Insufferably arty, polemic and winkingly provocative.
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04/21/06
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Battle in Heaven (2006)
31
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:16
Fresh:5
Rotten:11
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: Though it tries to be provocative, Battle in Heaven is lethargic and mind-numbing.
Theatrical Release:Feb 17, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: Cast entirely with non-professionals, Battle in Heaven tells the story of Marcos (Marcos Hernandez), the middle-aged chauffeur of Ana (Anapola Mushkadiz), daughter of a Mexican general. Marcos is... [More]
Starring: Marcos Hernandez, Anapola Mushkadiz, Bertha Ruiz
Director: Carlos Reygadas
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Reviews for Battle in Heaven
1 - 17 (sorted by date)
Top CriticA spectacular failure, despite further evidence of the director's keen eye and bold cinematic ideas.
03/31/06
Top CriticArt with a capital A. Don't be afraid. OK, be a little afraid.
03/31/06
Top CriticReygadas' gift for imagery is undeniable, but for most viewers, Battle in Heaven will offer not enlightenment but frustration.
03/24/06
Top Critic... Reygadas has made a sensationalist picture in which all the sensation is willfully dulled.
03/10/06
Top CriticMr. Reygadas has played the anti-narrative film-festival game with the most voyeuristic means at his disposal, and then stuck on a luridly melodramatic plot almost as an afterthought.
02/23/06
Top CriticIt took four countries -- Mexico, France, Germany and Belgium -- to make a movie as bad as Carlos Reygadas' Battle in Heaven. They wasted a lot of tax-relief money in pesos, francs and marks, but you’d be a fool to waste any U.S. dollars.
02/23/06
Top CriticReyadas' radical rejection of filmmaking conventions is at first off-putting, but he's able to elicit remarkable performances from the cast of non-professionals while building tension that will hold viewers' attention.
02/17/06
Top CriticAmbitious, challenging and exceedingly frustrating.
02/17/06
Top CriticNot everyone is going to be willing or able to take this leap of faith, but those who do go along with Reygadas may well feel they have come away having undergone a stunning revelatory experience.
02/17/06
Top CriticAt once unmoored and ruthlessly calculating, the Mexican film Battle in Heaven has everything for everyone or perhaps nothing at all.
02/16/06
Top CriticFighting cliche, presenting the most flawed people as sympathetic and occasionally averting his camera eye as his characters neglect the saving of their own souls, Reygadas has made a movie that is itself an ethical dilemma.
02/16/06
Top CriticBattle in Heaven is less about heaven or battle, or hell on earth, or the soul of Mexico, and all too much about gawking. And so, for all the 'shock' of the movie's clinical carnality, this battle is lost.
02/15/06
Top CriticPromiscuously inhabiting several planes at once, Reygadas's restless inquisition may already be this year's movie to beat.
02/14/06
Top CriticClick to read the article
12/24/05
Top CriticBoth intensely exciting for its cinematic inventions and terribly uninvolving on emotional and dramatic levels.
05/16/05
Top CriticA disappointing turn-off. The film deliberately works against most cinematic expectations.
05/16/05
Top Critic1 - 17 (sorted by date)
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