Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 31
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 8
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 14,160
A middle-class prostitute strikes up an unlikely friendship with an immigrant streetwalker from the Dominican Republic in director Fernando León de Aranoa's compassionate, humanistic drama. Caye comes from a middle-class background, and her parents remain blissfully unaware of the means by which their daughter earns her keep. While many of Caye's days are spent hanging out with her fellow prostitutes cursing the rapid proliferation of cheaper immigrant prostitutes on the city streets, a chance
Aug 23, 2005 Wide
Mar 27, 2007
IFC First Take
All Critics (35) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (25) | Rotten (8) | DVD (4)
Aranoa sketches a melancholy based on accurate human observation.
While Princesas offers sensitive and beautifully wrought performances by its two leads (Candela Pena and Micaela Nevarez, who each won Goya Awards), the film offers little new in way of substance or theme.
Writer-director Fernando León de Aranoa embraces a pair of Madrid streetwalkers with such affection and compassion that their story, even though prostitutes are a staple of the movies, actually seems fresh and distinctive.
Fernando Leon de Aranoa confirms his Loach-like ability to convert marginalized subjects into socially committed cinema.
In Princesas, [writer-director Fernando León de Aranoa] leaves too many loose ends hanging about, but his sentiments are noble.
Women become prostitutes for different reasons, and the reasons driving the main characters in Spanish writer-director Fernando León de Aranoa's earnest tale of friendship couldn't be more different.
With not a pimp in sight, no mention of people-trafficking, and a single token drug-addict, this Spanish prostitution drama is serenely old-fashioned.
The film has inspirational messages about the rewards of multicultural integration, but its tacit approval of prostitution as a rewarding career choice seems a bit peculiar.
Princesas is heartwarming and sporadically surprising, bolstered by beautifully measured performances.
Compelling, frequently funny and, commendably, resists wrapping things up sentimentally. Nice Manu Chao soundtrack, too.
Impressively directed, emotionally engaging drama with terrific performances from Candela Pena and newcomer Micaela Nevárez.
Despite the difficult subject matter, there is colour and energy to the storytelling that betrays a diehard optimism and is vaguely reminiscent of Pedro Almodovar's films. Aranoa keeps a loose, fluid feel to the action and ups the tempo with music.
This slice-of-life drama brooks no sentiment and spares us none of the tedium and terror of life on the street...
The most engaging presentation from the perspective of an exploited, female underclass since the equally-evocative Maria, Full of Grace.
Slow moving but generally interesting...
One of the very best films ever made about that most enduring of professions, prostitution.
The most engaging presentation from the perspective of an exploited, female underclass since the equally-evocative Maria, Full of Grace.
Una película entrañable y conmovedora sobre la amistad y la solidaridad entre dos mujeres, con dos estupendas actrices.
Princesas rehearses 'hooker with a heart of gold' tropes and indulges Almodóvarian clichés of Spanish spunk and solidarity.
Good movie. Fairly realistic, (or appeared to be), portrayal of prostitution. I liked the ending and the sense of hope for the main character instead of the usual, wound up dead or may as well be. The other lead character did not fare quite as well, but that's where the realism comes into it, and at least it wasn't
February 24, 2008Super Reviewer
Mixes styles with reasonable success and Pena gives a believable nuanced performance but some of her flights of fancy are a little contrived.
July 10, 2008
Super Reviewer
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