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La Ciénaga
Cowboy Booking International

La Ciénaga reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 75 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.0 out of 10
based on 18 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 1 votes
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Mercedes Morán, Graciela Borges, Martín Adjemián, Leonora Balcarce, and Silvia Baylé

A series of surreal moments and twisted family relationships is revealed as two large families spend a torpid summer together in a faded resort town in Northwest Argentina.


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Lucrecia Martel  
DIRECTED BY: Lucrecia Martel  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: February 1, 2005 
Theatrical: October 3, 2001 
RUNNING TIME: 102 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: Argentina / Spain / France 
LANGUAGE(S): Spanish (with English subtitles) 

Title translates in English as "The Swamp"; Alfred Bauer Award for Best First Film, 2001 Berlin International Film Festival; Best First Work Award, 2001 Uruguay International Film Festival; NHK International Filmmaker Award (script), 1998 Sundance Film Festival

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...

100
Chicago Reader Meredith Brody
Every frame is dense with life, with children and animals running in and out, yet it's not messy. Instead it's highly focused--and something of a small masterpiece.
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100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Vital and alive. Frustration and malaise rumble through every richly textured frame, but behind it all is a restlessness and a desire for something better.
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90
The New York Times Stephen Holden
As La Ciénaga perspires from the screen, it creates a vision of social malaise that feels paradoxically familiar and new.
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90
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Martel's sharp observations of the foibles of human nature are expressed perfectly in the telling images of cinematographer Hugo Colace and tight editing of Santiago Ricci.
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90
New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo
For better or worse, the filmmaker says nothing directly political about the cruel fate suffered by her people, but the dark poetry of her allusions is powerful.
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88
Chicago Tribune Patrick Z. McGavin
Argentinean filmmaker Lucrecia Martel takes fundamental risks with form and style, and it pays off brilliantly.
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80
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Martel's off-the-cuff candor and intelligent eye for the quietly telling detail charts the progressive rot not only of a family, but of an entire social class.
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80
Village Voice Amy Taubin
A veritable Chekhov tragicomedy of provincial life.
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80
Variety Eddie Cockrell
An atmospheric and cumulatively impressive feature-length debut from Argentine writer-director Lucrecia Martel.
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80
TV Guide Ken Fox
Martel can barely contain her disgust, and like Bunuel before her, she knows just when to cut the laughs and go straight for the throat.
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80
New York Magazine Peter Rainer
There's a new sensibility at work here, wry yet lushly disaffected, and it will be worth watching what Martel does next.
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75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It's better to know going in that you're not expected to be able to fit everything together, that you may lose track of some members of the large cast, that it's like attending a family reunion when it's not your family and your hosts are too drunk to introduce you around.
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75
Boston Globe Jay Carr
The triumph of La Cienaga lies in Martel's way of fashioning the kind of ensemble performance that draws us in by convincing us we're watching behavior, not acting.
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75
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
A fascinating, damning picture of bourgeois boredom that manages to be both epic and intimate at the same time.
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67
Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
Doesn't necessarily make for a crowdpleasing experience, though it is a provocative and uncomfortably authentic one.
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50
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The title means "The Swamp," and you may feel you're in one after 103 minutes with such a generally unlikable gang.
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50
New York Post Lou Lumenick
It may take a scorecard to keep track of the complicated relationships in this sorry clan.
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42
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
It sounds churlish to argue that a movie can have too much integrity for its own good, but that's exactly the problem with La Ciénaga.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Pancho Grosso gave it a9:
I just hope people around the world can understand it and idetify with it as I do being an Argentinian. But it wasn't properly apreciatted even at home, so I don't have great expectations... I loved it and I'm dying to watch La nina santa.

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