Amira & Sam

Caught the world premiere at the Seattle Film Festival. The cast and crew were fantastic. Not only is the acting and directing top notch, but the production value is second-to-none.

Film provided a unique POV on veteran and immigration issues. Moments of unexpected humor and touching emotional echoes of war immediately hook you in.

Film also did an excellent job tackling contemporary issues without a heavy hand. Mullin forces the audience to look at America in a post 9/11 world and, perhaps more importantly, at ourselves as Americans.

This is the standard for independent film. 87 minutes that are well worth your time.

Sam and Amira is extremely well done and touches on the issues of Immigration, and re- entry of our soldiers coming back from war. It is also a love story that develops in a very nice and complex way thru the movie. Martin Starr in his first leading man role does a fantastic job and is very believable. His character has a moral code that he sticks to even though he is given numerous opportunity and reason to trade against his values. Amira who is played by Dina Shihabi does a phenomenal job in her first leading role as the reluctant love interest while dealing with her own immigration challenges and discrimination coming from all sides. Paul Wesley is great as a Wall Street type working on the edges of the system trying to help/use his cousin to further his own ambitions. The movie is written and directed by Sean Mullin who himself is a West Point graduate and served this country at Ground Zero. He does a masterful job telling this story with all it's complexities and adding humor as the movie is very funny. Especially the back and forth between Sam and Amira. I saw the Premier at the Seattle Film Festival.

A nice surprise about 2 very different characters one an ex-army American soldier man and one Muslim refugee woman.

With that set-up this could have turned out to be just any typical rom-com fare but it avoids doing that by keeping a great sense of realism throughout the movie with characters and developments that all seem natural.

As a big 'Freaks and Geeks' fan from my youth it's nice to see yet another Apatow 'family member' get his shot at the limelight, in this case Martin Starr who played the lovable geek with massive glasses; Bill Haverchuck in the series.

And he handles the lead-role splendidly with natural charisma as does his love interest in the movie Dina Shihabi as Amira.

All in all a small independent drama-comedy that succeeds at being funny and dramatic when it's supposed to be, a slice of life type of movie.

The fact that someone paid someone to place 20 fake reviews on IMDb with 10 star ratings is bad practise and IMDb should not allow it. Made me hesitant to watch it, because if the owner of this project doesn't believe in it, should I? .

About the movie. Take away all political correctness (and what is up with these people feeling offended). Let us run this against the Romcom/Bollywood clichelist:✓ Angry defensive girl, meets friendly naive guy, ✓opposite attracts, ✓A dramatic event brings them together.✓Love conquers all. Yup, seems to be all there. Is is bad? No it's no bad at all.

It's a romcom so no there is no fact checking for every event and some things are done for the cuteness factor. All together it is a nice watch and if the girl wasn't Muslim and the boy was Joseph Gordon-Levitt we'd be having this by the spoonful and declare it the indie 500 days of Summer.

Amira and Sam does what great art should do: open our minds to thought-provoking and relevant issues while doing so in an enjoyable and highly entertaining way. There are elements of this film that will be familiar to many fans of the rom-com genre but it is much more than that standard fare. It challenges perceptions of veteran assimilation and immigration. Like the character of Sam, I am a veteran of Iraq. Upon my return home, the most difficult thing for me to confront was a society that was completely disconnected from the war effort and the sacrifices of the very few who were asked to fight it. I was also troubled by the many people who thought of all Iraqis as the enemy whereas I saw the bravery and heroism of many Iraqi citizens who joined the coalition forces in fighting the insurgents and sacrificed of themselves to rebuild their country. I feel Amira and Sam is the first movie to speak to those issues in an real and genuine way. I applaud the filmmakers for tackling such important topics yet choosing to tell a story that is at the same time incredibly funny and entertaining. Comedy is at its best when it speaks to truth. Amira and Sam uses comedy to help us get to the truth of these important issues. Knowing that this film was written and directed by a veteran and produced by veterans, I can't recommend this movie any more highly. Go see Amira and Sam! You'll love it!