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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Selena
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Musical
Written by: Gregory Nava
Directed by: Gregory Nava
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 21, 1997
DVD: February 3, 2004
Running Time: 127 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Language(s): English / Spanish
Summary
RATING: PG for some mild language and thematic elements
Starring Jennifer Lopez, Jackie Guerra, Constance Marie, Alex Meneses, Jon Seda, Edward James Olmos, Jacob Vargas, and Pete Astudillo
This biographical drama charting the extraordinary career and tragic slaying of pop singing sensation Selena. (Warner Bros.)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Bordertown El Norte
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database 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...
LA Weekly Paul Malcolm
For all its simplicity, however, the film is entertaining, even uplifting, with Lopez giving a stellar, confectionary performance.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Selena succeeds, through Lopez's performance, in evoking the magic of a sweet and talented young woman.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Richard Harrington
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).
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
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.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
I enjoyed quite a bit of it, in large part because of the energy and charisma of Jennifer Lopez in the title role.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Eric Brace
The hagiography of Selena (executive produced by Selena’s father) will please her fans, but doesn’t give much insight into the person behind the star.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
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).
Read Full Review >TV Guide Sandra Contreras
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.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The dialogue swings between platitudes and clichés, but the acting is lively and the music will set even lazy toes tapping.
Read Full Review >Slate Sarah Kerr
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.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Russell Smith
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.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Missing is a sense of the interior life behind the smiling face that Selena showed the world.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego
You can't help cheering for Selena, but the good feeling is diminished by the sense that her story's been simplified and sanitized.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Douglas R. gave it a9:
Very good and sassy! One of the year's best films!
Rico De A. gave it a10:
If you dig deep enough, this movie has many underlying messages beneath it's 'at-first-simple' appearing story-line. It brings to light the everyday issues which Mexican-Americans (and immigrants to this country in general) face on a daily basis regarding their cultural identities as 2nd and 3rd generation U.S. citizens with foreign Ancestry. As Mexican Americans, we constantly struggle with trying to prove our belonging to both sides and are questioned by both. To quote the Selena movie "...we have to be more American than the Americans and more Mexican than the Mexicans, its exhausting!".
