No Reviews
The List
Director Pablo Larrain clearly wishes neither to sentimentalise the past, nor excoriate it with cynical satire; but this trepidation leaves his film feeling indecisive.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Times-Picayune
All historical and little drama.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
3AW
Shooting the entire film on video equipment of the era gives No some visual snap but it is very much a pedestrian, by-the-numbers docu-drama tale, with the emphasis on the former rather than the latter.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Top CriticThe story of it, while true to the moment, needed - ironically - much more dynamism.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Largely a gimmick picture: At all times, it looks like hastily assembled news footage shot on grainy videotape in 1988.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
ColeSmithey.com
[VIDEO ESSAY] Gael Garcia Bernal's television adman-turned-political-commercial-creator Rene Saavedra is such an ethically ambiguous protagonist that "No" falls completely flat as a piece of agitprop cinema.
Full Review
| Original Score: C-
Financial Times
No, sadly, is a no-no from Chile's Pablo Larraín.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Screen International
Larrain's bizarre decision to make his film blend in with its extensive passages of archive footage by shooting in U-matic - the default TV production format of the 1980s - makes for an uncomfortable cinematic viewing experience.
Austin American-Statesman
Bernal deftly explores the layers of the character's complexity, including his political apathy.
Full Review
| Original Score: B
Sky Movies
A terrific and thrilling drama about the power of hope, of optimism, and of bravery in the face of intimidation, and very real and extreme physical danger.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Paste Magazine
Bernal plays the creative type perfectly. His big eyes always seem to be seeing things that others don't, and through his calm, methodical demeanor, you can sense the wheels turning in his head.
Full Review
| Original Score: 7.8/10
HeyUGuys
An alluring lead performance from Bernal and a suitably low-key, almost purring soundtrack composed by Carlos Cabezas
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Irish Times
It makes the superficial Mad Men seem like, well, a commercial. Buy, buy, buy.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Rip It Up
... features a fine performance by Gael García Bernal as young ad exec René Saavedra, who didn't, at first, quite realise what he was in for when he decided to assist in the bringing down of military dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
HitFix
A hearty celebration of hard-earned democracy spiked with just enough of the director's acidly crooked humor to remind us whose house we're in.
"No" is a picture that perches precariously on the cusp of a paradox.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Slant Magazine
A singular biopic and a snapshot of a society renewed, No unaffectedly celebrates faith in democracy, and, surprisingly, truth in advertising.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Time Out Chicago
Stirring as a celebration of voter empowerment, No may also inspire pangs of wistful nostalgia.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
ABC Radio (Australia)
It's not easy material but it's truly fascinating, and expertly done.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
