Beloved book club fiction gets the big-screen treatment in this condensed, thought-provoking adaptation of Azar Nafisi’s 2003 memoir of the same name.

The execution is clumsy, even didactic, but you’ll cheer as women rebel against cultural censorship and an enslaving patriarchy by reading forbidden books and spreading the word.

When your audience has likely already bought into your core message before they make it out of the concession line, you have to eventually offer them something richer. For all of its noble intentions, “Reading Lolita in Tehran” never quite gets there.

More than a film about Iran, the movie is a universal reflection on the value of culture in the face of intolerance. It reminds us that, even in the most adverse circumstances, reading can become an act of resistance and hope. [Full review in Spanish]