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Sin Nombre

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 20 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 20, 2009
DVD: September 1, 2009
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for violence, language and some sexual content
Starring Paulina Gaitan, Edgar Flores, Kristyan Ferrer, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Diana Garcia, Luis Fernando Pena, and Hector Jimenez
Seeking the promise of America, a beautiful young Honduran woman, Sayra, joins her father and uncle on an odyssey to cross the gauntlet of the Latin American countryside en route to the United States. Along the way she crosses paths with a teenage Mexican gang member, El Casper, who is maneuvering to outrun his violent past and elude his unforgiving former associates. Together they must rely on faith, trust and street smarts if they are to survive their increasingly perilous journey towards the hope of new lives. (Focus Features)
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...
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Mr. Fukanaga's purpose is to evoke the immigrants' experience, which he does with such eloquence and power as to inspire awe.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
That this is Fukunaga's first film is astonishing, given its sharp script, technical proficiency and suspenseful pacing. The ensemble cast is top-notch.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It contains risk, violence, a little romance, even fleeting moments of humor, but most of all, it sees what danger and heartbreak are involved. It is riveting from start to finish.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Dan Zak
An elegant, heartbreaking fable, equal parts Shakespearean tragedy, neo-Western and mob movie but without the pretension of those genres.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Writer-director Cary Fukunaga keeps the story lean while peppering it with realistic details.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
More substantive than the average thriller/road movie.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Forget those weepie liberal clichés. This starless and vividly authentic romantic thriller set in Central America really rocks, and is one of the most exciting directorial debuts in years.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
The cinematic gloss serves to heighten our involvement in the tale, and to mark Fukunaga as a talent to be reckoned with.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
There is bitter and breathtaking truth in the story and in the story- telling, which won Fukunaga the directing and cinematography award in the dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Fukunaga refrains from artificially amping up excitement for its own sake, maintaining an intimate, observational style that offers up a host of things to look at and think about.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
There are some brief minutes when the tension drops and the story starts to sag, but Fukunaga almost always fills the frame with something worth seeing, and the story has a built-in suspense.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Fukunaga has a fine, spacious film sense and a gift for action, but the doomy, heavy-handed plot devices and overwrought, overacted gangland set pieces betray a novice's hand.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
What keeps the movie from tipping into full-blown exploitation like "City of God," which turns third-world misery into art-house thrills, is Mr. Fukunaga's sincerity. What keeps you watching is his superb eye.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Whenever Sin Nombre turns violent, it seizes you with its convulsive skill, but the film's images vastly outstrip its imagination.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Fukunaga paints better outside the lines, working with cinematographer Adriano Goldman to offer vivid shots of the poverty and despair cutting through Latin America, of gang rituals and territorial skirmishes, and of ordinary people taking dangerous routes to a better life that may be a mirage. Next time, a few rewrites please.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Fukunaga's images are striking, and his storytelling abilities are strong, but his screenwriting skills rely heavily on sappy formulas that add nothing to our understanding of the border-crossing experience.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Crushingly realistic one minute and melodramatically hokey the next.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
It's the tone of the movie's two sides - action and stillness, graphic violence and romantic melodrama - that don't cohere.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Justin Lowe
Fukunaga clearly exhibits a flair for spirited storytelling, but when Sin Nombre departs from the specifics of its unique world in favor of more conventional genre execution, it leaves the characters and audience adrift.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Scott Foundas
Lushly photographed and meticulously sound-designed, Sin Nombre is visceral without being vital, researched without ever seeming lived-in.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
John gave it a10:
Great Movie! Simply the most evocative movie I have seen all year. Pulls you in from start to finish.
Kiel M gave it an8:
Excellent movie. It took me to and gave me glimpse of a part of the world I have never experienced. Very powerful. Very realistic.
Johnny2cents gave it an8:
Like Gommorah, Sin Nombre is a visceral look at one of the deadliest criminal gangs on the planet. Greatly shot and well acted but in the end makes you feel like crap because you know that similar story's like this with the MS-13 have and will continue to happen leaving at least me wondering what the f--k is wrong with humans??
sam s gave it a10:
This movie was brilliant. Great story telling - and hey, there's a reason certain plot lines are repeated - it's called "compelling" - and this story is. And this isn't "City of God" - a good thing - there's no glorification of gangs here (however inadvertently). A contemporary Grapes of Wrath. Brilliant.
Jesus M gave it a9:
This movie is so raw at times, but it exposes just a little taste of what some immigrants might endure during their trek to a hopefully better life. And throughout all this there's an innocent relationship forming, highly unlikely but that's what engages us. The director did a great job, after all this is a movie, and sometimes things don't have a happy ending, but life goes on.
Marla A gave it a9:
Beautifully shot, very effective film. This film works so well because it juxtaposes violent gang action with more normalized violence (physical and other) that many Central American and Mexican migrants face daily. Because the gang violence is so outlandish, the violence the confronted by the migrants seems all the more real. While fated with a tragic ending, the film still ends on a note of hope. It is this hope, show in small actions (e.g. children throwing fruit to the passing train) that makes this film more timely than just another gang thriller. One of the best films I've seen in some time.
Kimberly C gave it a10:
Storytelling at it's best. A poignant and moving tale told in a rich hue of a world most of us are sheltered from and oblivious to. Unpretentious, enlightening and moving.
