay. And so, June and Lela agree to make the best of these accommodations, including sharing the same bed.

June is much more uncomfortable about it than Lela, whose occasional farting in bed is supposed to bring some comic relief in the movie. But there’s a poignant scene when Lela (who has been having some nightmares) asks June to hold her in a comforting way in bed so Lela can try to go to sleep. It’s a moment when June sees firsthand the profound loneliness that Lela must be feeling to no longer have a spouse who can hold Lea to bring that comfort.

Rather than go on a big group tour, June decides that it’s better to pay extra for a more intimate and custom tour with just herself, Lela and a tour guide. The tour guide happens to be a handsome man named João (played by José Condessa), who drives June and Lela to various scenic locations and tells some history about these locations. João is an available bachelor who’s about the same age as June.

During the guided tour, which involves a lot of outdoor hiking and climbing, June is dressed in a long white dress, which isn’t exactly ideal for these outdoor activities. Lela is dressed more practically. During the guided tour, June and João have an unspoken attraction to each other, but June acts very reserved, as if she’s unsure about expressing this attraction to João while Lela is right there on the tour. Meanwhile, Lela is more talkative and friendly to João, and their instant rapport makes June feel like a third wheel.

Lela considers herself to be a supporter of the feminist movement in Iran, but some of her traditional upbringing seeps back into her conversations with June. For example, Lela gives some criticism to June for June’s choice of swimwear (which has a thong) when they get some unwanted catcall attention from men at a beach. June snaps back by reminding Lela that part of the women’s liberation movement is that women should be allowed to wear whatever they want.

João opens up to Lela and June about his fractured family: Both of his parents abandoned him when he was a child. There’s a sweet-natured part of the movie when João takes a detour and introduces Lela and June to his grandmother (played by Teresa Faria), who is living with dementia. June feels even closer to João when she sees that João knows what it’s like to have a family member with a deadly disease.

“Honeyjoon” doesn’t really build up to a major turning point in the story. It’s a “slice of life” movie that shows a series of vignettes during a period of a few days during this trip. As expected, “Honeyjoon” has some stunning scenes of the gorgeous São Miguel landscapes.

The rhythm of “Honeyjoon” has stops and starts with conversations that sometimes crackle with intensity and other times are very mundane. However, the performances of Casar and Mayeri are consistently solid and convincing as a mother and daughter who are navigating through their grief and other issues. Viewers will leave the movie knowing that this guided tour that Lela and June take outdoors is a way for mother and daughter to deal with their internal emotions that will have an impact that lasts longer than this vacation.

Review: ‘The Contractor’ (2022), starring Chris Pine

April 26, 2022

by Carla Hay

Chris Pine in “The Contractor” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“The Contractor” (2022)

Directed by Tarik Saleh

Culture Representation: Taking place in the United States and in Berlin, the action film “The Contractor” features a cast of predominantly white characters (with some African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A former Green Beret takes a mercenary job as a private contractor, and he finds himself at going against orders and being hunted by his former colleagues.

Culture Audience: “The Contractor” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Chris Pine and anyone who likes formulaic “shoot ’em up” movies.

Gillian Jacobs and Chris Pine in “The Contractor” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“The Contractor” is as generic and dull as its title, with an over-used action-movie plot of a bitter military veteran who goes rogue. Throw in some ‘daddy issues,’ sloppy editing and a drab Chris Pine—and that sums up this soulless film. It’s also got an awkward mix of trying to be gritty and sentimental, often in the wrong places.

Directed by Tarik Saleh and written by J.P. Davis, “The Contractor” (formerly titled “Violence of Action”) is being marketed as an action thriller, but any “action” or “thrills” are utterly predictable and don’t really come until the last half of the movie. The first half of the movie is a dreary slog showing what led to James Harper (played by Pine) going from being a Green Beret to joining a shady mercenary operation as a private contractor. James is living in the shadow of his father Mason, a high-ranking U.S. military officer who expected James from an early age to also go into the military.

In the beginning of “The Contractor,” James has been estranged from his father for years, for reasons that remain vague. However, flashbacks and conversations reveal that Mason (played by Dean Ashton) was an overly demanding and emotionally abusive father during James’ childhood. The movie starts off with James as a U.S. Army Special Forces Sergeant first class, also known as a Green Beret. James is also a war veteran, and he sustained injuries during his war duties. James is currently stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Now seemingly recovered from his injuries, James is due to go before a board of military decision makers who will determine if he will be reinstated as a Green Beret. However, James has a secret: Because he’s desperate to be in the type of physical shape where he can be re-instated, James has been illegally taking human growth hormones through needle injections.

The U.S. Army finds out when James tests positive for these drugs. He is honorably discharged, but as punishment, he won’t be getting his military pension or insurance benefits. It comes at a very bad time, because James and his homemaker wife Brianne (played by Gillian Jacobs) are heavily in debt and getting dangerously close to going bankrupt. They’re so financially broke, they’re behind on their utility bills. When debt collectors call, James just ignores the phone calls.

In addition to having a financial strain on their marriage, James and Brianne have grown emotionally distant from each other. Brianne and James have a shy and introverted son named Jack (played by Sander Thomas), who is about 8 or 9 years old and the couple’s only child. Because James has spent a long time away from home, Jack is bashful around James, but James wants to be a loving and attentive father, so he makes an effort to get closer to his son, by doing things such as teaching Jack to swim in a public pool.

Not long after getting the bad news about his military discharge, James finds out that his father has died. This death seems to trigger some strange behavior in James, in obvious indications that he has unresolved issues with his father. For example, Brianne finds James doing repairs on their house’s roof in the middle of the night. When Brianne wants an explanation, James says defensively to her: “I’m not my father.”

And in cliché-ridden tripe such as “The Contractor,” that means you’re going to see some hazy-looking flashback scenes of James as child of about 10 or 11 years old (played by Toby Dixon) and James’ father Mason, who was a stereotypical stern and macho military type. As seen in flashbacks, Mason was the type of father who expected James to be tough from a very early age. He even forced a pre-teen Mason to get a tattoo at a tattoo parlor, even though it’s illegal for tattoo parlors to give tattoos to people under the age of 18.

At his father’s funeral, James reconnects with his former military best friend Mike (played by Ben Foster), who is happily married to a woman named Christine (played by Tyner Rushing), who likes and respects James too. Mike and Christine have two children: Mike Jr. (played by Nicolas Noblitt), who’s about 10 or 11 years old, and Kelly (played by Eva Ursescu), who’s about 12 or 13 years old. When James goes to Mike’s house for dinner, Brianne is not with him, which is another indication of the cracks in their marriage.

During this visit at Mike’s house, James confides in Mike about his financial problems. Mike tells James that if James is interested in private contractor work, Mike can easily help James get a contractor job that pays $350,000. It’s an offer that’s too tempting to refuse, and James desperately needs the money, so he says yes. This “private contractor” work is really mercenary-for-hire work, usually done by ex-military people, for secretive employers who want to keep these “black ops” jobs as confidential as possible.

Brianne isn’t too pleased about this decision, especially since James promised her that he would never do this type of work. James has already made up his mind though, and there’s nothing Brianne can do to stop him. James’ family life then gets mostly sidelined, as the rest of the movie is about his private contractor job.

James’ supervisor in this job is a rough and jaded character named Rusty (played by Kiefer Sutherland), who says that James will get $50,000 up front as payment, and the remaining $300,000 after the job is completed. To launder his money, Rusty owns a company that imports and exports coffee.

Rusty knows that James is taking this job because James was essentially ousted from the U.S. military. Rusty tells James: “I was you. That’s why we started our own tribe.” Rusty also warns James about the ruthless mercenaries he will encounter in the job. “The stink of those guys, they will rub off on you.”

It’s an assignment that will take James, Mike and some other people on this black-ops team to Berlin. The other members of the team include a cunning operative named Katia (played by Nina Hoss) and a muscle-bound brute named Kauffman (played by Florian Munteanu). Later, James meets a mysterious recluse named Virgil (played by Eddie Marsan), who might or might not be helpful to James.

In Berlin, this black-ops group has been tasked with hunting down a 42-year-old man named Salim Mohsin (played by Fares Fares), a retired professor of virology who used to work at Humboldt University in Berlin. Salim is doing privately funded research, and he’s suspected of being involved in bioterrorism, because he is developing a poisonous gas that could be used as a weapon of mass destruction.

Salim’s research is being funded by Farak Ojjeh, the founder of El Sawa, a charity with known links to Al Qaeda in Syria. Salim and his wife Sophie (played by Amira Casar) have a 9-year-old son named Olivier (played by Tudor Velio) and a 7-year-old son named Yanis (played by Aristou Meehan). And predictably, this family will be caught up in some way in whatever dirty dealings happen in the movie.

Things happen during this mission that don’t sit right with James, so he decides to not follow orders. It leads to James and Mike going on the run from their colleagues, with double-crossings and shootouts in the mix. The action scenes aren’t impressive. And too much of the action has clunky editing, thereby making some of the chase scenes look very phony.

It all just leads to a very formulaic conclusion, where the people who die and those who survive are too easy to predict. All of the cast members just seem to be going through the motions in the action scenes. The only attempt at some emotional depth is in the underdeveloped family scenes near the beginning of the film.

“The Contractor” has all the cinematic resonance of a mediocre video game. That might be enough to entertain some viewers watching a movie with talented cast members who deserve better material. Everyone else can skip “The Contractor,” because they won’t be missing out on anything meaningful.

Paramount Pictures released “The Contractor” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on April 1, 2022. The movie is set for release on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on June 7, 2022.