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Selena
Metascore
65 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
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  1. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Paul Malcolm
    90
    For all its simplicity, however, the film is entertaining, even uplifting, with Lopez giving a stellar, confectionary performance.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    Selena succeeds, through Lopez's performance, in evoking the magic of a sweet and talented young woman.
  3. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    88
    This is a simple story of hope and triumph, of one girl with the drive to succeed defying the odds and following her dream. It's not an original tale -- movies like this abound -- but Nava's point-of-view is fresh.
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    80
    Selena is in part a completely predictable Latino soap opera that should satisfy those who complain they aren't making movies like they like used to.
  5. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    80
    Although Nava's screenplay hits the subject of every scene right on the head and doesn't ask for much subtlety or subtext, Lopez is wonderful to watch in the dramatic sequences as well as in the numerous musical interludes.
  6. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Richard Harrington
    80
    The film's many musical scenes can be riveting. But Selena is less concert film than family drama, particularly focusing on Selena's struggles with her father after she falls in love with, and eventually marries, her guitarist Chris Perez (heartthrob Jon Seda).
  7. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    70
    On its own good-natured terms, Selena' is both pleasant to watch and instructive in familiarizing a movie audience with the Texan-Mexican borderland music known as Tejano.
  8. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    70
    I enjoyed quite a bit of it, in large part because of the energy and charisma of Jennifer Lopez in the title role.
  9. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    67
    The best thing going for Selena is Selena herself, played with verve, heart, and a great deal of grace by the increasingly busy Jennifer Lopez (Money Train, Jack, Blood & Wine).
  10. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Sandra Contreras
    60
    But the film soars when the stunning Jennifer Lopez beams and struts her stuff in a series of exhilarating performance sequences; she's a glitzy, thrilling icon a la the made-over Olivia Newton-John of Grease.
  11. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    50
    Missing is a sense of the interior life behind the smiling face that Selena showed the world.
  12. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    The dialogue swings between platitudes and clichés, but the acting is lively and the music will set even lazy toes tapping.
  13. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    50
    The movie, directed and written by Gregory Nava ("My Family/Mi Familia"), is only so-so but Lopez, who appeared recently in "Jack'' and "Blood and Wine," is so vibrant that you almost forgive the movie's paint-by-numbers script and moldy formula.
  14. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Walter Addiego
    50
    You can't help cheering for Selena, but the good feeling is diminished by the sense that her story's been simplified and sanitized.
  15. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Russell Smith
    50
    Unfortunately, for all his large soul and exquisite mastery of image, Nava is also one of the worst writers to ever accrue more than two major-movie screenwriting credits.
  16. Slate
    Reviewed by: Sarah Kerr
    50
    The new movie of Selena's life ponderously carves each element of the myth in stone, as if this 23-year-old were a bust to be included on Mount Rushmore.
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