The Matador Reviews
L.A. Weekly
The Matador reserves judgment while raising the core issue concerning this traditional ritual: deep, poetic cultural expression or glorified animal cruelty?
Top Critic[The filmmakers] capture the paradox of beauty and cruelty that charges their entire film. The Matador is rightly exciting -- and unsettling.
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| Original Score: 4/5
PopMatters
More observational than overtly critical, The Matador reveals the ways that violence defines a conventional, familiar, and increasingly scrutinized masculinity.
Mostly The Matador romanticizes a brutal tradition that has no place in the 21st century.
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| Original Score: 1/4
Stripping away centuries of civilization, The Matador confronts something primal in human nature, daring us to do the same.
Comment | Original Score: 4/5
Boxoffice Magazine
The film does a fine job constructing a timeless piece of work with a sharp-bladed cleaver and steady hand.
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| Original Score: 3/5
ComingSoon.net
One of the more comprehensive looks at bullfighting we've seen in this country.
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| Original Score: 7.5/10
Film Journal International
Stunningly photographed in high-definition, The Matador evokes the art of a well-choreographed dance in its portrait of a brutal pseudo-sport.
Time Out New York
The Matador suffers from a very predictable, almost staged quality when capturing Fandila's unsequined life outside the ring.
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| Original Score: 2/6
The Matador reserves judgment while raising the core issue concerning this traditional ritual: deep, poetic cultural expression or glorified animal cruelty?
Slant Magazine
Issues of class don't matter to the filmmakers, who pride above all else Fandila's justifications for what he does, romanticizing the possibility of his dying while giving the bulls he dances with the shaft.
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| Original Score: 2/4
ColeSmithey.com
. For all of its inherent gore and breathtaking surprises, "The Matador" is an essential window on the personality of an athlete working in an incredibly dangerous sport.
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| Original Score: B+
PETA activists will be apoplectic, but the pic is geared to more culturally open-minded viewers unacquainted with the subtleties of the corrida, revealing that it's a primitive though complex sport, and that Fandila is an athlete with a dancer's skills.
