The Insult provides a valuable, fascinating and hard-hitting history lesson on Middle East politics, particularly the plight of Palestinians. It instructs, but offers no easy answers. [Full review in Japanese]

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 3, 2019

A thrilling, thoughtful and complex story.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 8, 2018

Any sense of predictability is dispelled by the film's ending which triumphantly unites the political and the personal by crystallising their connection in two great performances.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 27, 2018

Superbly acted by all concerned, and filmed in an unobtrusive, loosely fluid style, The Insult is provocative and inclusive.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 24, 2018

"The Insult" is optimistic enough to leave the door open to hope. But it's also realistic enough to only leave it ajar.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 15, 2018

It shows that even in the most hostile of situations, with all of our prejudices in front of and behind us, we're still in this together.

| Original Score: B+ | Feb 9, 2018

... powerful new movie directed by Ziad Doueiri...

| Original Score: A- | Feb 2, 2018

We may not be able to export democracy to the Middle East, but exporting Law & Order has been a piece of cake.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 1, 2018

In reviewing that film, I noted that "answers prove more elusive than questions." The Insult brings forth a similar reaction from me. The film allows its participants to find individual solutions but provides few state resolutions or conclusions.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 1, 2018

"The Insult" drives the point home while offering insight into the Middle East conflict (it's at least part history lesson) by way of a riveting courtroom drama enhanced by terrific performances.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2018

"The Insult" doesn't offer a tidy resolution or easy answers - just a lot of questions worth pondering.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 1, 2018

Regardless of its high aims, most of what The Insult offers-unlikely last-minute reveals, argumentative lawyers, stone-faced judges-is the stuff of a diverting, junky courtroom drama.

| Original Score: C+ | Jan 30, 2018

Director Ziad Doueiri's Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar nominee from Lebanon is a crackling legal thriller that boils down centuries of Middle Eastern conflict into one reckless insult - and lets the sparks fly

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 26, 2018

Well-written, thoughtful and revelatory in all the right ways...

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 25, 2018

It's quite a riveting and though-provoking journey, with compelling and nuanced performances all around, and, although it is quite serious, not without moments of levity.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 25, 2018

A powerful and impeccably crafted tale arguing for the crucial importance of addressing history and facing down trauma... Doueiri weaves a starkly intimate fable of violence that's at once deeply personal and universally, globally relevant.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 24, 2018

It's a fascinating job of acting, in that Karam seems to be opening up his soul even as he's not giving an inch.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 24, 2018

The Insult fairly hurtles along, throwing not just Muslims against Christians, but also husbands against wives and fathers against daughters. Part of the film is a crackerjack courtroom drama. What's dull is the trajectory.

| Jan 16, 2018

The Insult is an honest and affecting argument for empathy, led by two excellent performances.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 12, 2018

The year is not even two weeks old but it already has one electrifyingly brilliant film to its credit.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 12, 2018