Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
49
2012
41
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
84
Avatar![]()
69
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
53
Blind Side
53
Book of Eli, The
55
Christmas Carol, A
57
Daybreakers
43
Dear John
27
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
55
Edge of Darkness
45
Extraordinary Measures
83
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
42
From Paris with Love
65
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The
74
Invictus
57
It's Complicated
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Leap Year
33
Legion
42
Lovely Bones, The
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
34
Ninja Assassin
19
Old Dogs
xx
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
39
Planet 51
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Princess & the Frog, The
64
Road, The
57
Sherlock Holmes
27
Spy Next Door, The
36
Tooth Fairy
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
83
Up in the Air![]()
43
Valentine's Day
25
When in Rome
71
Where the Wild Things Are
xx
WolfMan, The
63
Youth in Revolt
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
46
44 Inch Chest
83
Ajami![]()
73
Amreeka
xx
Barefoot to Timbuktu
19
Bitch Slap
24
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76
Broken Embraces
64
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
84
Cove, The![]()
84
Crazy Heart![]()
21
Crazy on the Outside
48
Creation
xx
Daddy Long Legs
81
Damned United, The![]()
68
Departures
62
District 13: Ultimatum
85
Education, An![]()
71
Eyes Wide Open
24
Falling Awake
81
Fish Tank![]()
56
For My Father
xx
From Mexico with Love
43
Frozen
68
Girl on the Train, The
52
Killing Kasztner
74
Last Station, The
43
Little Traitor, The
51
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
73
Me and Orson Welles
76
Messenger, The
57
Missing Person, The
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
xx
My Name is Khan
49
Nine
63
North Face
59
October Country
67
Off and Running
52
Paranoids, The
49
Pop Star on Ice
49
Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
xx
Promised Lands (Re-release)
69
Red Riding Trilogy, The
29
Saint John of Las Vegas
69
September Issue, The
36
Serious Moonlight
63
Shinjuku Incident, The
77
Single Man, A
xx
Still Bill
76
Terribly Happy
74
That Evening Sun
19
To Save a Life
68
Town Called Panic, A
59
Until the Light Takes Us
57
Videocracy
65
Waiting for Armageddon
82
White Ribbon![]()
43
Women in Trouble
xx
Word is Out
64
Young Victoria, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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
Language(s): English / Spanish
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.
