Cinema Tropical, the leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the U.S., has compiled a list of the Best Ten Latin American Films of the Decade (2010-2019), based on a poll of 97 international film festival and cinemathèque programmers.
In total, 234 films representing 17 Latin American countries were nominated for the distinction of being Best of the Decade, demonstrating the high quality and diversity of films from the region.
We’ve updated the list with the streaming platforms where you can watch 25 of the top films (please note most platforms are only available in the U.S. and Canada). Click here for the complete list of films and poll participants.
1. ZAMA
(Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/Brazil/Spain, 2017, 115 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Zama, an officer of the Spanish Crown born in South America, waits for a letter from the King granting him a transfer from the town in which he is stagnating, to a better place. His situation is delicate. He must ensure that nothing overshadows his transfer. He is forced to accept submissively every task entrusted to him by successive Governors who come and go as he stays behind. The years go by and the letter from the King never arrives. When Zama notices everything is lost, he joins a party of soldiers that go after a dangerous bandit.
“Beautiful, hypnotic, mysterious and elliptical”
—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, Apple TV, Vimeo
2. LA FLOR
(Mariano Llinás, Argentina, 2018, 803 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A decade in the making, Mariano Llinás’s La Flor is an unrepeatable labor of love and madness that redefines the concept of binge viewing. The director himself shows up at the start to preview the six episodes that await, each starring the same four remarkable actresses: Elisa Carricajo, Valeria Correa, Pilar Gamboa, and Laura Paredes. Overflowing with nested subplots and whiplash digressions, La Flor shape-shifts from a B-movie to a musical to a spy thriller to a category-defying metafiction—all of them without endings—to a remake of a very well-known French classic and, finally, to an enigmatic period piece that lacks a beginning (granted, all notions of beginnings and endings become fuzzy after 14 hours). An adventure in scale and duration, La Flor is a wildly entertaining exploration of the possibilities of fiction that lands somewhere close to its outer limits.
“An astonishment... a dazzling collision of stories and genres, flashbacks and voiceovers, games and riddles… extraordinary... sweeping and addictive… the definition of a must-see.”
— Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
"The Best Film of the Year! For nearly fourteen hours, this protean magnum opus, held together by an extraordinary quartet of actresses, immerses us in the pleasures of densely detailed fiction."
— Melissa Anderson, Artforum
Available for streaming on:
Grasshopper Films
3. EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT / EL ABRAZO DE LA SERPIENTE
(Ciro Guerra, Colombia/Venezuela/Argentina, 2015, 125 min. In Spanish, Portuguese, Cubeo, Huitoto, Ticuna, Wanano, German, Catalan, Latin, and English with English subtitles)
At once blistering and poetic, the ravages of colonialism cast a dark shadow over the South American landscape in Embrace of the Serpent, the third feature by Ciro Guerra. Filmed in stunning black-and-white, Serpent centers on Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and the two scientists who, over the course of 40 years, build a friendship with him. The film was inspired by the real-life journals of two explorers who traveled through the Colombian Amazon during the last century in search of the sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant.
“Majestic. Spellbinding… Beautiful isn’t strong enough a word.”
—Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“A dazzlingly singular vision. Poetic, surreal and ravishing.”
—Guy Lodge, Variety
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, iTunes, Hulu, Kanopy
4. ROMA
(Alfonso Cuarón, Mexico, 2018, 135 min. In Spanish, Mixtec, and English with English subtitles)
Based on director Alfonso Cuarón’s own childhood in a middle-class home in 1970s Mexico City, Roma is the gentle and intricate portrait of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), the family’s housekeeper and nanny. An incredible work of social realism, Roma chronicles a year from Cleo’s perspective, featuring the emotional and domestic labor she provides to the family and her rare personal moments away from the home. Cuarón’s return to Mexico after 17 years in Hollywood, Roma is a magnificent example of a master telling a deeply personal story with impeccable craft. Remarkably photographed in gorgeous black and white (also by Cuarón) this film is mesmerizing in every aspect.
“From the raw material of memory [Cuaron has] made something that nearly erases the difference between artifice and life, as well as the distance between past and present.”
—A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Available for streaming on:
Netflix
5. NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT / NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ(Patricio Guzmán, France/Germany/Chile/Spain, 2011, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Film master director Patricio Guzman, famed for his political documentaries (The Battle of Chile, The Pinochet Case), travels 10,000 feet above sea level to the driest place on earth, the Atacama Desert, where atop the mountains astronomers from all over the world gather to observe the stars. The sky is so translucent that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe. The Atacama is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: those of Pre-Columbian mummies; 19th century explorers and miners; and the remains of political prisoners, "disappeared" by the Chilean army after the military coup of September, 1973.
"Stunningly beautiful. I don't know how you can put more into a film, or make one that's more deeply moving."
—Stuart Klawans, The Nation
“An extraordinary film about the unknown and the unknowable."
—Sight & Sound Magazine
“Deeply Affecting [Critics Pick]"
—New York Magazine
6. POST TENEBRAS LUX
(Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Germany/Netherlands, 2012, 115 min. In Spanish, English and French with English subtitles)
Post Tenebras Lux (“light after darkness”), ostensibly the story of an upscale, urban family whose move to the Mexican countryside results in domestic crises and class friction, is a stunningly photographed, impressionistic psychological portrait of a family and their place within the sublime, unforgiving natural world. Reygadas conjures a host of unforgettable, ominous images: a haunting sequence at dusk as Reygadas’s real-life daughter wanders a muddy field and farm animals loudly circle and thunder and lightning threaten; a glowing-red demon gliding through the rooms of a home; a husband and wife visiting a swingers’ bathhouse with rooms named after famous philosophers. By turns entrancing and mystifying, Post Tenebras Lux palpably explores the primal conflicts of the human condition.
“Captivating! Sumptuous!”
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“Entrancingly Beatiful. As beguiling a cinematic object as one is likely to encounter this year… a personal work in which autobiographical content is lyrically transfigured and elevated to cosmic heights.”
—Dan Sullivan, Film Comment
“Thrillingly strange! Welcomes each of us into its stream of subconsciousness…”
—Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York
“Formally daring, visually inventive… spectacular!”
—Eric Kohn, IndieWire
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu
7. AQUARIUS
(Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil/France, 2016, 146 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
In Aquarius, acclaimed Brazilian writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Neighboring Sounds) continues to examine the alienating effects of urban over-development in Recife, a Brazilian oceanfront city. Clara (Sônia Braga, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands), a vibrant former music critic, avid swimmer, grandmother, cancer survivor, willing lover and widow with flowing tresses, is the only remaining apartment owner in a gracious older building targeted for demolition by ruthless luxury high-rise developers. As the builders tactics to remove Clara, become increasingly hostile, Clara proves to be a force to be reckoned with.
Mendonça Filho critiques life in contemporary Brazil, ranging from issues of social class, to the mistrust of government, to ageism, nepotism and corporate corruption, while looking fondly at the music, the places and the objects that we come to cherish in a very personal way. In Aquarius, this history encapsulated in a dwelling, that in and of itself, has been a silent witness to a woman's entire life.
“A sensuous memory piece about the meanings we invest in places, objects, and music; and a lovingly tailored vehicle for the ever luminous Sonia Braga."
—Dennis Lim, Artforum
"A career-defining performance by the great Sônia Braga - weathered, proud, sensuous, fragile - captivates and brings us into her world."
—Bilge Ebiri, The Village Voice
"Sonia Braga is stupendous in Aquarius. Blazingly intelligent, funny, dignified, and sexy-as-hell.”
—Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
Available for streaming on:
Kino Now, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, Apple TV, Kanopy
8. JAUJA
(Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/Denmark/France/Mexico, 2014, 109 min. In Spanish, Danish, and French with English subtitles)
An astonishingly beautiful and gripping Western starring Viggo Mortensen, Jauja (pronounced how-ha) begins in a remote outpost in Patagonia during the late 1800s. Captain Gunnar Dinesen has come from abroad with his fifteen year-old daughter to take an engineering job with the Argentine army. Being the only female in the area, Ingeborg creates quite a stir among the men. She falls in love with a young soldier, and one night they run away together. When Dinesen realizes what has happened, he decides to venture into enemy territory to find the young couple. Featuring a superb performance from Mortensen, Jauja (the name suggests a fabled city of riches sought by European explorers) is the story of a man’s desperate search for his daughter, a solitary quest that takes him to a place beyond time, where the past vanishes and the future has no meaning.
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, Kanopy
9. TEMPESTAD
(Tatiana Huezo, Mexico, 2016, 105 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Through a subjective and emotional journey, this film conveys the paralyzing power of fear: fear as a sickness that prevents you from taking a stand on your life, on the future of your children; which clouds your ability to dream and grow. A morning on a quite normal day: Miriam is arrested at her workplace and is accused, without proof, of “people trafficking”. The violence she suffered and was exposed to during her imprisonment has left a profound gap in her life.
Adela works as a clown in a traveling circus. Ten years ago, her life was irreversibly transformed; every night during the show, she evokes her missing daughter, Monica. Tempest is the parallel journey of two women. Mirror-like, it reflects the impact of the violence and impunity that afflict Mexico.
* Not yet available for online streaming.
10 (TIE). ARABY
(Affonso Uchoa and João Dumans, Brazil, 2017, 98 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Andre, a teenager, lives in an industrial town in Brazil near an old aluminum factory. One day, a factory worker, Cristiano, suffers an accident. Asked to go to Cristiano’s house to pick up clothes and documents, Andre stumbles on a notebook, and it’s here that Araby begins — or, rather, transforms. As Andre reads from the journal entries, we are plunged into Cristiano’s life, into stories of his wanderings, adventures, and loves. Beautifully written and filmed, Araby is a fable-like road movie about a young man who sets off on a ten-year journey in search of a better life.
"Araby opens quietly but builds with tremendous emotional force."
—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
"Critic's Pick! [A] Superb performance... beautifully incarnated by Aristides de Sousa."
— Glenn Kenny, The New York Times
"An instant classic. Has the truly rare capacity to inspire and energize with the optimistic sense that nothing is impossible."
— Neil Young, The Hollywood Reporter
Available for streaming on:
Amazon, iTunes, Kanopy, Ovid.tv, Topic
10 (TIE). A USEFUL LIFE / LA VIDA ÚTIL(Federico Veiroj, Uruguay/Spain, 2010, 63 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
After twenty-five years, Cinemateca Uruguaya’s most devoted employee, Jorge (real-life Uruguayan critic Jorge Jellinek), still finds his inspiration in caring for the films and audiences that grace the seats and screen of his beloved arthouse cinema. But when dwindling attendance and diminishing support force the theater to close its doors, Jorge is sent into a world he knows only through the lens of art—and suddenly forced to discover a new passion that transcends his once-celluloid reality. Stylishly framed in black-and-white with brilliantly understated performances, Federico Veiroj’s sly and loving homage to the soul of cinema is a universally appealing gem and knowing charmer about life after the movies.
11. NEIGHBORING SOUNDS / O SOM AO REDOR
(Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil, 2012, 131 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
One of the most acclaimed films of the year, Neighboring Sounds is the thrilling debut from Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonca Filho. On a quiet city block in the coastal city of Recife, ruled by an aging patriarch and his sons, a recent spate of petty crime has rattled the nerves of the well-to-do residents. When a mysterious security firm is brought in to watch over the neighborhood, it sparks the fears and anxieties of a divided society still haunted by its past.
"A revelatory debut feature."
—A.O. Scott, The New York Times (Critics' Pick)
"Stunning."
—Melissa Anderson, Village Voice
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Google Play, Vudu, Apple TV, Kanopy
12. THE TINIEST PLACE / EL LUGAR MÁS PEQUEÑO
(Tatiana Huezo, Mexico, 2011, 100 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
On the surface The Tiniest Place is the story of Cinquera, a village literally wiped off the official map during El Salvador's 12-year civil war. But on a deeper level it is a story about the ability to rise, to rebuild and reinvent oneself after a tragedy. Holding the past and present in focus together, the film takes us to the tiny village nestled in the mountains amidst the humid Salvadoran jungle, while villagers, survivors of the war's massacres, recount their journey home at war's end. When they first returned their village no longer existed. Nevertheless they decided to stay. And over the years as they worked the land, built new homes and started new families, the people of Cinquera learned to live with sorrow.
"A profound expression of the twin powers of life and death… The subject of the Central American wars of recent decades has rarely received such a level of artistic treatment onscreen."
—Robert Koehler, Variety
"Unforgettable...One of the finest docs I've seen over the past year."
—Howard Feinstein, Filmmaker Magazine
Available for streaming on:
Ovid.tv.
13. EL CLUB / THE CLUB
(Pablo Larraín, Chile, 2015, 98 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
In a secluded seaside town, four mysterious men live together in a small house on the shore with a woman who serves as their caretaker. Former priests who have been exiled to the quiet hamlet as punishment for, and protection from, their past sins, the men keep a strict daily schedule devoid of temptation and highlighted by time spent training their greyhound racing dog. When a new houseguest arrives from the outside world, quickly followed by an emissary sent by the Vatican, the fragile stability unravels and deeply buried secrets come to the surface. Masterfully directed by Chilean auteur Pablo Larraín (No), The Club is a taut, blackly comic critique of organized religion, individual responsibility, and the combustible combination of the two.
"It’s a terrifically smart film…crucial, thrilling and disturbing."
—David Calhoun, Time Out London
"It’s a surprising and often thought-provoking effort from a filmmaker who has never chosen to take the simple path, confirming Larrain as one of the more genuine talents working in cinema today."
—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
"A bold, blunt, yet clinically intelligent film ... it's all at once a gripping thriller, an incendiary social critique and a mordant moral fable."
—Jessica Kiang, The Playlist
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, iTunes, Kanopy, Shudder, Fandango Now
14. BIRDS OF PASSAGE / PÁJAROS DE VERANO
(Ciro Guerra, Cristina Gallego, Colombia/Denmark/Mexico, 2018, 125 min. In Wayuu, Spanish, and English with English subtitles)
From the Oscar®-nominated team behind the genre-defying Embrace of the Serpent, comes an equally audacious saga centered on the Wayúu indigenous people during a crucial period in recent Colombian history. Torn between his desire to become a powerful man and his duty to uphold his culture’s values, Rapayet (José Acosta) enters the drug trafficking business in the 1970s and finds quick success despite his tribe’s matriarch Ursula’s (Carmiña Martínez) disapproval. Ignoring ancient omens, Rapayet and his family get caught up in a conflict where honor is the highest currency and debts are paid with blood. A sprawling epic about the erosion of tradition in pursuit of material wealth, Birds of Passage is a visually striking exploration of loyalty, greed, and the voracious nature of change.
“Critic’s Pick. Even as you may be reminded of other sweeping chronicles of fortunes made and souls undone by ambition and greed—Giant, The Godfather, even ‘Breaking Bad’ — your perception of the world is likely to be permanently altered. The experience made me think of some of my favorite movies (I’ll add Visconti’s LA TERRA TREMA to the list), but it’s also like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“An ethnographic thriller... The directors, Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, examine [Wayuu] traditions with ardent attention; their poised, richly textured images both unfold the action in tense detail and enmesh it in its social context, rescuing cultural memory from tragic devastation.”
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“The sprawling, colorful ensemble narrative plays like THE GODFATHER by way of Werner Herzog... In the canon of Colombian cinema to date, it stands out as a masterpiece of cultural biography.”
—Eric Kohn, IndieWire
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, HBO Now, iTunes
15. A FANTASTIC WOMAN /UNA MUJER FANTÁSTICA
(Sebastián Lelio, Chile/Germany/Spain/USA, 2017, 104 min. In Spanish and Chinese with English subtitles)
Marina and Orlando are in love and planning their future, when one night Orlando suddenly falls ill and passes away. Instead of being able to mourn her lover, Marina is treated with suspicion by authorities and with disdain by his family. She is forbidden to attend his funeral and thrown out of the apartment they shared. Marina is a trans woman and for most of Orlando’s family, her sexual identity is a perversion. So she must battle the very same forces that she has spent a lifetime fighting just to become the woman she is now – a complex, strong, forthright and fantastic.
"It may be a timely film, but it is its timelessness, as well as its depths of compassion, that qualify it as a great one.”
—The Guardian
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu
16. NO
(Pablo Larraín, Chile, 2012, 118 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to international pressure, is forced to call a plebiscite on his presidency. The country will vote YES or NO to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the NO persuade a brash young advertising executive, Rene Saavedra (Gael Garcia Bernal), to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and under scrutiny by the despot's minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free.
“Sly and smart. Weirdly funny and rousing, both intellectually and emotionally.”
—The New York Times
“The best movie ever made about Chilean plebiscites, No thoroughly deserves its Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.”
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker
“Nominated by the Academy as the year’s best foreign-language film, No grabs you hard, no mercy, and keeps you riveted.”
—Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, Fandango Now
17. IT ALL STARTED AT THE END
(Todo comenzó por el fin, Luis Ospina, Colombia, 2015, 208 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
It All Started At the End is the story of a Colombian artist collective for whom movies were both a means and an end; something very serious that could be at the service of the game, the party, or the celebration of the senses or transgression. A group of cinephiles headed by Luis Ospina, Andrés Caicedo and Carlos Mayolo, who, in the middle of the unbridled rumba and the historical chaos of the 70s and 80s, managed to produce a set of cinematographic works fundamental to the history of Colombian cinema. The film is a testimony to the love of cinema, life, and friendship.
*Not yet available for online streaming.
EL AUGE DEL HUMANO / THE HUMAN SURGE
(Eduardo Williams, Argentina/Brazil/Portugal, 2016, 99 mins. In Spanish, Portuguese, and Visayan with English subtitles)
One of the most thrillingly of-the-moment and unclassifiable first features of the century, Argentine director Eduardo Williams’ globe-spanning portrait of millennial restlessness and ennui shifts between cybersex chat rooms in Buenos Aires and Mozambique, the Filipino jungle, and a dystopian tablet computer factory. The Human Surge is an exploration of the surreal strangeness—and paradoxical alienation—of life in the age of hyper-connection. Winner of the top prize in the 2016 Locarno Film Festival’s Filmmakers of the Present section.
“Just when you think you've got the movie pegged, it pulls a daring switch of perspective. While the thrill of that little coup is short-lived, it suggests that Mr. Williams may come up with something more substantial with his next feature.”
—Glenn Kenny, The New York Times
“This is a heckuva stimulating cinematic achievement for a relative newcomer. The Human Surge offers a shrewd commentary on the dissonance of technological connectivity and personal communication.” —Eric Kohn, IndieWire
19. IXCANUL
(Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala/France, 2015, 91 min. In Spanish and Kaqchikel with English subtitles)
The brilliant debut by Guatemalan filmmaker Jayro Bustamante is a mesmerizing fusion of fact and fable, a dreamlike depiction of the daily lives of Kaqchikel speaking Mayans on a coffee plantation at the base of an active volcano. Immersing us in its characters' customs and beliefs, Ixcanul chronicles with unblinking realism, a disappearing tradition and a disappearing people.
"A powerful and highly accomplished debut deserving recognition. Moreover, with its social realist focus on Guatemala’s contemporary Mayan population, it offers a portrait of a largely unseen community refreshingly free of exoticism (the remarkable unprofessional cast helped co-write the script).”
—Filmmaker Magazine
"Jayro Bustamante’s Ixcanul was a genuine discovery, as this is not only the director’s first feature, but also the first film made in the Kaqchikel Mayan language..."
—Senses of Cinema
"Bustamante’s film is downright Herzogian (far more than Herzog’s own “Queen of the Desert”) in its surfeit of physical detail, observed ritual and looming clash of civilizations."
— Scott Foundas, Variety
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, iTunes, Kanopy, Kino Now
20. THE UNTAMED / LA REGIÓN SALVAJE
(Amat Escalante, Mexico/Denmark/France/Germany/Norway/Switzerland, 2016, 100 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Young mother Alejandra is a working housewife, raising two boys with husband Angel in a small city. Her brother Fabian works as a nurse in a local hospital. Their provincial lives are upset with the arrival of mysterious Veronica. Sex and love can be fragile in certain regions where strong family values, hypocrisy, homophobia, and male chauvinism exist. Veronica convinces them that in the nearby woods, inside an isolated cabin, dwells something not of this world that could be the answer to all of their problems. Something whose force they cannot resist and with whom they must make peace or suffer its wrath.
“There is a fine line between horror and humor, and if you adjust your angle of vision accordingly, you can see the architecture of farce beneath the ornamentation of shock and suffering.”
—A.O. Scott, New York Times
“Intriguing!”
—Variety
"A sci-fi sexual drama that will blow your mind."
—Meredith Borders, Birth. Movies. Death.
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Shudder, Vudu, Vimeo
21 (TIE). IN THE INTENSE NOW / NO INTENSO AGORA
(João Salles, Brazil, 2017, 127 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Made following the discovery of amateur footage shot in China in 1966 during the first and most radical stage of the Cultural Revolution, In The Intense Now speaks to the fleeting nature of moments of great intensity. Scenes of China are set alongside archival images of the events of 1968 in France, Czechoslovakia, and, to a lesser extent, Brazil. In keeping with the tradition of the film-essay, they serve to investigate how the people who took part in those events continued onward after passions had cooled. The footage, all of it archival, not only reveals the state of mind of those filmed—joy, enchantment, fear, disappointment, dismay—but also sheds light on the relationship between a document and its political context. What can one say of Paris, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, or Beijing by looking at the images of the period? Why did each of these cities produce a specific sort of record?
"Find solace, enlightenment and surprise in João Moreira Salles’s 'In the Intense Now,' a bittersweet, ruminative documentary essay."
—A. O. Scott, The New York Times
“One of the 10 best films of Berlin Film Festival! Remarkably resonant and personal."
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety
21 (TIE). NEON BULL / BOI NEON
(Gabriel Mascaro, Brazil, 2015, 101 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Wild, sensual and utterly transporting, Brazilian writer-director Gabriel Mascaro's second fiction feature unfolds within the world of the vaquejada, a traditional exhibition sport in which cowboys try to pull bulls to the ground by their tails. Neon Bull explores the vaquejada through the eyes of Iremar (Juliano Cazarre), a handsome cowboy who works the events. While he's not afraid to get his hands dirty, Iremar's real dream is to design exotic outfits for dancers. Synopsis courtesy of the Toronto International Film Festival.
"Astonishing."
—The New York Times
"Stately, earthy, graphic, riveting."
—The Village Voice
"Auspicious, original, and absorbing."
—The Playlist
Available for streaming on:
Kino Now, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Kanopy
22. GLORIA
(Sebastián Lelio, Chile/Spain, 2013, 110 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Best actress award winner Paulina Garcia (Berlin Film Festival) stars in this uplifting story of personal transformation. Gloria is a "woman of a certain age" who gets caught up in a passionate whirlwind romance with a retired naval officer, whom she meets at a dance club for singles. But when she discovers the truth of their relationship, she must take matters into her own hands.
“It's an open-ended question whether Gloria ever finds the happiness she seeks while dodging the current of middle-aged isolation, but her constant search is a valiant and deeply involving one.”
—Eric Kohn, IndieWire
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Google Play, Amazon, Vudu, iTunes, Fandango Now
23. GÜEROS
(Alonso Ruizpalacios, Mexico, 2014, 111 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Ever since the National University strike broke out, Sombra and Santos have been living in angst-ridden limbo. Education-less, motionless, purposeless, and unsure of what the strike will bring, they begin to look for strange ways to kill time. But their idiosyncratic routine is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Tomas, Sombra's kid brother. Unable to fit in amongst these older slackers, Tomas discovers that unsung Mexican folk-rock hero Epigmenio Cruz has been hospitalized somewhere in the city. Tomas convinces Sombra and Santos they must track him down in order to pay their final respects on his deathbed. But what they thought would be a simple trip to find their childhood idol soon becomes a voyage of self-discovery across Mexico City's invisible frontiers.
“Both sweetly nostalgic and exuberantly now... An unabashed homage not only to the Nouvelle Vague but also to a more general international new wave-ism.” —A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“FASCINATING. JOYOUS. Ruizpalacios shoots and stages… with great inventive power, his fleet, roving camera inspired by the deceptive looseness of the New Wave – the film is always in motion but always composed with rigor.”
—Alan Scherstuhl, The Village Voice
“Catch the emergence of a major new Mexican director”
—Time Out New York
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, iTunes, Kanopy, Sling TV
24. RELATOS SALVAJES / WILD TALES
(Damián Szifron, Argentina/Spain, 2014, 122 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Inequality, injustice and the demands of the world we live in cause stress and depression for many people. Some of them, however, explode. This is a movie about those people. Vulnerable in the face of a reality that shifts and suddenly turns unpredictable, the characters of Wild Tales cross the thin line that divides civilization and barbarism. A lover's betrayal, a return to the repressed past and the violence woven into everyday encounters drive the characters to madness as they cede to the undeniable pleasure of losing control.
"Tales of apocalyptic revenge. The year's most fearlessly funny film."
— Richard Corliss, Time
"Hilarious! Each carefully wrought jewel of story is more delicious and outrageous and hilarious than the last."
— Anne Thompson, IndieWire
“Broad strokes, dexterously delivered.”
— Craig Williams, Little White Lies
Available for streaming on:
YouTube, Google Play, Amazon, Vudu, iTunes, Fandango Now
25. COCOTE
(Nelson Carlo de los Santos, Dominican Republic/Brazil/Argentina, 2017, 106 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A rapturous crime fable set in the Dominican Republic, Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias’ Cocote follows Alberto, a kind-hearted gardener returning home to attend his father’s funeral. When he discovers that a powerful local figure is responsible for his father’s death, Alberto realizes that he’s been summoned by his family to avenge the murder. It’s an unthinkable act — especially for him, an Evangelical Christian. But as pressure mounts, he sees few ways out. Questions of faith, tradition and honor course through this electrifying film, which, seemingly at the speed of thought itself, jumps between film formats, colors, and aspect ratios, radically envisioning a community torn asunder by senseless violence.
“A dazzling story of homecoming, grief, and revenge infused with the energy and rituals of the Dominican Republic.”
—Violet Lucca, Film Comment
"Rapturous... brings to life a universe that is at once strange yet pulses with familiar passions.”
— Ela Bittencourt, Frieze
Available for streaming on:
Amazon, Apple TV, Kanopy, Grasshopper Film, Topic, Hoopla
