With its compulsive beat of drums, guitars and feet, the sometimes Moorish wailings, the lyrics of startling conviction (typical: 'My soul, it hurts so bad'), Vengo has all the fire it needs.
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11/02/01
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Vengo (2001)
62
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:37
Fresh:23
Rotten:14
Average Rating:5.7/10
Theatrical Release:Sep 7, 2001 Limited
Synopsis: Celebrating the art of flamenco dancing and the culture from which it was born, VENGO is about a centuries-old dispute between two gypsy families in Andalusia, Spain. Separated into two groups of... [More]
Starring: Antonio Canales, Orestes Villasan Rodriguez, Antonio Perez Dechent, Bobote
Director: Tony Gatlif
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Reviews for Vengo
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10/29/01
Flamenco music takes heartbreak and transforms it into healing music. Vengo takes lamentation and shows how it can be transformed into the beauty of sacrificial love.
10/13/01
If you're a flamenco fan, this works as a concert film. It's as mere movie that its voice is strained.
10/12/01
Truly arouses.
10/12/01
Flamenco rhythms are not exactly my cup of tea, but I must say that by the time Vengo's primal story unfolded in its entirety, I was fully in its thrall.
10/11/01
Top CriticA strange combination of melodrama and concert film.
10/05/01
Vengo presents a darkly realistic yet seductive world, with music as the tie that binds.
09/28/01
Top CriticBoth an ode to the passion of Spanish flamenco dancing and a polemic about the transitory state of the gypsy people it sprang from, Vengo doesn't succeed as either.
09/17/01
Top CriticA fan of flamenco? Then go to Vengo. Otherwise, sit this one out.
09/14/01
Gatlif's film, although uneven, captures the spirit of the best musicals.
09/14/01
It is best to let this stunning film simply wash over you and trust that all will become clear enough in time.
09/14/01
Top Critic[Gatlif] obviously loved his subject and the way in which it was filmed provides a contagious appreciation for a people often misunderstood.
09/10/01
The story ... is neither convincing nor remotely dramatic.
09/07/01
Top CriticSuffers from Gatlif's apparent inability to decide whether he wanted to make a documentary-like look at the consequences of certain traditional Romany practices or a flat-out vendetta melodrama.
09/07/01
Gatliff's efforts may have been better spent on making a flamenco documentary.
09/07/01
A mildly engrossing tale of devotion and loss, but one that passes up the chance to match the impassioned level to which its soundtrack rises.
09/07/01
As fresh as [Gatlif's] view of flamenco may be, his dramatic ideas are excruciatingly trite.
09/07/01
Top CriticGo see this hot, passionate movie, and you'll leave dancing and yelling, too.
09/06/01
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