X
- 2016
- R
- STX Entertainment
- 1 h 28 m
- 2016
- R
- STX Entertainment
- 1 h 28 m
Summary What begins as a hopeful journey to seek a better life becomes a harrowing and primal fight for survival when a deranged, rifle-toting vigilante chases a group of unarmed men and women through the treacherous U.S.-Mexican border. In the harsh, unforgiving desert terrain, the odds are stacked firmly against them as they continuously disc...
Directed By: Jonás Cuarón
Written By: Mateo Garcia, Jonás Cuarón
- 2016
- R
- STX Entertainment
- 1 h 28 m
- 2016
- R
- STX Entertainment
- 1 h 28 m
Desierto
51
5.0
Where to Watch
Summary What begins as a hopeful journey to seek a better life becomes a harrowing and primal fight for survival when a deranged, rifle-toting vigilante chases a group of unarmed men and women through the treacherous U.S.-Mexican border. In the harsh, unforgiving desert terrain, the odds are stacked firmly against them as they continuously disc...
Directed By: Jonás Cuarón
Written By: Mateo Garcia, Jonás Cuarón
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 24 Critic Reviews
51
38% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
50% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
13% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 24 Critic Reviews
51
38% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
50% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
13% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Some of the characters' fate might be left in a frustratingly open-ended fashion, but Cuéron has created an impressive edge-of-your-seat thriller set within a fantastic outdoors environment.
It’s a nail-biter, a solid thriller, an immigration-themed takeoff on that old chestnut “The Most Dangerous Game,” in which humans are both predator and prey. It’s not particularly nuanced. In fact, its lack of nuance is its most distinguishing characteristic.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 20 User Ratings
5.0
30% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
35% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
35% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 20 User Ratings
5.0
30% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
35% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
35% Negative
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
I found this to be an extremely simplistic yet very solid survival action/horror/thriller very satisfying. It does have an extreme message, but overall as a film it's very well done. The dog is the real star imo jumping/climbing/running all over the place as the ultimate threat to the immigrants. The desert setting and scenery makes for wonderful cinematography and it was well shot. While many americans might find this as a slap in the face, as a stand alone film it succeeds.
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There's much to like in the great Alfonso Cuaron's son's debut flick - the big-skied, parched desert sprawl of a setting, and an adreniline-fueled intensity reminiscent of his father's Gravity, but its masochistic tone and moral glibness strand it in the desert. A well-composed cat and mouse thriller it is, a social allegory it is not.
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One could easily imagine Desierto as a lost exploitation film from the 1970s — better made than most, but not an exceptional example.
While Cuaron’s technical chops are beyond question, his storytelling could use some honing here.
If the story is meant to represent a microcosm of the immigration problem, it’s woefully reductive. If it’s meant to be first and foremost an action thriller, it does have a few nice moves to offer.
The issue of immigration couldn’t be more timely or poignant, but everything else in Desierto feels strictly by the book and it is a book we already know from cover to cover.
With a bare minimum amount of suspense, and a screenplay that needs too much work for one that has so many long stretches of silence, this film leaves you with too many reasons not to care about it.
Desierto definitely has some tension to offer, but the story often falls flat because of a thinly-stretched, repetitive storyline that ultimately gets boring as the film progresses. It's one redeeming quality is the cinematography, which is phenomenal, but it doesn't offer too much else.
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I don't know how people can give this movie high ratings - only good thing here might be Morgan's acting, but other than that the story of the movie is so simple and in the movie it feels prolonged and acted out without any intensity or thrill. Basically Mexicans want to cross the border through desert, but there is a guy who tries to kill them. He succeeds to kill almost all of them, but 2 characters survive. Ok, the story might have been nice and interesting, but there are no thrills when you are watching, not twists, no nothing. Just that simple and quite boring. Also the movie, while it touches important topics from nowadays, doesn't really have any message or anything that it wants to tell the audience
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One of the most predictable and basic films I have ever seen. The performances are limited due to the poorly written dialogue. And there's very little in terms of suspense and the plot is so predictable that I called the entire thing within the first 10 minutes of viewing. The predictability ruins the whole thing imo and turns what could have been a solid movie into nothing more than a bargain bin pick up at best.
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I rarely give anything a zero but this movie just left me bored and mad. Apparently your a villain if your a border patrol agent nowadays, and the hero of this is the illegal immigrant criminally entering the country. I hope Donald Trump builds a wall just so we never have to see another one of these.
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Production Company
Esperanto Kino,
Itaca Films,
CG Cinéma
Release Date Oct 14, 2016
Duration 1 h 28 m
Rating R
Tagline From the Visionary Filmmakers That Brought You GRAVITY
Awards
Ariel Awards, Mexico
• 10 Nominations
Mexican Cinema Journalists
• 1 Win & 9 Nominations
Toronto International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
