Popular reviews

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★½ 3

  On The Road: The Dutch Frontier - Windmills, Bicycles, Decks and Questionable Places

  Well, it was certainly unexpected. I thought I was going to see a movie about a Muslim family dealing with bigotry, specifically towards the refugees and raising above. Instead, I saw an almost harrowing depiction of a young girl getting drawn into the realm of fanatical, fundamentalist Islam, based mostly on ideas propagated by videos rather than her actual experience (e.g., becoming a jihadist because some moron called foul on you while playing football is a bit dumb).

  Nora el Koussour is fantastic in the lead role. Although the actress does her best with the material, her character's many nuances aren't fully realized in the script. However,…

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  Review by eddie ★★★ 1

  It's solid, but it feels like the movie ends before it gets go the story it really wants to be telling.

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  Review by Moresbi ★★★½

  "Layla M." was a somewhat intriguing, very arguable and quite current movie, IMO.

  A tough movie to judge, for sure. I'm definitely unsure about Layla's (overall) progression and her (apparently) seamless transition between "worlds" but, in fairness, seems like an option to be made in terms of delivery.

  Well, this is Nora el Koussour's show and I think she was pretty solid in what was asked of her.

  The movie, considering the possibilities, felt quite understated and objective, which can be seen as positives if we consider it's very central theme.
  Also a positive is actually broaching the subject and feeling pretty much "uncritical" about the substance.

  The ending was pretty fitting and adequate, especially considering the movie's very ending…

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  Review by tamazight ½ 1

  one thing about western movie directors is they WILL make islam appear to be the worst thing ever. not a single positive thing about the religion was shown in the movie. it was pure romanticism of extremism until maybe the last 10 minutes, and even then they had to end the movie in the worst possible way. for the love of God please can we stop normalizing these movies and put islam in a positive light for once ??? is that really too much to ask for ?? the funny thing is they’re producing a movie about the exact same topic as we speak im so tired of it

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  Review by Alan Orth ★★★★★

  Holy shit. I just watched this at the 2017 Dutch–Arab film festival in Amman, Jordan. I was blown away by the high production value, fantastic acting, and laser-sharp focus on real problems facing the world right now. Bravo! Issues of radicalization of disenfranchised youths and the lowered status of women in Islamic society are very real. Everyone should see this film.

  Sadly, I was frustrated with the question and answer session after the film, which was more or less dominated by comments from the crowd along the lines of "that is not the real Islam" and "Islam teaches that men and women are equal." In my opinion this style of commentary is unhelpful and objectively false.

  For example, Jordanian law…

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  Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★

  I liked the character of "Layla" who stands up for her rights as a woman, which is why I found it so hard to believe that she became radicalized. I just didn't buy it at all. She was a rebel and that was fun, but a much stronger film with the same subject matter was Le Ciel attendra (Heaven Will Wait).

  I guess this is being released by Netflix, so you'll have the chance to check it out. Compared to the other foreign language submissions to the Oscars I've seen this year, this one is not one of the stronger ones.

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  Review by Seema ★★

  Before anyone asks:
  No I did not give this rating because of the way it portrayed Islam and not because I know that the way it is portrayed isn't all that correct.

  The reason why I gave it this rating was because Layla was annoying.
  She simply complained the whole time and she wanted to radicalize, and when she did, when her voice was finally being heard (according to her), she grew sick of it and began nagging again as she wanted to go back home.
  The thing is it wasn't that easy to simply let it go.
  Layla entered a radical movement not understanding the full commitment and requirements she had to have in order to achieve what she…

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  Review by zee ★½

  someone forgot to finish the film

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  Review by zoë 💖💙💜 ★★★

  i understand the goal of this film and i thought it was solidly made, i really think only muslims should make these kind of movies. there’s just a level of empathy and understanding missing from this......it feels too clinical....its like voyeurism idk. when the credits rolled i just kinda felt like.....this was half done

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  Review by Messofanego ★★★★½

  "You're fucking bewitched!"

  For some dumb reason, I was expecting a no-frills muslim romance film. Didn't realise I had just seen one of the most honest portrayals of the struggle for young, disillusioned, diasporic muslims who through various factors (such as misunderstanding parenting) go down the road to radicalisation. Director Mijke de Jong and writer Jan Eilander do a fantastic and very well-researched job at understanding the struggles that young "woke" muslims are facing these days. Layla (Nora El Koussour) is a political young muslim who is in touch with her religion far more than her family who are too Westernised for her. The very first issue is about the burqa ban. However, being young, she's gullible, and falls into the trap of radicalisation through romance. If you've ever seen the British TV drama Britz (with Riz Ahmed), this path might seem familiar, but otherwise it's important filmmaking and something particularly muslims should watch.

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  Review by nyssa ½

  Afschuwelijk🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢

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  Review by luna ★★★

  There are a lot of things to say about this film (both negative and positive) even though the ending was botched
  So just... WHY?