Carlos Bonfil
Tomatometer-approved critic
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Women Talking (2022) |
A daring film executed with mature sobriety. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Mar 20, 2023
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EO (2022) |
EO offers a disquieting and painful look at human arrogance, that feeling itself as the indisputable owner of the natural environment, subjects its capricious will towards the fragility and fate of other beings. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Mar 13, 2023
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Close (2022) |
The title, Close, alludes to an exceptional affective closeness that moral prejudice will first force a temporary rupture and later on, a disastrous irreparable separation, as the result of disloyalty and fear. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Mar 06, 2023
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Living (2022) |
Hermanus does not reach the levels of lyricism and emotional charge of the Japanese classic, which was already exceptional in Kurosawa's own filmography. It should be noted, however, the stupendous performance of Bill Nighy... [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Mar 01, 2023
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The Substitute (2022) |
Although Lerman's direction is efficient and vigorous, various subplots do not fully come to fruition, leaving loose ends for some ultimately irrelevant sentimental matters. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Feb 24, 2023
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The Whale (2022) |
The pathetic story of a futile repentance. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Feb 13, 2023
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Gods of Mexico (2022) |
With Gods of Mexico, Dosantos offers a diorama of indigenous diversity... offering a reality that's very much alive, yet, unfortunately, neglected by the country's cultural elite. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Feb 07, 2023
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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) |
... A unique story about a wounded friendship and the disastrous consequences of an absurd disagreement. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Feb 06, 2023
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Armageddon Time (2022) |
James Gray, always an appealing and chameleonic filmmaker, returns with a fine psychological observation in the intimate tone of his first films. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jan 30, 2023
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Babylon (2022) |
An artistic melting pot. Babylon is an uneven and disorganized film in line with the Hollywood carousel of cheap impressions that spins in all directions yet never bets on any. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jan 23, 2023
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Decision to Leave (2022) |
... A suspense machine, a captivating thriller at the service of a doomed love obsession. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jan 17, 2023
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Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022) |
This is a falsely humble introspective... [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jan 09, 2023
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Aftersun (2022) |
An adult's emotional introspection; she recalls strong childhood memories to give them a more profound and serene interpretation. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Dec 19, 2022
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As in Heaven (2021) |
The varied stylistic resources and well-handled performances lend splendor and thickness to a film that, in other hands, could've been reduced to a morose chronicle of customs and manners. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Dec 14, 2022
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Tár (2022) |
Through [Lydia Tár], the director implacably dissects an entire artistic medium, strips it of its glamour, and reveals its narcissism. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Dec 12, 2022
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The Wonder (2022) |
A captivating story that oscillates between social realism and the fantastical. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Dec 05, 2022
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The Box (2021) |
Lorenzo Vigas has notable artistic intuition for directing actors. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 28, 2022
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Los caifanes (1966) |
A deliberate tribute to the equally festive and somber spirit of I Vitelloni (1953), one of the most emotional films of Federico Fellini. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 23, 2022
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Miracle (2021) |
A subtly directed thriller that examines a post-communist Romania devastated by corruption and bureaucracy... [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 22, 2022
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Rimini (2022) |
In his new fiction, Ulrich Seidl proves that he hasn't lost an ounce of talent in presenting the cruel and corrosive social satire that's prevalent in all his documentaries... [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 21, 2022
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Playground (2021) |
The director builds a labyrinth of conflicting feelings, betrayal, resentment, the power of guilt, and the possibility of reconciliation, to lucidly and tenderly achieve this magnificent portrait of childhood. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 21, 2022
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The Menu (2022) |
If the price for exquisiteness, political correctness, and social appearances is usually sacrificed, The Menu takes this requisite to extreme situations to hilarious and delirious effect. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 18, 2022
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Fire Will Come (2019) |
The plot is minimal and would only take a couple of lines to describe, but Olivier Laxe's film is about the lack of human communication due to discretion, distrust, and silence. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 17, 2022
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Pacifiction (2022) |
As expected from [Albert Serra], this isn't a conventional narrative with flat or one-dimensional characters, but one of the most insightful and relevant political allegories of what unlimited power can be... [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 16, 2022
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Red Desert (1964) |
Monica Vitti renders a stupendous interpretation of a misunderstood and delirious wife lost in a social environment... [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 14, 2022
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Corsage (2022) |
Marie Kreutzer portrays a new emperor, Sissi, with the same unique casualness she attributes to her heroine, who drinks, seduces, and defies nobility through reckless intimacies with a few perplexed subordinates. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 14, 2022
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Everything Went Fine (2021) |
The protagonist's psychological complexity makes the film go beyond a plea in favor of the right to an assisted, dignified departure. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 14, 2022
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All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) |
Even though it doesn't surpass the fine prose of Lewis Milestone's version, nor does it try, it delivers a well-structured pacifist plea that is timely and relevant. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 07, 2022
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Noise (2022) |
A notable metaphor between the official silence that grants immunity to criminals and its accomplices, with the noise that torments Julia and other aggrieved mothers. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 01, 2022
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Robe of Gems (2022) |
A fine behavioral analysis of three women in an original story that avoids certain stereotypes associated with drug cartel violence. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Nov 01, 2022
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Argentina, 1985 (2022) |
Mitre's film is accessible and in spite of being commercial, it goes beyond Hollywood conventionalisms to bluntly depict a government that operated through intimidation... [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Oct 24, 2022
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Amsterdam (2022) |
Amsterdam transforms a nightmare into a dark comedy -- at times brilliant, at times inarticulate -- greatly benefitted by the notable performances that manage to save the ship from wreckage. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Oct 17, 2022
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Blonde (2022) |
Paradox and irony: six decades later, Marilyn Monroe's public figure continues to be the object of sexual exploitation in the media, just slightly redressed. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Oct 03, 2022
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Moonage Daydream (2022) |
A somewhat rash offering that far from being capricious, stands as a faithful tribute to the biggest anti-hero of classic and disruptive British rock. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Sep 26, 2022
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Apples (2020) |
A social parable about an individual's autonomy against a political or scientific authority imposing absolute control on the psyche after redesigning it. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Sep 12, 2022
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Sublet (2020) |
Synthetizes the affective and acute tribulations that may be experienced by individuals that come from two different generations, lifestyles, and appearances, and yet still find alliance and common ground. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Sep 06, 2022
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Boiling Point (2021) |
One of the most novel and attractive films in the non-commercial lineup. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Sep 06, 2022
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Nope (2022) |
A loaded thriller that doesn't reach, nor does it want to, the classic dramatic tension of a horror film. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Aug 29, 2022
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The Last Execution (2021) |
In the style of The Lives of Others (Von Donnersmarck, 2006), this stupendously loaded political thriller shows us how security services (the sinister Stasi) twisted moral values and turned people... to spy on each other. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Aug 22, 2022
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Dear Thomas (2021) |
In addition to being a tribute to a poet who was continuously sabotaged by an omnipotent government, the film recaptures history and is an original posthumous vindication [of Thomas Brasch]. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Aug 22, 2022
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The Pact (2021) |
Neumann doesn't mine the complex possibilities and dramatic layers that Blixen, the tyrannical and temperamental writer, was known to possess. Something similar also happens with the film itself, too contained in its preciousness and academic formality. - La Jornada
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| Posted Aug 08, 2022
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Huda's Salon (2021) |
... A stupendous political thriller that raises questions about gender discrimination in a novel way. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Aug 01, 2022
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The Hole (2021) |
Besides the warm and touching portrait of an old shepherd on his death bed, there's an uncertain collective survival in Calabria, a place immersed in unfathomable traditions like the hole [cave] that fascinates explorers. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jul 27, 2022
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Splinters (2020) |
Natalia Garayalde insightfully chronicles and elaborates on the facts, from the criminal origins of the disaster to the sad corruption and impunity... [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jul 26, 2022
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EAMI (2022) |
An almost unclassifiable work, a fortuitous combination of reality and fiction that takes on the subject of deforestation in the Chaco region of Paraguay from an indigenous point of view. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jul 25, 2022
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The Great Movement (2021) |
Enigmatic and dense, often chaotic, the film uses sound and imagery to represent the cacophony of an impersonal city... [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jul 25, 2022
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Returning to Reims (2021) |
[Jean-Gabriel Périot] focuses on the author's grandmother, a victim of an exploitative and misogynist workforce... An indispensable documentary. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jul 22, 2022
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Mighty Flash (2021) |
Mighty Flash moves, without stumbling, from looking at the customs of the region with an ethnographic lens to an unreal atmosphere in which joyful female emancipation is affirmed, without generational obstacles. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jul 21, 2022
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A Man and a Camera (2021) |
One of the most undoubtedly novel and certainly provocative documentaries ever seen... The staggeringly simple premise seems like a prank at first. [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jul 20, 2022
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Bird Island (2019) |
Bird Island shows the tenacity and meticulousness professionals use to heal animals that would be forced to fare on their own otherwise... [Full review in Spanish] - La Jornada
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| Posted Jul 18, 2022
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