User reviews

This story is about obedience and obssession. When you take one away. How do you cope? This is a simple story about a girl who learnt from her Mother the importance of hair and appearance which was affected by the environment you find yourself in. This a very enjoyable film. Simple message and no clunkers.

NAPPILY EVER AFTER is a new romantic comedy, now available on Netflix. The title of course is a play on "happily" ever after and refers to the hair of the African-American lead actress, who does a great job in this film. I'm not familiar with her other work, but I loved her in this.

That being said, this IS a romantic comedy, so be warned. It has all the clichés and trappings of the genre, so you can expect that. It doesn't feel particularly fresh, but it feels familiar in a good, comfortable way. There are no real surprises and it follows a plot we've seen a hundred times before, but of course it's still fun to watch if you like these kinds of films. Recommend to fans of the genre.

Great! Sanaa Lathan is great! She does an excellent job depicting how women fall under so much pressure to be perfect. Black women are often stereotyped on how their hair looks and put in a box. This movie is funny and has a good plot. I recommend it

Enjoyed the storyline. This is what little girls are supposed to dream about. You go with the character along the journey.

This isn't a movie just about hair. This movie is about a women who finds herself. It's a movie based on upon the deconstruction of African-American women fitting in to societal standards of what beauty is. The hair is a metaphor for African-American women who continuebeing someone they are not. By cutting her her she found out more about herself and her culture/ancestral roots. She freed all worries, stress, and anxieties that has been placed upon her shoulders. It's similar to the song by India.Arie "I am not my hair."

This is quite a unique dive into African American subculture. We have a leading lady, obsessed with her hair and with a boyfriend who gifts her a dog on her birthday when she is expecting a ring. This leads to an epiphany of sorts that Vi goes thru and how she deals with coing into her own and bagging the said boyfriend froms the bulk of the tale. But I must say, this goes in directions not entirely predictable. Quite a feminist film if I may say so. And all the better for it. Definitely worth a watch.

I cant put my finger on it but this was sooooo CRINGE. i couldn't even hate watch it. I lived and live this hair life. Ive gone thru the mishaps, the joys and out the other side. THIS execution isn't for us, but maybe for those who try and touch our hair. I cant put my finger on it but Sanaa Lathan's acting is very suspect. I almost want to go back and watch one of my favorite movies she stars in "Brown Sugar" and see as I don't recall her being this BAD. Is it the material or the acting? She looked kinda haggard at times. Is it the weight of the story or something else. And who was the leading man? I felt no chemistry. Its like everyone was tiptoeing around but nothing ever landed. The heart warming moments and laughs felt forced. I sat stone faced waiting to be moved for at least 30 minutes. Me and my afro will wait for the right film or project. You probably do better watching Da Kink in My Hair.

Someone else questioned how they could make a movie about a woman's hair. Well, they didn't. This movie isn't about one woman's hair. This movie is about black women's hair, and what it's like for black women to live in a world where they're stigmatized because of their hair. Where they're considered unprofessional and uncivilized if they don't straighten it.

I guess you have to actually be a black woman to relate to this film. But you shouldn't have to be a black woman to be able to empathize with black women. When the world is the way it is, we need movies like this. Black women need movies like this. Black women deserve movies like this.

Also, you know, it's a sweet and heartwarming movie, it goes places and doesn't end the way you think. I liked it.

I really liked the movie as I love romantic movies. It was good in general just I felt like all these new movies have to have a bunch of sex scenes in them now and it's too much.

This was very much the B-movie version of Something New...but BET level quality. It was very cliche', kinda rushed, the characters were all blah, and the precocious little girl was annoying. This literally was all about her HAIR - which yes, us black women have a heavy attachment to. But this was too much for me.

I love watching Sanaa Lathan, the story line was nice, but she is way too old to play a 35 year old professional career woman, she looks her age at different points in the movie, and I just find her character a little hard to follow because of this, she has done the movie character before about the the successful woman trying to follow the perfect man.

I liked the concept and the little chapters but it was a bit dramatic

Good Story about black hair politics. Very good acting from Sanaa Lathan, she really carried the movie. Unfortunately, the other actors were subpar. The writing was ok, sometimes it felt robotic. Character development was M.I.A. with the secondary characters. I liked that the movie shed a light on black women hair politics and social views on beauty. I really love the overall message of the movie no matter what the socialital norms of beauty is, women can be and are beautiful. Overall I'll give an 7.8/10.

«Violet Jones tired of waiting for her longtime boyfriend to propose, breaks up with him. But old feelings, and heaps of jealousy, no doubt, arise when he promptly begins dating another woman.»

Really? Somebody didn't get it. The best about the movie: is not about the men. Is mainly about a woman who set itself free. From her mom, the society and the man.

Extraordinary film that talk about all the uncomfortable issues of our societies, anywhere.

I watched the film without knowing anything about it, and i was impacted for the sensibility of all the things that show. I was curious about who was behind this netflix production, and i was right thinking it was a brave and great woman.

Haifaa Al-Mansour has made few films but it is the kind of films it should more made. I am tired of finding empty and stupid films without values, without sense... pretentious and expensive, waste of money and time.

This production may connect with all cultures and countries, it has an universal feeling, that claim for the authenticity, and the simple things beyond the conventionalism and rules that chain our lives.

Dare!

The movie was ok when dealing with the whole "love yourself" theme. However, it would have been more effective if the actress in a movie called "Nappily Ever After" actually had nappy hair. Maybe they should have just called is "Natural Ever After." It's like having a movie called "I love my red hair" starring a blonde.

I cried at the big finale won't say what it is but it's the point in the movie everyone just accepted what the Grows naturally out of their scalp! Kudos for Netflix for making this movie to inspire and encourage women of all ethnicity who may have kinks and curls waves and coils to embrace the hair that grows out of their scalp and to learn that you are BEAUTIFUL Just the way you are .... LOVE thissssss

Boring, unusually cheezy, unnecessarily dramatic. This movie is a complete waste of time and money.

I love this movie! It has great rewatchability. I'm watching it for the third time. It's a great movie with a great message about black women obsession with having a white woman's standard of beauty. The black girls with the relaxed hair standing by the pool instead of jumping in and messing up their relaxed hair and getting popped and spanked by their mothers who spent hours placing the creamy crack in your hair, the chemical burns popping you for crying out in pain, and making you sitting under the hair dryers in rollers for two hours. I don't remember what was more painful, the relaxer burning your scalp or the straightening comb burning your scalp? The weaves from Asian costing hundreds or thousand dollars. Dyeing your hair honey blonde like Beyonce since every woman wants to be the epitome of beauty, the blonde hair, blue eyed beauty, even women of color and non blonde white women. Also, the story of leaving the relaxer on your hair for so long and all your hair falling out. Yet, being dark skinned, bald, or natural is the standard of ugly in the black community. This is the message we get directly or indirectly from our black mothers. A black male who hates black women usually dark skinned black women usually learn that hatred from their black mothers. Even in the movie, Sanaa's character learn from her black mother that if her hair wasn't straight or fixed like a white woman's, then she wasn't beautiful, pretty enough, or good enough.

Many black women today still argue they relaxed their hair and wear weaves because naturally hair is unmanageable, which is a lie. Whatever strand of natural hair you have, it's manageable with the right natural products usually right in your food cabinet and natural hair is all very versatile. Yet, in their minds, natural is ugly and makes a black woman look like a slave. Sanaa's journey in this movie is the same as all black women who have went natural and came to realize like India Arie said, "I am not my hair. I am the soul that lies beneath."

Like Sanaa's character most black females had their hair relaxed by their my mothers and aunts as children and grew up obsessing about their hair trying to live up to unrealistic standards of beauty. Then once they chopped it off, they felt so much freedom. Being able to jump into the pool and life. Walk outside in the rain and absorb the natural moisturizer of God's rain moisturizing and defining their curls. Exercising without worrying about sweating out their hair. Having buckwild, hair pulling love sessions with their men. Being natural is freedom and I love the final message of this movie about black women's choices with beauty. It was a great romantic story and journey realizing there is so much more to life than trying to be perfect and living up to people's unrealistic expectations about what is beautiful? Great movie with a deeper meaning and powerful message. Thanks Sanaa for creating this piece of art. It was much appreciated and much needed.

Watched this movie because the description seemed nice. It sounded like a fluff comedy with some romance in it. The first scenes about the hair took me off guard, but then they started presenting the message of finding oneself and loving who you are for real, and so I thought that this might be a really good movie after all. But Violet was just an irrational character. And the story was messed up and didn't make any sense. So, 2 out of 10, only for the message that they wanted to present, even though it didn't get through.