80
By telling this story through the children’s eyes with a magical-realism element, López makes the tragically unthinkable somehow more palatable.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Barry Hertz
The filmmaker has such a strong command of mood, character and performances – especially impressive given the age of her cast – that her world quickly, seductively overwhelms.
80
Tigers Are Not Afraid isn’t quite the masterful dark fairy tale it aspires to be. The humor is entirely unnecessary and tonally misplaced. But what it gets right, it does brilliantly. The acting is superb, the mix of fantasy and realistic drama is sublime, and the story is haunting and fascinating in equal measure.
50
It never resolves its commingling of the fanciful and the mundane into a particularly coherent argument about the legacy of trauma.
83
The Film Stage by Jared Mobarak
López’s fairy tale is one seeking to remind us of an innocence not yet stripped clean.
70
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
Thematically underdeveloped yet pleasingly creepy, Tigers Are Not Afraid balances its mild terrors with appealing moments of childish creativity.
80
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
It is by turns harrowing, affecting, unexpectedly funny, truly scary and fantastical. (The cinematographer was Juan Jose Saravia.) The fantasy grows overlush from time to time, but Ms. López has created an original work of art in genre disguise.
70
Los Angeles Times by Justin Chang
The emotion and the horror might have taken still deeper root if the world of the movie felt less hectic and more coherently realized, if the supernatural touches and occasional jump scares welled up organically from within rather than feeling smeared on with a digital trowel.
83
The Tigers’ rooftop hideout is like something out of Hook, and the film moves along at a brisk, Spielbergian clip; however, the combination of dark themes mixed with whimsical fantasy strikes a tone more similar to Guillermo del Toro’s early work.
95
Once the spell of Tigers Are Not Afraid ends and the credits roll, its story lingers in the air. It’s a story of sadness, loss and survival, a fairy tale tailor-made for our anxious times.