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Bread and Roses
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 19 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Paul Laverty
Directed by: Ken Loach
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 11, 2001
DVD: November 27, 2001
Running Time: 110 minutes, Color
Origin: UK / France / Germany / Spain / Switzerland
Summary
RATING: R for strong language and brief nudity
Starring Pilar Padilla, Adrien Brody, Elpidia Carrillo, Jack McGee, George Lopez, Alonso Chavez, Monica Rivas, and Frankie Davila
In chronicling the experiences of Maya, a young Mexican woman who crosses the border illegally and must fend for herself in contemporary Los Angeles, director Ken Loach takes an individual's personal and professional struggle and builds it into a moving portrait of one of our nation's most troubled -- and least visible -- communities. (Lions Gate Films)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: A Fond Kiss Sweet Sixteen The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
The film is never less than a satisfying mix of compelling entertainment and social critique. The performances are uniformly superb.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Will this movie change anything, or this review make you want to see it? No, probably not. But when you come in tomorrow morning, someone will have emptied your wastebasket.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
There's every reason to watch Bread and Roses for what Loach really does best: He involves us directly in the desperate lives of his characters, who are forced to live without security and who have to compromise to make ends meet. And, above all, who feel as real as moviemaking allows.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan
Full of pungent and telling observation.
Boston Globe Jay Carr
The reason Bread and Roses works as well as it does is that as didactic as it sometimes gets, its heart is always bigger than its ideology.
The New York Times Dana Stevens
He plies his viewers with plenty of bread -- chewy and, to some tastes, dry and starchy scenes -- but he also scatters petals of whimsy and delight to nourish the senses.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Bread and Roses" hits home when one of Maya's co-workers observes, "When we put on uniforms, we become invisible." It's a truth as uncomfortable as it is undeniable.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly John Patterson
There are scenes here that fill one with rage or bring tears to the eyes.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It's a passionate film powered by the righteous anger of injustice.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
As is often the case in Loach's films, all the acting is exemplary. Padilla, who learned English only shortly before making the film, is a natural actress, a smoldering presence.
New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf
What's somewhat ironic about Bread and Roses is that it's bound to be more interesting to people outside of L.A. than in it.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
It would be easy to pigeonhole this as "Norma Rae" en L.A., and Padilla is at least as ingratiating and as much of a guy magnet as Sally Field was in that movie.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
Loach has gotten hold of a marvelous subject -- the invisibility of the working poor in the environs of the rich -- that keeps you watching despite all the banner-waving.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
The director's knee-jerk anti-capitalism often sticks in my (white, well-fed) craw.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
A genuine consciousness-raiser, but it's less a social-realist narrative than a high-volume rally.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Its politics and dramatic line are familiar and far from convincing.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Staff (Not Credited)
Suffers from clumsy acting (mainly Hispanic amateurs), an obvious screenplay by Paul Laverty, and a simplistic view of the characters.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty draw everything in simplistic, overstated terms. The good guys are pure and spunky, the bad guys bellicose and one-dimensional, the conflicts stripped of nuance.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chad S. gave it a 9:
Spike Lee did a damn fine job directing "Malcolm X", but his argument that only an African-American could tell an African-American story was largely false. Like the novelist Susan Straight, Ken Loach is not Mexican. But Straight's "Highwire Moon" and this searing indictment of Los Angeles by John Sayl-, I mean, Ken Loach, proves that authenticity isn't synonymous with nationality. "Bread and Roses" is an angry film, sometimes too angry, as didacticism hijacks social commentary in the form of a lecture about America's social problems; like John Singleton did in "Boyz in the Hood"; like Loach does when Maya (Pilar Padilla) tells Ruben (Alonso Chavez) about health care in America. But for the most part, Loach's angry story seethes with discipline, and with the help of some remarkable non-actors, "Bread and Roses" never feels over-the-top, even when Maya and Rosa (Elpidia Carrillo) have it out with each other, because they convince us that we're watching real life, and sometimes real life happens to be melodramatic. "Bread and Roses" turns illegal aliens into you and me, and makes it harder for you and me to be apologetically xenophobic.
Janine M. gave it a 9:
Excellent! I took my students to see it so that they understand more about the problems immigrants are facing in the US, and they enjoyed it.
Jim H. gave it a 9:
Great flick about the invisibility of the working poor and union organizing.
