Metacritic reviews

This thoroughly engaging, if tragic, love story unfolds like a psychological striptease. The biggest challenge here is not to blush.

Superbly acted, especially by Giocante as the teasing 16-year-old instigator.

Lebanon-born director Ziad Doueiri, a camera operator on Quentin Tarantino's films, has a dreamy, fluid style he decorates with light electronic sounds -- from bands like Air -- that give this film more than a touch of youthful poetry.

Ms. Giocante's intoxicating mixture of gamine innocence and womanly knowingness is almost too much for the movie - Lila is surely too much for Chimo - but her charisma, and Mr. Doueiri's insouciant, heart-on-the-sleeve style give it a mood that is at once breathlessly romantic and cannily down to earth.

Unsurprisingly, the camerawork in Lila Says is spectacular.

Easy on the eye but light on originality.

The story's message is less than profound, but it's vividly delivered.

Had director Ziad Doueiri focused on the resentful Arab youths who clatter provocatively around the edges of his Marseilles-set drama, he might have discovered something interesting.

One long tease, not just because it keeps promising sex it doesn't deliver. It teases at deeper themes and cultural commentary.

A misguided tale of sentimental education.