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60
9
17
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37
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53
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66
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45
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61
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55
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43
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66
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29
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23
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80
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61
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39
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xx
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30
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34
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60
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32
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27
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41
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39
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46
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73
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78
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55
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66
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69
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58
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47
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66
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34
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33
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54
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67
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51
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42
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63
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86
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35
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48
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30
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53
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83
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33
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45
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47
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96
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35
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28
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88
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71
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67
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28
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73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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96
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56
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76
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86
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13
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70
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71
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26
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57
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45
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81
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xx
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75
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67
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71
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24
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85
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Endgame
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56
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62
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74
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49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
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28
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xx
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50
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25
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50
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58
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72
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89
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52
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66
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81
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xx
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63
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73
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xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
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94
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29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
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61
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42
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70
It Might Get Loud
46
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19
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xx
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41
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41
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66
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34
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80
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83
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xx
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59
More Than a Game
67
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34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
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48
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73
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66
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47
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34
Other Man, The
xx
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54
Paper Heart
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68
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68
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44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
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65
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76
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69
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79
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40
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61
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77
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xx
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46
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39
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89
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50
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55
Storm
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61
Trucker
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83
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66
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66
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70
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67
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69
We Live in Public
64
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64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
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xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Close to Home

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 13 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Foreign
Written by:
Vardit Bilu
Dalia Hagar
Directed by:
Vardit Bilu
Dalia Hagar
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 16, 2007
DVD: June 19, 2007
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: Israel
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Neama Shendar, and Smadar Sayar
Compelling and controversial, this film chronicles the day to day life of two Israeli women, Smadar and Mirit, during their compulsory military service. (IFC First Take)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
Sayar and Schnendar are likeable performers, and if Bilu and Hager had pushed the "private school for girls" side of Close To Home a little harder, they could have had a sharp satire on their hands. Instead, it's all played straight and close to the surface.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
It presents an image of today's Israeli army, composed of teenagers who are by now several generations removed from the founders' original vision and have begun to question whether tactics designed to keep the country safe will only lead to increased levels of fear, humiliation and deadly violence.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Filmmakers Vardit Bilu and Dalia Hagar don't seem as interested in taking sides as they do in exploring universal themes.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
One of the rare movies from Israel that refuses to spell out its politics, and you may wind up grateful for the ambiguity.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kamal Al-Solaylee
The film is much more subversive for treading back and forth between the political and the personal, the Arab and the Israeli points of view.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
I won't argue for the cinematic virtues of this film; they don't exist. But as a pseudo-documentary portrait of real life behind the explosive headlines, it's absorbing.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Lael Loewenstein
Close to Home is a slender slice -- a sliver is more like it -- of a very rich cake.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
The movie, written and directed by Vidi Bilu and Dalia Hager, is really a study of people coping with excruciating boredom and the absurd aspects of military life.
Read Full Review >Variety Derek Elley
Mixes humor, tragedy, tenderness and political acumen into a well-observed coming-of-age format.
Read Full Review >Empire Patrick Peters
A slyly subversive insight into the role of women in the Israeli military, this is a surprisingly compassionate satire that makes its political points without resorting to caricature.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
Though it clearly means to call into question the legitimacy of their work, the movie is formlessly episodic as it meanders from one day to the next, finally losing itself in a forest of coming-of-age clichés.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
In short, this squad is an ill-trained, slovenly bunch of soldiers. That such behavior exists, or can exist, in any army is surely commonplace, but that Israeli producers should want to make a film about the matter at this time is puzzling.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
This movie just seems like a scattered excuse to make political points without saying much of anything. Worse, it also fails to show us, with any vividness, how Mirit and Smadar think and feel as women.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
John A. gave it a10:
A very important film showing the reality of Israel today and the risk of live and work there. Congratulations to the Director and the participants.
