The Green Wave

The most compelling aspect of The Green Wave, however, is the extensive footage shot clandestinely by amateurs using cellphones. What they recorded shows us the reality of what went down in a way nothing else can match.

Heartfelt and inventive, this documentary from exiled director Ali Samadi Ahadi chronicles Iran's abortive Green Revolution during the summer of 2009.

Ahadu pulls the curtain back on a government that was willing to imprison and torture its electorate.

Only the animation seems forced, with its comic-book style and melodramatic tone registering as manipulative next to the brute reality of the documentary images.

A worthy topic that deserves a slightly better documentary.

An arresting visual style cannot make up for lack of new information or viewpoints about the Green Revolution in 2009 Iran.

Unlike Waltz with Bashir, it only seems to be using animation in an effort to make blog diaries by twentysomethings appear cinematic.