Rudo y Cursi

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The intimate movie hums with a back-in-the-hood vibe that gets the two stars playing contentedly, and delightfully, for the love of local filmmaking.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Mr. Cuarón directs with a hand that's as sure as it is deft. The music is terrific, though I can't say the same for the fusty subtitles, and Adam Kimmel's cinematography bathes the movie's cheerful absurdities in a beautiful glow.

Los Angeles Times Robert Abele

Mexico has had its share of debilitating transnational news lately, but the arrival of the puckishly entertaining, fleet-of-foot drama-comedy Rudo y Cursi deserves a hearty welcome.

Newsweek David Ansen

Hilarious, satirical and melancholy, Rudo y Cursi may not go as deep as "Y Tu Mamá También," but it has a similar vivacity. It turns this tale of brotherly bonds and sibling rivalry--a veiled allegory of the Cuarón boys themselves?--into one of the year's most memorable offerings.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Rudo y Cursi is as fatalistic as any film noir, but it's played for cartoonish screwball comedy. At once smooth and frantic, filled with cozy clutter and vulgar jive, the movie subsumes its moralizing in frat-house entertainment.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

That the fantasy comes crashing back to earth seems all but inevitable. That Rudo y Cursi doesn't crash in the process - that's muy bien.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Fierce, profane and hilarious comedy.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Carlos Cuaron's otherwise terrific new comedy Rudo Y Cursi barely survives its third-act "Goodfellas" descent into seedy coke-and-crime drama.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Luna and García Bernal display the kind of chemistry that makes you overlook the clichés in the script by first-time director Carlos Cuarón. Sometimes good-natured fun is enough.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Rudo y Cursi (which roughly translates to tough and corny) is more raucous and slight than the contemplative "Y Tu Mama," but it is an undeniably entertaining rags-to-riches-to-rags comedy.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The rags-to-riches-to-rags trajectory is shopworn, but the sibling rivalries are cantankerous and goofy and Bernal's Tato, who fancies himself a pop singing star, wouldn't make the first cut on "American Idol."

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is not a deep movie, but it's a broad one. It reunites three talents who had an enormous hit with "Y Tu Mama Tambien": actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, and Carlos Cuaron, who wrote that film and writes and directs this one. Instead of trying to top themselves with life and poignancy, they wisely do something for fun.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Rudo y Cursi is a grave and calculated affront to the men of Mexico, and that's the source of its roistering charm.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's a film that gently spoofs such cultural staples as ranchera music, illegal gambling, labor exploitation and tabloid media. And it's the sort of film that sneaks serious themes and emotions in just when you think it's about to dissolve into farce. Small but largely satisfying.

Film Threat Scott Knopf

What Cuarón and friends have done is made a cute genre film. What's the harm in that? I’m sure Bernal will be back to his edgy roots soon enough.

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

Rudo y Cursi scores from every angle -- comic, personal and cross-cultural.

Variety John Anderson

Picture scores a solid goal for its national cinema and the cause of comedy.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

While the film is lively and engaging, it also, in the end, feels a little thin, largely because it is unsure of how earnestly to treat its own lessons about fate, ambition and brotherly love.

Slate Dana Stevens

Carlos Cuarón's screenplay is rambling and unstructured but full of vibrant dialogue. As in "Y Tu Mamá También," the insults the two leads hurl at one another are creatively filthy.

Washington Post Dan Zak

Enjoyable but forgettable.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Run-of-the mill drama.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Living up to its title, Rudo y Cursi is appealingly tough and corny but contains little that causes these elements to congeal into anything greater.

New York Post Kyle Smith

An occasionally amusing but strained fable about the dangers and delights of sibling rivalry that asks us to believe (for instance) that soccer scouts roam Mexico looking for 30-year-old recruits.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

It's really a lazy comedy that is content telling a crude and corny Hollywood story with a Mexican accent.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Luna and Bernal have amiability, but not enough to earn a recommendation for this clichéd movie.