Amreeka Reviews

Amreeka is a sweet-natured film about the experiences of a Palestinian woman and her teenage son when they emigrate to Illinois.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

A feel-good comedy about a Palestinian mother who moves to rural Illinois with her teenaged son, Amreeka is a kind of stealth political film that confronts issues of ethnic tension and American xenophobia.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Amreeka makes its points with gentle humour and engaging performances -- especially Faour, who makes Muna so likeable it's impossible not to cross your fingers and hope her luck is about to change.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Director Cherien Dabis' debut feature is a surprising, humorous, moving and very human story about a Palestinian family's emigration to Illinois on the eve of the Iraq war.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

A good-hearted film about the resilience of the human spirit.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Director-writer Cherien Dabis drew the story from life..., and the script is brimming with tiny details that lend it authenticity.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

The movie is honest about the way it depicts family relationships and racial prejudices. A believable and fresh-faced cast also helps in that regard.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The immigrant experience gets a fresh, post- 9/11 Palestinian spin in Amreeka, a film that has all the familiar ingredients but is such a well-acted, winning re-combination of those that we see them with fresh eyes.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

As much as I enjoyed spending time with these characters, it's hard not to bristle at the overall After-School Special vibe.

Full Review

You keep rooting for these characters, even as the plot takes a series of broad and overly familiar turns.

| Original Score: 3/5

Faour, in an Oscar-worthy performance, renders Muna in shades of love and hope.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

An earnest comedy-drama, which covers familiar territory but in an unpretentious, and so reasonably pleasant fashion.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

As poignant as it is buoyant.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

For the most part, Dabis and her actors charm their way through this material, finding absurdist humor even in the darkest moments.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Although the drama heads on a predictable course, Faour brings intelligence and humor to her performance and Muallem, as the smart adolescent turned surly and scared, is likewise sharp.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

This sensitively made movie is more than dim Americans making terrorist jokes. It's one of the richer movies you're likely to see about average Arabs in America.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The political ironies are obvious, and the American section is predictable, but Amreeka is winning all the same, because of the ensemble, and the humanism of its first-time filmmaker.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

...a small budget, sincere little film that has its heart in the right place.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

With Amreeka, writer/director Cherien Dabiscertainly doesn't reinvent the genre, making it feel newborn, but with warmth and skill, and a dash of wit, she makes an old trope feel fresh.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10

This could be rough going, but Cherien Dabis' Amreeka tells this immigrants' tale with some humor and only a dash of political correctness.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4