60
L.A. Weekly by Alan Scherstuhl
El Angel is a crime spree as improvised reverie, one with a subject who is as quick to give away his loot as the director is to make the subtext explicit.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
Screen International by Allan Hunter
This is stylish, commercial storytelling that marks a big leap forward for Ortega and should put Lorenzo Ferro on the map.
50
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
Carlitos’s sole reason for living is moving from one transgression to the next. The same might be said of the movie, which superficially probes his amorality while exploiting it for slick thrills.
75
Slant Magazine by Diego Semerene
El Angel‘s greatest accomplishment is in the way it charges the relationships between characters with so much eroticism but never grants us the right to watch desire — other than desire for violence — actually unfold.
50
The Film Stage by Ethan Vestby
Unfortunately, the film’s tone and form veer far closer to Scorsese imitation.
60
Ortega shows more interest in the how than the why. He mines the scenes of violence for black comedy, rendering the bloodletting anticlimactic and the victims largely irrelevant, and Ferro’s baby-faced, bright eyed disingenuity suits that agenda perfectly.
70
Los Angeles Times by Katie Walsh
El Angel doesn’t offer any concrete answers, and though it paints a vivid portrait of this real-life devil, the fact is that ultimately, we end up seduced by him as well.
65
The movie is compelling in the moment, but seems irresponsible with any afterthought.
60
The Hollywood Reporter by Stephen Dalton
While Angel brings little new to the lexicon of serial killer biopics, it hits the target as an effortlessly palatable aesthetic experience, more shiny period pageant than probing character study.
91
The Angel is funny as hell, outrageous without feeling sensational, visually beautiful, and immensely enjoyable as unpredictable eye candy. It’s one of those movies that’s so fun that it ends up feeling much shorter than it actually is.