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Our Lady of the Assassins

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Gay/Lesbian
Written by: Fernando Vallejo (also novel)
Directed by: Barbet Schroeder
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 7, 2001
DVD: March 26, 2002
Running Time: 98 minutes, Color
Origin: Colombia / France / Spain
Language(s): Spanish (with English subtitles)
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Terror's Advocate
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
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...
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.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Setting it against the backdrop of a wanton city under siege, Schroeder crafts a film of whiplash urgency.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) David Ehrenstein
One of the most genuinely shocking films you'll ever see.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
It's sad, funny, shocking and completely unlike any movie in a dozen years.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
A scathing, darkly funny political essay wrapped inside a tragic love story (or vice versa).
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
Plays like a dislocated version of ''Death in Venice,'' but in a dryer, higher climate that features exponentially more firepower.
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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The film's title is appropriate. A desperate Catholicism flavors the doomed city.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Mark Peranson
Has its faults, but it's Barbet Schroeder's most relevant and interesting film in over a decade.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
An utterly nihilistic, harrowingly upsetting vision of hell on earth.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Rough, breathless adaptation of Fernando Vallejo's ferociously sardonic novel.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
The performances can be stiff, but a kinetic mix of anxiety, dread, and numbed resignation is always palpable.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
The movie itself IS dull, however. The characters never engage our interest, and the relentless violence grows monotonous.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
What Our Users Said
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.
Andreu H. gave it a 1:
Unconvincing. Like a South American television soap. The writer should know better. Criticises Columbian politicians whilst doing nothing to kerb the amoral excesses of his sleeping partners.
Ignacio W. gave it a 10:
Excelente película !!, Lo mejor que se ve en los clubes de video. Medellín la ciudad vilenta, Nedellín La ciudad de colorido y grandes contrastes, Medellín actual llena de jovenes y de construcciones viejas, de gente temperamentasl, humana, Medellín moderna con gente hermosa. un rotundo 10!
Mauricio R. gave it a 10:
Even though this movie shows the bad side of a city full of beautiful things, I think this movie carries an expectacular reality of the violence that Medellin experiences.
Ancizar A. gave it an 8:
Good movie.
