Persepolis is a decent movie with a lot of positive aspects, but also a lot of negative qualities as well. Persepolis is a mostly funny and sometimes poignant coming-of-age tale of an Iranian girl during the revolution, who is sent to Vienna for her own safety during college. It is semi-autobiographical, as it is Marjane Satrapi's story, for the most part, and she is the director of this movie and the creator of the graphic novels the movie is based on. First, it had a bumpy narrative. (Yes, I know it was adapted from four separate graphic novels, but that's no excuse for the movie's narrative to suck.) There was no overarching direction; it felt like a series of events with no relation to each other or purpose other than having happened to the same person. Not only that, but the first half seemed like a history of Iran during the time period whereas the second half was a personal history; there was no link between the two.
Persepolis had a wealth of achievements as well, though. The animation was amazing. The transitions were artistic, where puffs of smoke becomes trees in the next scene or the border around the entire next scene. I thought the use of cartoons, specifically black and white cartoons, was essential to making this story more universal. The audience don't have the option of looking at the characters and saying, "That's not me. That could never happen to me." The negative side to using cartoons, however, is that the audience loses a certain emotional connection and impact by not seeing real faces. Persepolis had an excellent use of music and movement. I can't imagine how the graphic novels looked and felt, but I'm sure it was an entirely different experience. Overall, I wouldn't really recommend this movie unless you are already interested in the topic. (I hear it's not a very good primer for Iranian political history though, as it has a very biased viewpoint and ignores essential aspects.) I assume most people interested in this movie already have the history under their belt though, so there is nothing to worry about.IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0808417/