Labaki is so enchanting you’ll find yourself looking forward to her next appearance.

Labaki elicits expressive performances from a cast of amateurs, aided by Khalad Mouzanar's entrancing score and Yves Sehnaoui's lush cinematography.

There's a pleasant, easygoing charm to Caramel, largely stemming from Labaki's rare determination to depict Beirut as something other than a war-torn, slowly recovering battleground.

Its chief focus is the bonding between women who rely on each for support, and who really appreciate a place where they can let down their hair.

Caramel is a warm, funny and compassionate movie that examines five women who are at very different stages in their lives, each one with a particular problem to work out.

I like the way (Nadine) Labaki brings character depth to everyone in her sizable ensemble.

Filmgoers expecting My Big Fat Lebanese Waxing are in for a bigger treat: Nadine Labaki, who wrote and directed the film, possesses an astute instinct for restraint that makes Caramel smarter ans more poignantthan the average chick flick.

Groundbreaking it is not. But it follows the familiar path cheerfully enough, and it paints a vivid, movie-friendly picture of a woman's life in Lebanon.

[Writer-Director] Labaki writes and directs with a sure hand for capturing universal truths.