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In the Pit
Kino International

In the Pit reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 61 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
10.0 out of 10
based on 11 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 3 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Sofia García López, José Guadalupe Calzada, Isabel Dolores Hernández, Pedro Sánchez Bernal, Natividad Sánchez Montes , Isahín Octaviano Simón, and Agustín Zárate Centeno

According to Mexican legend, the devil demands that one soul be offered up for every bridge built, as a guarantee for the structure's durability. In Juan Carlos Rulfo's internationally-praised documentary, this age-old adage takes on mammoth proportions. (Kino International)


GENRE(S): Documentary  |  Foreign  
WRITTEN BY: Juan Carlos Rulfo  
DIRECTED BY: Juan Carlos Rulfo  
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: February 2, 2007 
RUNNING TIME: 84 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: Mexico 
LANGUAGE(S): Spanish (with English subtitles) 

Original title "En el Hoyo"; Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema - Documentary), 2006 Sundance Film Festival; Best Film, 2006 Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema

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...

83
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The soft-spoken, impressionistic documentary (with a hypnotic score built from the sounds of construction) climaxes with a six-minute helicopter-cam view of the colossal structure to which these somebodies have been dedicating their sweat, and sometimes their very lives.
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80
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
With In the Pit [Rulfo] isn't advancing any totalizing theory, a treatise on transportation or an argument about alienation; he is, rather simply and elegantly, revealing the secret human face of a seemingly inhuman world.
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80
Variety Robert Koehler
Leo Heiblum's pulsating music and Samuel Larson's dense, fascinating sound editing rewardingly compliment Rulfo's electrifying visuals.
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75
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Rulfo's simple strategy of sticking close to his subjects and allowing them to wax philosophical about their lives and labors pays off.
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75
New York Post V.A. Musetto
Rulfo adds punch to his material with speeded-up visuals and an eye-popping, six-minute helicopter shot of the entire 10-mile project - which alone is worth the price of admission.
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75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
Life on the freeway is hell, but what comes next for these workers might be worse.
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63
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
It's an interesting, if dissatisfying rumination on the working people of industry -- how they labor, how they rest, what they think and feel.
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50
Washington Post Philip Kennicott
What Rulfo needs, unfortunately, is what too many trendy directors forsake: some social context, some succinct voice-overs and some talking heads to put the serious issues (urban poverty, urban stress, environmental degradation, corruption) into perspective.
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40
Film Threat Don R. Lewis
Captures the building of the freeway as well as the lives of the people working on it. The problem is, the lives of the people aren't all that interesting and the freeway being built isn't either.
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40
Village Voice Nathan Lee
In the Pit's empathy feels strictly skin-deep, its insight even shallower.
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30
Los Angeles Times Alex Chun
Equally as perplexing as its lack of perspective is the film's overall shortage of information.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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