scotthvincent "Take the finest Hash Worth its weight in gold Yellow or Brown, it makes no difference Add some more, don't be shy The Hashish comes from my heart" ----- Excerpt from the greatest impromptu and cinemagraphically unneeded musical number in the history of film.In a person's life, they may have a cinematic experience that completely changes their life. A movie so powerful, so raw, so honest that the annals of moviemaking are opened immediately for its lifetime preservation."Where do We Go Now?" Is NOT that movie. But you know what.... It's not a bad one either!"Where Do We Go Now?" Is set in a Lebanese village which is primarily cut off from the rest of the region by a field of landmines. One small bride serves as the only contact with the outside world. In this village, a tight-knit community of Muslims and Christians have lived together peacefully for years. However, unknown forces pull the village into strife, pitting neighbor against neighbor. It is up to the Mayor's wife, Yvonne, and her cohort of respected ladies in the village, to keep the men from killing each other. They also make hash brownies.The first time I attempted to make hash brownies, I completely forgot about the importance of ensuring you have a well-choreographed musical number to perform during their preparation. While I am not as crass to assume that all Lebanese ladies burst into song and dance while making marijuana edibles, I certainly have never had the foresight to do the same. As such, my hash brownies did not turn out nearly as kind as the ladies of the village make them. To prove my point, their husbands end up getting so high that they completely forgot why they we're fighting each other. Which brings us to the moral of the story: Marijuana can end war! This movie is rife with comedy, tragedy, violence, love, forgiveness, and even redemption. It tells a story and teaches a lesson that moves the viewer into a sense of empathy, coupled with the emotional raw power of what could be construed as one of the funniest sad movies I've ever seen, or one of the saddest funny movies I've ever seen. Either way, the character of the village mayor looks very much like Danny Devito, an observation I happened across after smoking what some might consider a to be a heroic amount of cannabis.But the most intriguing thing to a viewer that is only vaguely familiar with middle eastern culture would be the fact that as tough and as macho as these guys want to be, these sisters run the friggin' town, best believe dat! As an example of their political savvy, at one point In the plotline, this seemingly innocuous band of sweet little old ladies hire what seems to be...well...hookers. Why they do this, I have no idea. But it was certainly funnier than anything Ben Stiller ever did. As such, the men of the village are temporarily distracted by bountiful Ukrainian cleavage and the perverse thoughts that come with it as they regress back into adolescence, leaving the women of the village to further their plans. In summation, "Where Do we Go Now?" is a lighthearted romp mixed with gut-wrenching tragedy that serves to entertain even the most skeptical of undergraduate Beginning Arabic II students at the University of Colorado Denver. A movie well worth your time, especially if watching it saves you from taking what could have been a very painful exam but you have a super-awesome professor that knows you need a nice bump in your grade so you do the review and try to make it funny because the movie was actually really, really, funny and I literally played the hash brownies song over and over again because it's the best thing I've heard all day.Final Rating: 7/10. It may not be "Along the Waterfront", but if you've watched everything on your Netflix queue and your girlfriend wants to watch something that doesn't involve explosions and fart jokes, "Where Do We Go Now?" is certainly worth a rental.

Anshuman Manur I watched this film quite by accident. It was lying around along with a few other French films because a friend wished to watch them to improve her language. On a bored evening, I put it on just to relax, knowing nothing about the film at all, and indeed not knowing that it was not a film that I'd find relaxing."Et maintenant on va où?" tells the story of a remote village in Lebanon where news of the religious violence in the rest of the country threatens to tear apart the two communities who have hitherto been living together peacefully. On the side of peace, however, are the women of the village, along with the religious leaders, who do not wish to see replicated in their village that which is affecting the rest of the country. A series of untoward incidents take place – chicken blood instead of wine at church, farm animals let loose into the mosque, and the tragic death of a young boy – which due to their religious nature arouse suspicion against the members of the other community. To thwart what may escalate into a full scale religious riot, the women, in a quasi-comical way, attempt to distract their men with an assortment of devices, including a faked communication with the mother Mary, Russian dancers and a gathering where the food has been laced with intoxicants.The film has a mix of light-hearted comedy and powerful emotions. A few scenes are particularly moving – one of the bereaved mother, who has just lost her little boy to a stray bullet, asking a statue of Mary, "T'es une mère, toi?" ("You call yourself a mother?"); another of an infuriated Nadine Labaki throwing all the men out of her little restaurant after a brawl breaks out, religious in nature, yelling at her lover asking him if the only destiny of the women in her village was to "porter le deuil" (to wear the robes of mourning). Also interesting (and educational) to watch is the portrayal of Lebanon's complex religious and social situation, something which has troubled her time and again in the past.Nadine Labaki's feminist comic-drama tells us that women occupy a position of power that is less evident but not less powerful. While men seemingly own the outside (in the film at least), projecting themselves into their surroundings (and often causing an asynchrony), the women own the inside and are capable of using this position.

theurbanglow If ever there was a film about the futility of fundamentalism and wars of religion this is it. It captures the madness of conflicts around the world dictated by religion and based on prejudice and ignorance. I'm glad this film was made and urge everyone to watch it. It is funny, clever, moving and cheeky and illustrates quite clearly that we are all human beings, despite our colour or creed and we should all simply learn, finally to get along!!! It also captures the close knit relationships between numerous religions in the Arab world, relationships that have coexisted for millennia and the dangers of when those relationships are abused by fundamental propaganda through the likes of extremist groups. I guess the question is raised whether we will ever learn but hopefully this film could help us understand.

PipAndSqueak This is a beautifully executed story that will get you angry, sad, confused, enlightened and amused as it unfolds before you. This is the story of a small community barely keeping itself together, surrounded as it is by violent conflicts between opposing religious groups. Here though, the religious leaders are in unison with the women - they do not want to see any inter-religious strife. They do not want to witness any more deaths amongst the young men. The cemetery is full of the bodies of the village's youth and tended by the weeping women who's hopes and dreams for the future are prematurely ended by the deaths of their sons. With slightly inept determination the women decide to take matters into their own hands. They achieve an unsteady truce but at least life goes on. Hope is given a second chance. A lovely, heart warming film.