“It’s easy to guess which parts of the movie Hadi personally remembers from growing up in Iraq. That verisimilitude is the film’s strongest asset. Yet it’s just as easy to guess which screenplay conceits the director gleaned from studying film at NYU, and what story points came from the Sundance Institute Labs. Basically, the movie is too real to be this phony.” – Spliced Personality Substack, 02/26/2026