Popular reviews

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  Review by hayaaaa ★★★★ 1

  Washing someone’s hair really is the most sensual thing ever huh😔

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  Review by MK ★★★★

  Nadine Labaki's directorial debut is a refreshing womance film showing remarkable sensitivity in depiction of the lives of five women with different issues. A great example of why a female voice is important when you tell stories about women.. Loved it! Such a beautiful movie.

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  Review by lolligans 1

  you get to stare at nadine labaki for 96 minutes

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  Review by Sally Jane Black 1

  Soft, slice-of-life look at five women intersecting through love with different meanings, different contexts, different correlations to their culture/society. Each different context is viewed with warmth and sympathy, but there are subtle distinctions. The only queer relationship is very quiet, very understated, but somehow more joyous than several of the straight relationships. This is a story of women, and so how they relate to men is examined--without harsh critique but also not without compassion for the women--and so the non-closure of the story seems fitting because, of course, this is observational. But it also feels like it misses an opportunity for a deeper understanding.

  Pride month: 11/30
  52 project: 51/52

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  Review by Youssef ✨ ★★★★½

  I think I have a crush on Nadine Labaki

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  Review by nora ★★★★½

  a sweet love letter to beirut, its women and their idiosyncrasies. nadine labaki has been someone whose work i've wanted to get into for a while, and i was so charmed by this film! the comparisons to almodóvar definitely make sense, but for whatever reason this resonated emotionally a lot more than any of his films that i've seen. part of that might be because i just finished reading the lebanese novel always coca-cola by alexandra chreiteh this past week and thematically there's some overlap between these two texts, as both are about young women in beirut, sexual repression, gender dynamics, even some menstrual discourse (more in the book than this film but still! we love to see it!)

  tldr; i'm surprised this isn't mentioned more when anyone talks about films about female friendships! it's excellent and on amazon prime so hop to it!

  (lebanon done!)

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  Review by Leona ☄️

  I'll eat her 10 egg cake myself if I have to

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  Review by isa ★★★★½ 2

  this film brings me so much comfort it’s unbelievable.

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  Review by karine ★★★★½

  The sensual hair washing scene made me feel Seen.

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  Review by Hanin ☆ ★★★★

  يخربيت العسل و الرقه بجد،الفيلم دافي و جميل اوي وده زوقي بالظبط، ونادين لبكي سكر سكر سكر

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  Review by Leighton Trent ★★★½ 2

  Curated Cupcake Cinema - #19

  Women writing, directing and starring in their own films almost strictly about women... The world will always need more of this. I will always need more of this.

  Nadine Labaki's dedication at the end of her debut film is "To My Beirut", but what it feels to me is that she actually is dedicating it to the women of the cultural hub that raised her, the women of all ages, identities, situations that are not all created equal, but somehow can all come together in a place like a salon. We dip in and out of these women's lives and romances as they come and go in the salon; it is not plot driven in…

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  Review by Graham

  ululation [ uhl-yuh-ley-shuhn ]
  a long, high-pitched trilling sound resembling a howl, or the act of making such a sound, as to express grief or joy or as part of a musical performance

  I lurrve the sound of ululation in the mornin'
  Ok, just me then... hmm, let's move on.

  Caramel is a sweet little rom-com focusing on the lives of a quintet of women and their families, doing their respective thing in downtown Beirut. Written by, directed by and starring Nadine Labaki in her feature debut, it's an easy watch but there's really nothing too remarkable here aside from the occasional vocal acrobatics.

  It does look very pretty though. So much colour.

  In unrelated news... here's a video of 2 x baby stoats: the cutest thing I've seen all week. You're welcome 💛