‘Mustache’ Review: A Delightfully Anxious Pakistani American Coming-of-Age Comedy
Variety critic Siddhant Adlakha reviews "Mustache," the debut feature from writer-director Imran J. Khan, which follows its prize-winning 2023 SXSW premiere with a release on video-on-demand. The bilingual coming-of-age comedy centres on Ilyas, a 13-year-old Pakistani American boy in mid-1990s San Jose, who is uprooted from a private Islamic school and placed in a mainstream American high school, forcing him to navigate isolation at both school and home.
The review praises newcomer Atharv Verma's performance as Ilyas, whose anxieties are conveyed through vivid diagrams and elaborate voiceover narration rather than confident speech. Rizwan Manji plays his father Hameed, whose struggling business prompts the school transfer, while Ayana Manji plays Ilyas's former classmate and eventual co-conspirator, Yasmeen, who helps him scheme to get moved back to his old school. The film's recurring visual motif — extreme close-ups tied to Ilyas's self-consciousness about shaving his upper lip — underscores its blend of sharp comedy and wistful drama.
In short
- "Mustache" is Imran J. Khan's debut feature, now on VOD.
- Follows a Pakistani American teen's awkward 1990s school transfer.
- Praised for Atharv Verma's performance and cultural specificity.
Explained simply
Pakistani Americans are people in the United States with family roots in Pakistan. In the mid-1990s, a young person in this community might be balancing life at home with the expectations and culture of their American school.
The story follows Ilyas, a 13-year-old whose family moves him from a private Islamic school to a mainstream one after his father’s business struggles. He feels out of place in both settings, and his former classmate Yasmeen helps him try to return to his old school.
Writer-director Imran J. Khan’s film uses Ilyas’s worries about fitting in and growing up to explore family, friendship and belonging. Its comedy sits alongside the uncertainty of being a teenager caught between different worlds.