The Beauty Academy of Kabul
Shadow Distribution | Release Date: March 24, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
The teachers have moxie. The students have courage. Mermin's warm, funny, beautiful and deeply humane documentary certainly honors the latter. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
So laugh all you want at the proud haircutters of Beauty Without Borders - but don't underestimate what a basic cut and color can mean for a country's future. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
Mermin presents all this without editorial comment, and her film would be worth watching if only for its look at a profound culture-clash. But it goes one better, and delves into one of those clashing cultures, capturing it in a moment of change that goes far beyond one beauty academy's superficial concerns. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
Liz Mermin documents the hilarious, moving and sometimes fractious meeting of diametrically different cultures, one that has suffered unimaginable horrors and one that believes a good perm is the answer to everything. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A spiny, puzzling and highly entertaining film, and whatever you go into it thinking, you're likely to come out thinking something else. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Ultimately, Mermin's film is a profound reminder of the things that make us human. Things that don't matter much, in the scheme of things, but loom large when taken away. Things we all have in common. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The documentary takes on its own engaging shape - one of edgy editorial and political ambivalence. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
As they talk between classes about oppressive husbands, abusive brothers and arranged marriages, it becomes clear that the frivolities Americans take for granted can be their lifeline. In this tentatively hopeful setting, a single lipstick becomes leverage. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It's that gulf between earnest idealism and beaten-down realism that's the unexpected drama of Beauty Academy. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWinda Benedetti
An often touching and always intriguing look at the fall and rebirth of a nation and the resilient spirit of its women. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Queen Latifah, the star of Barbershop 2 and Beauty Shop, and thus our reigning monarch of big-screen beauty stylists, should fund and narrate a sequel. Because The Beauty Academy of Kabul is good enough to make you want to know how they do. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
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. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
There's great charm, and also discomfort, in watching these highly motivated, excited women learn the tricks of a trade practiced very differently from their own, and casually swap horror stories of life under the Taliban. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The questionably good news put forth in this documentary is that vanity apparently survives everything. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Democracy might not really come from a bottle of shampoo, but "Beauty Academy" teaches us that, sometimes, mascara really matters. Read full review
60
VarietyRonnie Scheib
In an act of "selfless service," a group of American women, backed by industry giants like Clairol and Vogue, open a beauty school in war-ravaged Afghanistan. The anomalies are manifold: Gun-toting soldiers patrolling the streets are visible through the windows as rookie beauticians busily snip, perm and tweeze. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJessica Winter
The idea isn't as odd as it might first appear, since running a salon is one of the few socially acceptable means for a woman in Afghanistan to earn an income. The execution, however, evokes a particularly outlandish Christopher Guest mockumentary. Read full review
60
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
The film's unforgettable stars are the beauty academy's students, women who have survived tribal warfare, Soviet invasion, Muslim tyranny, American bombs, patriarchal families and even Western good intentions with extraordinary grace and fortitude. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterRichard James Havis
This quirky documentary about a group of American hairdressers who establish exactly that shows that the power of hair salons should never be underestimated. Read full review
50
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Debbie, for better or for worse, is the high point of the entertaining but lightweight film, which is better suited to public TV than the big screen. Oh, yes. If anybody should decide to open another beauty school in Kabul, be sure to leave Debbie in Indiana. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
How ironic that one form of beauty would be returned to battle-scarred Afghanistan by ugly Americans, but that's just what director Liz Mermin caught in her slim 2004 documentary for the BBC. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
At its best, Mermin -- who used an all-female crew -- conveys the sense of an entirely feminine world being created under the beauty school roof, and it's refreshing. Read full review
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