88
Argentinean filmmaker Lucrecia Martel takes fundamental risks with form and style, and it pays off brilliantly.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
90
New Times (L.A.) by Bill Gallo
For better or worse, the filmmaker says nothing directly political about the cruel fate suffered by her people, but the dark poetry of her allusions is powerful.
50
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
The title means "The Swamp," and you may feel you're in one after 103 minutes with such a generally unlikable gang.
75
The triumph of La Cienaga lies in Martel's way of fashioning the kind of ensemble performance that draws us in by convincing us we're watching behavior, not acting.
80
Martel can barely contain her disgust, and like Bunuel before her, she knows just when to cut the laughs and go straight for the throat.
90
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Martel's sharp observations of the foibles of human nature are expressed perfectly in the telling images of cinematographer Hugo Colace and tight editing of Santiago Ricci.
67
Austin Chronicle by Marrit Ingman
Doesn't necessarily make for a crowdpleasing experience, though it is a provocative and uncomfortably authentic one.
80
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Peter Rainer
There's a new sensibility at work here, wry yet lushly disaffected, and it will be worth watching what Martel does next.
75
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
It's better to know going in that you're not expected to be able to fit everything together, that you may lose track of some members of the large cast, that it's like attending a family reunion when it's not your family and your hosts are too drunk to introduce you around.