David & Layla (2005)

The cinematography in this film is beautiful and the soundtrack is fantastic. Grab some falafel and take your girlfriend to see this tonight, you won't be sorry. This is apparently based on a true story and I could tell. There's an authenticity to the characters and the story and apparently, the director just met this couple in Paris, became friends and then made this movie about them years later.Shiva Rose excels as Kurdish fugitive, Layla, and David Moscow is charming as a local TV celebrity whose show focuses on sex and spice.Director Jay Jonroy succeeds admirably in creating a beautiful modern portrait of 'star-crossed lovers' in NYC. David and Layla is a truly inspired and memorable experience.

To put in bluntly, David & LAYLA is an indie movie lover's wet dream, a thinking man's romantic comedy that truly deserves to be seen by as many eyes as possible. Writer-Producer-Director Jay Jonroy, a name that is sure to blip on the everyone's radar with his distinctive vision and voice, makes an impressive feature film debut. D&L has a lot going for it: acid-tongued wit, richly drawn characters, and razor sharp observations of cultural differences. Let's face it: a Jewish-Muslim romance in lesser hands runs the risk of being a cringe-inducing MY BIG FAT Greek WEDDING ripoff with cultural-clash ethnic punchlines sophisticated viewers can telegraph from light years away. But Jonroy clearly adores the titular leads (David Moscow and Shiva Rose, who really click together) and the world they inhabit (a beautifully shot New York City), and has lovingly crafted a palatable and believable love story that doesn't insult its audience. See it!

A group of us went to see this movie. All of us in some way or another have great appreciation for independent movies because we all understand the challenges involved, which makes the movie that much more special. We had a diverse group, we had Iranians, Jews, Kurds, Americans, Italians, and Greeks and everyone found scenes that resonated with them. We had a wonderful conversation after the movie about politics, love, stereotypes, religions, family, immigration, weapons of mass destruction, and the evil things that can and are done in the name of religion and politics. How we can be against biological weapons and yet sell them, how we can be against dictators, but support them, how we can be against each other and yet at the core be the same. The movie over an over tried to present us with the reality that we all are the same and we all have contributed to where we are today! The movie touched on all these points and yet manages to tackle hard issues with comedy to take the audience through a spectrum of emotions.

This was the first time in my life that I left the theater before the end of the movie. I just couldn't bear it. You can watch a bad movie and enjoy it for the sake of badness. This was not one of them. This was truly bad, in the sense that it wasn't watchable.This movie is supposed to be, and advertised as, culturally aware and actually promote diversity awareness. On the contrary, its political standing is completely based on stereotypes, superficial knowledge about Middle Eastern cultures, and normalization of hate speech and sexual abuse.There are a lot of offensive and hateful comments about different cultures and identities and these are shown as normal or funny. For example, David makes an offensive comment that stereotypes Muslims ("Have you seen a peaceful Muslim?"), and gets away with it. When Layla asks for explanation, he just ignores and does not try to defend his position; he does not apologize either. The relationship between the main characters is also strange. In their first date, David is drunk and it is clear that his attitude toward the female character would be legally considered as sexual harassment. However, this is presented as romantic and Layla is shown to enjoy it. Moreover, I did not understand why the Kurdish girl is required to "speak English very well" (and this is explicitly mentioned in the movie) to deserve to be loved by an American man.It is an amateur movie in terms of cinematography and acting, and this makes the lack of depth in the intellectual content even more unbearable. The sex jokes are so immature that they are tasteless, if not offensive.