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Sin Nombre

EMAILPRINTFocus Features

Sin Nombre reviews
77
8.5 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 18 votes
Read user comments
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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)

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

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.

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100

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.

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100

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.

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100

Washington Post Dan Zak

An elegant, heartbreaking fable, equal parts Shakespearean tragedy, neo-Western and mob movie but without the pretension of those genres.

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100

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter

Thrilling and beautifully crafted.

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90

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Writer-director Cary Fukunaga keeps the story lean while peppering it with realistic details.

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88

ReelViews James Berardinelli

More substantive than the average thriller/road movie.

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88

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Forceful, heart-wrenching stuff.

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88

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.

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83

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.

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80

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.

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80

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.

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75

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.

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75

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.

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70

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.

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67

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.

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67

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.

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67

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.

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63

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Crushingly realistic one minute and melodramatically hokey the next.

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63

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.

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50

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.

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40

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Lushly photographed and meticulously sound-designed, Sin Nombre is visceral without being vital, researched without ever seeming lived-in.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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.

Terence S gave it a9:
Don't believe what Manny says about the movie. There are people who do smile and have fun, but the motivating story is about people trying to get to America so that they can have a better life, because theirs sucks. So, naturally the main characters aren't bubbling with excitement, and cracking wise. This is hands down one of the best movies I've seen in '09. It's beautifully shot, and it's powerful and moving. I upon leaving the movie, I wanted to punch a gang member in the face, it was that good.

Manny gave it a3:
Don't go to see this movie. It is a failed somber and unrealistic attempt to tell a story that mixes gang violence with what some very poor people from Latin America goes through trying to migrate to the U.S. The movie moves in very slowly pace to a tragic end. All characters are quite somber and sad. Nothing good or positive occurs to any of them. No one laughs, smiles or seems to have any hope for a better life. I have lived and worked in Latin America for many years and this movie couldn't be more unrealistic in how it depicts the poor and uneducated people from the area. I came out of the theater feeling that I had waisted my time and my money watching a horrible, unrealistic and depressing movie from which I couldn't learn practically anything.

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