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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Our Lady of the Assassins
Paramount Classics
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for strong violence, language, sexuality and drug content
Starring
Germán Jaramillo,
Anderson Ballesteros,
Juan David Restrepo,
and
Manuel Busquets
An exploration of morality and mortality in Medellín, Colombia. (Paramount Classics)
| GENRE(S): |
Gay/Lesbian
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Fernando Vallejo (also novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Barbet Schroeder
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: March 26, 2002
Video: March 26, 2002
Theatrical: September 7, 2001
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
98 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Colombia / France / Spain |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Spanish (with English subtitles) |
Original Columbian title "La Virgen de los Sicarios"
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...
90
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
As the film, with its haunting score and inspired use of popular music, builds flawlessly to its resounding conclusion, it is accompanied by a pitch-dark humor that grows out of the sheer absurdity of the city's daily body count.
90
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Setting it against the backdrop of a wanton city under siege, Schroeder crafts a film of whiplash urgency.
90
New Times (L.A.)
David Ehrenstein
One of the most genuinely shocking films you'll ever see.
90
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
It's sad, funny, shocking and completely unlike any movie in a dozen years.
90
LA Weekly
Ernest Hardy
A scathing, darkly funny political essay wrapped inside a tragic love story (or vice versa).
88
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
Plays like a dislocated version of ''Death in Venice,'' but in a dryer, higher climate that features exponentially more firepower.
88
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
In a film overstuffed with tragedy, the most painful one might be the gradual transformation of Fernando's moral and intellectual indignation into a weary, cynical detachment.
88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
The film's title is appropriate. A desperate Catholicism flavors the doomed city.
80
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
By the end of the movie, the characters are numbed, while the audience is sensitized to the mayhem to an almost unbearable degree.
80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
The grimness of the movie becomes not only too unbearable, its point is clear about halfway through. After that, everything comes across as redundant retreading of the same perspective. But for atmosphere, great cinematography and eye-opening directness, this movie can't be beat.
80
Chicago Reader
Mark Peranson
Has its faults, but it's Barbet Schroeder's most relevant and interesting film in over a decade.
80
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
Couldn't have succeeded had it been cast with movie stars. Its authenticity derives not only from the streets on which it was filmed but also from its able Colombian cast.
80
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Schroeder's first non-American film in 16 years feels like a rejuvenation; his adaptation of Fernando Vallejo's 1994 novel has a naturalistic freedom and ease that is both refreshing and direct in the way it tells a deeply disturbing story.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
A bracing ode to the city -- a place of aching beauty and poverty, encompassed by a disconcerting halo of ancient culture and modern nihilism.
75
Chicago Tribune
Patrick Z. McGavin
The director's return home here parallels that of Fernando, metaphorically and artistically. Our Lady of the Assassins is a film of clarity, feeling and electric intensity.
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
An utterly nihilistic, harrowingly upsetting vision of hell on earth.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Edward Guthmann
A marvelous film.
70
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Rough, breathless adaptation of Fernando Vallejo's ferociously sardonic novel.
70
Village Voice
Jessica Winter
The performances can be stiff, but a kinetic mix of anxiety, dread, and numbed resignation is always palpable.
50
USA Today
Mike Clark
The movie itself IS dull, however. The characters never engage our interest, and the relentless violence grows monotonous.
50
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The blend of chic histrionics and ultra-bright daylight imagery make much of the movie resemble a network soap opera with an on-location interlude. It looks as cheap as life is held in Medellin.
50
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
Flat dialogue and stiff performances (especially by the street kids, like Ballesteros, turned into actors by Schroeder) don't help.
50
Time
Richard Schickel
Full of sacrilegious rant, absurdist affectlessness and pop social criticism, this film plays like an old B movie: narratively improvisational, delusionally pretentious, weirdly watchable.
50
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
The intimate love story is overwhelmed by the carnage. It may be an accurate picture of life in Medellin, but it's not convincing.
40
Mr. Showbiz
Michael Atkinson
Far from creating a pungent portrait of a society gone mad with blood and greed, Schroeder's movie strives for political points while it's whiffing on simplicities like character, motivation, and believability.
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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