| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2008

Captures the essence of Americans' sense of empowerment and innate goodness -- and our cultural myopia.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2007

It is that lack of small-minded judgment which distinguishes The Beauty Academy of Kabul and which makes it thoughtful, yet so much fun to watch.

| Mar 1, 2007

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 16, 2007

A skin deep in beauty documentary with hairdressers as healers.

| Original Score: B- | Dec 24, 2006

Most of the students had suffered or witnessed horrific abuses and crimes under the Taliban, yet the film shows two fatuous U.S. instructors who clearly missed the sensitivity training.

| Dec 15, 2006

a spiny, puzzling and highly entertaining film, and whatever you go into it thinking, you're likely to come out thinking something else.

| Dec 15, 2006

A few of the academy's students receive personal profiles, and their resilience after years of war and oppression is remarkable. If ever that "triumph of the human spirit" clich could be applied to a group of people, this is it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 8, 2006

The teachers have moxie. The students have courage. Mermin's warm, funny, beautiful and deeply humane documentary certainly honors the latter.

| Original Score: A | Sep 15, 2006

Any film that raises this many interesting questions is worth seeing, though Beauty Academy never goes quite deep enough to become essential.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 14, 2006

It rather eloquently makes the case that individuals who have confidence and self-worth can build a country with confidence and self-worth.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 30, 2006

This movie shows us a small bit of daily life as lived by real people. For that alone, we should be grateful.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 22, 2006

Ugly Americans try to teach Afghans to be pretty.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 22, 2006

Yes, (Mid)west is (Mid)west and (Mid)east is (Mid)east, but the twain do meet -- sort of -- in this fascinating, unassuming little film.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jun 15, 2006

It's a demonstration of the ancient proverb: Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today, but teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 3, 2006

The interaction between the self-absorbed, oblivious hairdressers and their quiet, stubborn, traditional students runs from the hilarious to the heartbreaking.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 2, 2006

Without editorializing, Mermin raises fascinating questions about the cultural impact of globalization, the allure of the West, and the troubled history of an ancient land.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 19, 2006

That the film is even this watchable has to do more with the subjects themselves.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 19, 2006

Director Liz Mermin subtly captures both sides of a cultural divide.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 19, 2006

Mermin's docu neither makes light of the project nor suggests that it will bring large-scale change, instead it focuses on the moments of camaraderie the develop between women who share commitment to hair despite cultural differences.

| Original Score: B- | May 8, 2006