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Crónicas
Palm Pictures


9.0

based on 27 reviews
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based on 2 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for violence, a scene of sexuality, and language

Starring Damián Alcázar, John Leguizamo, Gloria Leyton, Alfred Molina, Leonor Watling, and José María Yazpik

A gripping crime drama starring John Leguizamo as Manolo Bonilla, a star reporter for a Miami-based tabloid TV show, who is determined to unearth a serial killer in a small town in Ecuador. (Palm Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Sebastián Cordero
DIRECTED BY:	Sebastián Cordero
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 8, 2005 Theatrical: July 8, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	108 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Mexico / Ecuador
LANGUAGE(S):	Spanish (with English subtitles)

Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema - Dramatic), 2005 Sundance Film Festival

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...

Chicago Tribune Achy Obejas

This is an all-Latino film--a rarity and a pleasure--but what's most curious and refreshing is that Cordero allows the Latinos to naturally embrace their nationalities, accents and cultural peculiarities.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A taut, tricky thriller.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Even as the film sometimes veers into unproductive sidebars, there's a masterful tension to it, Alcazar is wonderful, and the final shot is a stunner.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

Writer-director Sebastian Cordero wrings nerve-racking suspense, and complex performances, from these dynamics.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

A crackling good suspense thriller.

Chicago Reader Joshua Katzman

The ironic twist at the conclusion of this chilling drama underscores the vagaries of human nature--and of the media.

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

Cronicas has a cracking good plot, a central moral issue and John Leguizamo speaking Spanish. What more does a film need?

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The kind of movie that grabs you while you're watching, even if later you wish it had grabbed a little harder.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The hit-and-run destructiveness of the rapacious media is nothing new, but Cordero gives his cynical take a unique setting and a queasy climax.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

With considerable passion and more than a little anger, Cronicas argues that our appetite for an increasing coarse and sensational type of news programming has skewed our inner compasses.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A raw and powerful suspense thriller.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The film begins strongly and violently, then simmers down to a standard-issue suspense story.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The moral murk of Crónicas would be more effective if the story weren't so contrived, yet the movie is worth seeing for Leguizamo's sinewy urgency, Alcázar's desperate cleverness as the killer, and the squalid, frantic atmosphere of Latin American hunger.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Despite all that South American sunshine, this lean and brilliantly constructed thriller is a dark realm of secrets and lies, illuminated by TV lighting and the glitter of John Leguizamo's eyes. Those in search of life-affirming family entertainment might want to stick with Ingmar Bergman.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The result is reasonably absorbing and a provocative if familiar commentary on media manipulation, with Leguizamo terrific in a serious, intense performance.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The movie suffers from tipping its hand too easily and hating its subject so much.

Film Threat Jeremy Mathews

Sometimes goes a bit over the top to make its point.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

John Leguizamo, in a rare watchable performance.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

It's daring and it's different.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

What distinguishes Cordero's film is his use of location.

Variety David Rooney

Starts out bracingly but gradually loses focus. Ecuadorian writer-director Sebastian Cordero's screenplay trades in underdeveloped conflicts and blank characters, hinting far too early at the killer's probable identity.

Village Voice Peter L'Official

Leguizamo finds the right mute for his trumpet, modulating his expenditure of emotion to the requirements of the scenario rather than overengaging his capable Mambo Mouth.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

A film divided against itself. The more the cat-and-mouse game between prisoner and reporter points it in the direction of "The Silence of the Lambs," the closer it inches toward the sort of exploitation it condemns; for me, that's too close for Crónicas to be taken without a big grain of salt.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Like its protagonist, Cordero's film is a nimble thing, darting from hot-button topic to prison-cell metaphysics in the blink of a blind eye, but it never quite achieves the level of journalistic condemnation it so clearly seeks.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Although it's often difficult to discern amid a schematic plot and overheated, sanctimonious denouement, an undeniable reality underlies Cronicas.

Boston Globe Janice Page

For a movie about serial killings and media sensationalism, Cronicas sure is wimpy.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Scathing indictment of the tabloid media! Film at 11! That's how Crónicas sees itself, but all I could see was a scathing indictment of writer-director Sebastian Cordero's ability to put together a credible story.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jorge R. gave it a10:
Leguizamo's performance in this film is very good, but Alcazar "steals the movie" as Vinicio the serial killer. Impeccable in its form, "Cronicas" stands alone, vis-a-vis many Hollywood thrillers, as an indictment of sensationalism and manipulation in the press, violence in the country (Ecuador in this case), and an a complex exploration in human evilness related to religion.

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Crónicas Palm Pictures

Crónicas
Palm Pictures