Such a frustrating disappointment

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Admirable film.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Lucky me, seeing Alia Shawkat twice in a row, unexpectedly, on a Saturday film night. This time she plays an American cousin to a Palestinian boy who comes to America with his mother. It starts out in Palestine (West Bank) though, and it's really interesting to get a sense of that place through a piece of film drama (other than the news or a documentary).Main character Muna Farah is played very well by Nisreen Faour, as her struggles with her new life really come across. Director Cherien Dabis said it like this, elsewhere on the net: 'had a sweetness about her [...] a kindness and a childlike sense of wonder. There was something about her that was so youthful, and yet, I could still see in her eyes the depth of sadness that her life experience had given her.' That's what I was trying to say!The story is more like a series of incidents, the main lines being Muna trying to find work and her son Fadi trying to regain his identity (though there is plenty beyond that, like how the family they stay with is coping). There is the school principal who befriends Muna, and there is the hostile schoolboy who opposes Fadi - and from there on it goes... and quite suddenly ends - leaving me to think this would have made great material for at least a miniseries.On the whole it's a very sympathetic little film - low key and low budget - truly with its heart in the right place.

I seldom comment on movies here but felt compelled to comment on this one. I say "not what you might expect" because I think a lot of people's reactions to this film are going to be heavily influenced by preconceptions about what this film is supposed to be "about." I can't blame them; if I heard that this was "a film about an Arab family's struggles after immigrating the USA after September 11th," I'd probably groan because I'd have certain expectations too. But this is not a "message" film, and if you go into it looking for messages, you're going to miss the point. Rather than political, this film is personal. You could call it simple, but it's not simplistic. Far from it; it refuses to reduce the subtlety and nuance of life to overt messages. I think that an honest, objective viewing of this movie will reveal that, the "stereotypes" and "simplifications" that some reviewers are seeing, were brought in by the reviewers themselves. This is not a perfect film, but it has a lot more depth, beauty and truth than most family dramas, and certainly more than the didactic work one might expect.

What happens when your life is turned upside down by your husband divorcing you for a slimmer, younger woman and walls are built around where you live adding hours every day to your commute to work and you spend every penny to keep your son in a private school? You take the first best opportunity that comes along to get out of that situation. Muna, a Palestinian single woman, does just that when she receives an offer to relocate free to America. This begins the adventures and misadventures of someone immigrating to America with the hopes and promises of a better life. She lands in a small town in Illinois to live (temporarily is the plan) with her sister and physician husband and teenage children until she can establish herself and son. She has two degrees and has had professional experience in the work world so it shouldn't take long - wrong! Told with humor as well as heartbreak (it's just after 9/11and anyone from the Middle East is the enemy), this National Geographic film is a reminder of why people still come to AMREEKA and how easy it is to be misunderstood and to struggle to make a living no matter how hard you are willing to work. It is worth watching by families whose children may be finding it difficult to accept those who don't talk or dress or act just like us. Changing schools as an American teenager can be very difficult. Try coming from another country, especially one we see as an adversary. Highly recommend.

Amreeka chronicles the trials and tribulations of the lead character and her son as they leave a dissatisfying and violent life in Palestine for a dissatisfying and violent life in the Chicago area of the US. The performances of these two leads define the movie for me. Ms. Faour, as the mother, gives depth to her character way beyond the script, and conveys the proper resilience in the face of all possible indignities that only actors of true star quality can convey. On the other extreme, the actor playing the son is whiny and completely unconvincing when supposedly acting out of anger or supposedly longing to fit in. He is simply inept. With the exception of the poor performance by the class bully, the rest of the acting both by Palestinians and Americans is fairly good, especially given the rambling and episodic script that is chock full of clichés.Another huge impediment to enjoyment for me was the fact that the English subtitles in many scenes were nearly impossible to read. It seems to me that when letter-boxing first caught on, the subtitles on movies requiring them would appear in the letter-boxed portion of the screen making them highly visible. Then after awhile, that practice ceased altogether and I remember some highbrow critic saying that it was a practice that should be discontinued and shortly thereafter was - but I cannot recall why. In any event, some movies still manage to make the subtitles legible. This is NOT one of them.Altogether, if you wish to see a magnificent lead actor performance by a very atypical leading lady, there are worse ways to spend 100 minutes. FOr most of us, there are also better ways.