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84
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81
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81
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78
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77
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74
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71
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
71
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70
Lars and the Real Girl
69
Charlie Wilson's War
68
Business of Being Born, The
68
Delirious
68
War Dance
65
Great Debaters, The
64
Cloverfield
63
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
63
11th Hour, The
63
Hannah Takes the Stairs
60
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
57
Romulus, My Father
57
Teeth
55
Resurrecting the Champ
53
Music Within
52
Hollywood Dreams
51
Golden Compass, The
49
Good Night, The
47
Bella
47
Lions for Lambs
47
27 Dresses
46
Reservation Road
44
Nina's Heavenly Delights
43
Youth Without Youth
43
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41
Mad Money
41
First Sunday
39
Alvin and the Chipmunks
39
P.S. I Love You
38
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
37
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32
Untraceable
30
Over Her Dead Body
30
Cover
29
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7
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xx
Moondance Alexander
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Nine Queens
Sony Pictures Classics
MPAA RATING: R
Starring
Ricardo Darín,
Gastón Pauls,
Graciela Tenembaum,
María Mercedes Villagra,
Gabriel Correa,
Pochi Ducasse,
Luis Armesto,
and
Ernesto Arias
Set in Buenos Aires, this is the story of two small-time swindlers who team up after meeting in a convenience store and become involved in a half million-dollar deal. (Sony Pictures Classics)
| GENRE(S): |
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Fabián Bielinsky
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Fabián Bielinsky
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: October 1, 2002
Video: October 1, 2002
Theatrical: April 19, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
115 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Argentina |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Spanish (with English subtitles) |
Original Spanish title "Nueve reinas"; Best Film, Best Actor (Darin), Best Supporting Actress (Berenguer), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, 2001 Argentinian Film Critics Association Awards

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
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
As tricky and satisfying as any of David Mamet's airless cinematic shell games. Mamet's films are all plot and no atmosphere; this one has a squalid, urban-greed-meets-the-gutter mood that lends its filigreed cleverness an unusually resonant kick.

100
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
Deliciously funny and fiendishly clever con-man comedy that begins on a note of ingenuity that it then sustains with the tension of a high-wire act.

90
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
The kind of movie that seduces you into becoming putty in its manipulative card-sharking hands and making you enjoy being taken in by its shameless contrivance.

90
Variety
Todd McCarthy
A seductively structured and superbly acted suspenser that breathtakingly piles swindle upon scam without giving away the game until the very end.

90
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Wickedly clever drama.

90
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
When you think you've figured out Bielinsky's great game, that's when you're in the most trouble: He's the con, and you're just the mark.

88
Boston Globe
Jonathan Perry
Elaborately layered movie about schemes and more schemes that pile up faster than chips on a blackjack table. The other half is realizing, about halfway through the film, that you won't figure it out until it's over.

88
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Clever, compelling, funny and unpredictable, and it has a lollapa-looza of an ending.
88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Has more twists than the Pacific Coast Highway and more layers than a stack of silver-dollar pancakes. If you can wrap your mind around one unlikely condition, the picture provides unalloyed pleasure for connoisseurs of cinematic con artists.

88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Bielinsky's movie builds like a poker game in which the players, having invested everything, cannot afford to fold.

88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Two suggestions as you watch it: Never take anything for granted, and keep your hand on your wallet as you leave the theater.

83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
It may not keep you guessing to the end, but there are enough surprises and wry revelations, right down to the last play, to make this a most satisfying cinematic confidence game.

80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
An accomplished and enjoyable Spanish-language debut feature by Fabían Bielinsky.
80
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Leaves you feeling tense and terrific. It's fun to be fooled.

80
Salon.com
Jeff Stark
If the movie isn't true, it's at least true to itself. When Nine Queens spirals out of the realm of believability, we've already been won over enough that we don't care.

80
Chicago Reader
Ronnie Scheib
The actors are charismatic, particularly Ricardo Darin.

80
New Times (L.A.)
Robert Wilonsky
Here it is -- another double cross for which you will, and should, hand over your few grubby bucks.

80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
Bielinsky's debut is a fine con picture, but at its best, it achieves even more, presenting the profession as a lifestyle with almost existential ramifications.

80
LA Weekly
Paul Malcolm
Writer-director Fabián Bielinsky's devilish Nine Queens serves as further evidence that Argentina's film industry is at the forefront of a resurgent Latin American cinema.

80
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
If Nine Queens were a great film, instead of just a very good one, this rottenness would be so pervasive that it would burst the bounds of the plot; it would make us shudder.

75
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
It would be a crime in itself to reveal the surprises of Nine Queens, which provides two solid hours of corking entertainment.

75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
This cleverly structured Argentine heist movie isn't as original or ingenious as it tries to be, but it's fun watching the chicanery veer down one unexpected pathway after another.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Edward Guthmann
Fast-paced and unerringly surprising.

75
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
But for all the duplicitous minds playing games with each other on the screen, Nine Queens' best con artist turns out to be Bielinsky himself -- and his target is the audience.

75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
If you want a brain puzzler that will ensure a lively conversation on the way home, Nine Queens is the real deal.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
A con within a con within a con. There comes a time when we think we've gotten to the bottom, and then the floor gets pulled out again and we fall another level.

75
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The movie may be Nine Queens, but it slakes your thirst for surprises and thrills because of its Nine Jokers.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Often more ingenious in appearance than fact. The hunter-gets-captured-by-the-game scenario is predictable and the sequence of shell games does not, when reconsidered, actually add up.

70
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Bielinsky's feature debut is a smart, enormously entertaining thriller whose preposterous conclusion in no way diminishes the fun of getting there.

40
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
Has a customarily jovial air but a deficit of flim-flam inventiveness.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
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