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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

67
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89
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88
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87
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86
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84
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83
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83
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83
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82
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82
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82
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82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
81
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81
Beaches of Agnes, The
80
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80
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79
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78
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78
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77
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77
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75
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74
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74
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74
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74
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74
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71
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71
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70
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70
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70
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69
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69
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67
$9.99
67
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67
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66
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66
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65
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65
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64
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64
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64
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64
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63
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63
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63
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63
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63
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62
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62
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62
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61
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60
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59
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58
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58
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57
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57
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57
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56
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56
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55
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54
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54
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54
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52
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50
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48
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45
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42
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42
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40
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40
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38
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36
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35
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28
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28
Surveillance
22
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18
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16
I Hate Valentine's Day
xx
Call of the Wild
xx
Home
xx
Offshore
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Innocent Voices
Slowhand Cinema Releasing
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for disturbing violence and some language
Starring
Carlos Padilla,
Leonor Varela,
Xuna Primus,
Gustavo Muñoz,
José María Yazpik,
Ofelia Medina,
and
Daniel Giménez Cacho
Based on the true story of screenwriter Oscar Torres's embattled childhood, Luis Mandoki's Innocent Voices is the poignant tale of Chava (Padilla), an eleven-year-old boy who suddenly becomes the "man of the house" after his father abandons the family in the middle of a civil war in El Salvador. (Slowhand Cinema Releasing)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Foreign
|
War
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Luis Mandoki
Oscar Orlando Torres (also story)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Luis Mandoki
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: November 27, 2007
Theatrical: October 14, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
120 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Mexico / USA / Puerto Rico |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Spanish (with English subtitles) |
Original title "Voces Inocentes"

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...
88
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Mandoki has given us a powerful motion picture. Even those who disagree with the film's politics will be haunted by its message.

88
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Not for the faint-hearted.

80
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Mandoki, who with this film returns to the Spanish-speaking cinema after a string of Hollywood films, has brought a sure sense of the visual and taut construction to Innocent Voices, based on a true story. It is filled with wrenching images.

80
Dallas Observer
Jean Oppenheimer
Alternately heartrending and buoyant, tragic and sweetly humorous, the film leaves an indelible impression on the heart and mind. It's among the best of the year.

80
LA Weekly
F. X. Feeney
Chilean-born actress Leonor Varela (TV's Cleopatra, a few seasons back) plays Chavo's mother, who, in her rage to see her children survive, powerfully embodies the film's moral center.

80
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
A riveting tale of survival and how even war cannot diminish a child's indomitable spirit.

75
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
The many riveting moments will stay with you for days, and Padilla is well up to the task of carrying this intense story on his tiny shoulders.

75
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
The actors, all of whom seem too posed and pretty, are not particularly accomplished, and director Luis Mandoki lacks the visual imagination to bring the story to a boil.

75
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
Mandoki never passes up a chance to increase the schmaltz level, but that doesn't lessen the impact of this harrowing account of a hellish childhood.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
Heart-wrenching.

75
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Location shooting gives this intermittently powerful film a semidocumentary feel.

75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Quite affecting, even if it doesn't rank with classics like "Open City" or "Forbidden Games."

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Effective without being overwhelming.

70
Newsweek
David Ansen
Mandoki's gripping film may pull on the heartstrings too knowingly, but it's hard to forget the sight of the village’s children lying silent and still on every rooftop, praying the recruiting soldiers below will pass them by.

70
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Gripping drama.

70
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
What's so powerful about Mandoki's film, which he co-scripted with Torres, is the complex, ever-surprising course that Chava takes toward manhood.

70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
It's only human to feel gripped, enraged, and even moved by the events depicted in Innocent Voices, a true account of one boy's experience in the crossfire of El Salvador's long, bloody civil war.

67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
For such a harrowing portrait, Mandoki remains oddly distant but for a few scenes. He makes his points boldly when he should be making his points sting.

63
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Not a happy time at the movies. It bears the distinction of bringing to the screen a dark nugget of history.

63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
It's a harrowing tale, but one that gets phonied up with unnecessary slo-mos, manipulative soundtrack cues, and unrestrained thespianism.

60
Variety
Scott Foundas
While the respectable result is a more meaningful film than just about anything Mandoki worked on during his 17 years in Hollywood ("Angel Eyes," "Message in a Bottle"), pic suffers from an overindulgence of triumph-over-adversity cliches and a meandering narrative.

50
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
As an outcry against the forcible conscription of children into armies around the world, Innocent Voices, is an honorable film. But as a balanced portrait of a tragic civil war, it is simplistic and opaque.

40
Village Voice
Ben Kenigsberg
For more than an hour, schmaltzmeister Luis Mandoki (Message in a Bottle) directs as if on assignment for Miramax.

25
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
War is hell, and so are bad movies about war.


The average user rating for this movie is 9.7 (out of 10) based on 23 User Votes
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