How Hala allows its characters to navigate that messiness-how the film refuses to align itself with black and white presentations of "good" and "bad"-is intentional and commendable.

| Dec 27, 2019

The film shines with a glorious commitment to the emotional evolution of its female characters, which James Sizemore's score accents with notes of subtle agony.

| Dec 11, 2019

Young Australian Geraldine Viswanathan delivers a performance of tremendous poise, prowess and resonance in this affecting new coming-of-age film.

| Dec 4, 2019

Hala shines a new light on the tropes of teenage self-discovery.

| Original Score: A- | Dec 2, 2019

Viswanathan's resounding yet quiet performance allows the audience to see Hala for who she is - a smart, funny, intelligent, angsty, confused, and completely normal teenage girl.

| Nov 22, 2019

Writer/director Minhal Baig's gentle and attentive sophomore feature Hala possesses something inherently extraordinary by just being about a young, female Muslim-American.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 22, 2019

A coming-of-age tale, a compelling directorial debut, and a slight corrective regarding both teen movies and the American Muslim experience.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 22, 2019

Although its storytelling is at times naggingly staid, its central characterizations teem with complexity and sensitivity, and for that, it's a modest coming-of-age gem.

| Nov 21, 2019

As Hala tests the boundaries of faith and sexual desire (her name means "halo" in Arabic, and it feels like a burden), the movie is unsparing about gender roles and the awkwardness of first-time fumblings.

| Nov 21, 2019

Baig provides a Muslim perspective, fitted in a touching coming-of-age story, that balances the familiar with the foreign to pull for a girl whose strength of freedom is at once powerful and quiet.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 6, 2019

A coming-of-age story with inconsistent storytelling but a strong lead performance from Geraldine Viswanathan.

| Feb 5, 2019

Geraldine Viswanathan can do gross-out humor and slapstick, but here she proves her range and, hopefully, longevity.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 4, 2019

Geraldine Viswanathan's performance confirms what 2018's "Blockers" suggested: this is a movie star in the making.

| Original Score: A | Feb 3, 2019

This is a persistently quiet film; always human and alive, but also told with the solemnity of someone who knows they're sending a ripple through a body of water that's been still for thousands of years.

| Original Score: B | Feb 1, 2019

Unfortunately, the touches that endear us to Hala during the first half of the film are almost nonexistent in its second half, adding up to a choppy, incoherent finish.

| Jan 27, 2019