100
New Times (L.A.)
Infectious, intoxicating joy is the emotion conveyed in every frame of this ravishing, exuberant documentary.
Buena Vista Social Club
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Germany,
- United States,
- United Kingdom,
- France,
- Cuba
- 1999
- · 105m
Director
Wim Wenders
Cast
Compay Segundo,
Eliades Ochoa,
Ry Cooder,
Joachim Cooder,
Ibrahim Ferrer,
Omara Portuondo
Genre
Documentary,
Music
American guitarist Ry Cooder brings together a group of legendary Cuban folk musicians (some in their 90s) to record a Grammy-winning CD in their native city of Havana. The result is a spectacular compilation of concert footage from the group's gigs, which captures not only the music -- but also the musicians' life stories.
Stream Buena Vista Social Club
What are critics saying?
100
New Times (L.A.) by Hal Hinson
Infectious, intoxicating joy is the emotion conveyed in every frame of this ravishing, exuberant documentary.
100
San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Stack
A poetry of love, longing and affirmation bleeds through the music of Cuba, and some of the best sounds the island ever created are captured with embracing humanity.
90
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Peter Rainer
I've never seen another movie that so clearly expresses the sensual sustenance that great folk culture provides its practitioners.
90
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Being able to hear this kind of playing is a special moment in time, one we don't want to end and one that we're privileged to experience.
90
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
The concert scenes find the stage awash in such intense joy, camaraderie and nationalist pride that you become convinced that making music is a key to longevity and spiritual well-being.
90
The New Yorker by David Denby
The movie comes closer to pure happiness than anything else in the theatres at the moment, and it has an intriguing and moving subtext: the Cubans' buried but irrepressible love of things American.
88
San Francisco Examiner
A 140-minute film masterpiece.
88
San Francisco Examiner by Philip Elwood
A 140-minute film masterpiece.
80
Village Voice
Feels like a timeless blast from the past.
80
Newsweek
The film is short on biographical details and the history of the music, and long on impressions of the musicians' character and motivations.
80
Variety by Eddie Cockrell
Wenders lets the music and the sprightly people who make it speak for themselves, although the director's ongoing fascination with the urban environment is in top form as the camera serenely cruises the streets of Havana, often at a velvety dusk.
80
Newsweek by Thomas Hayden
The film is short on biographical details and the history of the music, and long on impressions of the musicians' character and motivations.
80
Village Voice by Richard Gehr
Feels like a timeless blast from the past.
67
Austin Chronicle by Russell Smith
Buena Vista Social Club is obviously intended less as a concert film than as a set of cinematic liner notes about the vanishing musical culture.
50
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
It is a touching story, and the musicians (some over 90 years old) still have fire and grace onstage, but, man, does the style of this documentary get in the way.
50
Film.com
Lacks dramatic tension and fails to bring this great music alive. It does not sing.
Loading recommendations...
Loading recommendations...