An engaging, straightforward look at female soldiers guarding the center of Jerusalem during the current intifada.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 22, 2016

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 7, 2007

Our wide eyed, angel faced chayalot drift hypnotized toward the center of the chaos and we realize that in Israel, there cannot be a movie about just regular teenage girls

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 2, 2007

Close to Home is no buddy-cop, action-comedy ... it leaves out the action and the comedy so all that is left is a predictable narrative with no entertainment appeal.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 18, 2007

A haunting autopsy of how the personal can obliterate the political, as the oppressors rationalize, repress and then casually repeat the day-to-day injustices they're paid to commit for a society eager to forget its sins.

Full Review | Sep 3, 2007

While Close to Home follows a predictable path in its story, it's not without its charms, much of it down to the very believable portrayal of the young soldiers who view many of their duties with the world-weariness of terminally bored teens.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 18, 2007

Both [main actresses] show their characters' growth while steadfastly and, sadly, unsuccessfully trying to hold on to the last vestiges of their innocence. If that's not the real tragedy of life in the Middle East, I don't know what is.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 18, 2007

One of the most unusual coming-of-age stories I've ever seen, "Close to Home" offers the same teen-angst themes as some American movies but against a backdrop of war and politics.

| May 18, 2007

A slyly subversive insight into the role of women in the Israeli military, this is a surprisingly compassionate satire that makes its political points without resorting to caricature.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 7, 2007

A sympathetic, subtly observed account of Israeli girl soldiers.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 7, 2007

More a buddy movie than a political one, it nonetheless captures the festering tensions of a divided city.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 3, 2007

Although its location and plot points are worlds away from typical Hollywood teen-angst fare, some of its themes are undeniably universal.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 23, 2007

The movie is awkwardly mounted and formlessly episodic as it meanders from one day to the next, finally losing itself in a forest of coming-of-age clichs.

Full Review | Mar 22, 2007

Solemn, abrasive, connect-the-dots predictable and fairly dull. The two young leads are terrible actors, which only makes matters worse.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Mar 20, 2007

This movie just seems like a scattered excuse to make political points without saying much of anything. Worse, it also fails to show us, with any vividness, how Mirit and Smadar think and feel as women.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 10, 2007

An intimate and well-realized coming-of-age drama about two Israeli teenagers doing obligatory military service in Jerusalem.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 25, 2007

Though the subject matter is original, and these young soldiers portrayed with great sympathy, Close to Home would have benefited from more disciplined storytelling.

| Original Score: 3/6 | Feb 24, 2007

One of the rare movies from Israel that refuses to spell out its politics, and you may wind up grateful for the ambiguity.

| Original Score: B | Feb 21, 2007

Like many Israeli films, Close to Home is strikingly sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians and, as such, qualifies as exemplary humanism under the most extreme pressure.

Full Review | Feb 21, 2007

Close to Home is close to boring without some people-watching and problem-probing.

| Feb 20, 2007