Blancanieves
Cohen Media Group | Release Date: March 29, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 12, 2013
It is extremely pleasurable to watch, and shows every sign of having been extremely pleasurable to make. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 24, 2013
It is a full-bodied silent film of the sort that might have been made by the greatest directors of the 1920s, if such details as the kinky sadomasochism of this film's evil stepmother could have been slipped past the censors. Read full review
100
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeMar 28, 2013
Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves is the purest, boldest re-imagining of silent cinema yet. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 28, 2013
The silents, as this film suggests, achieved aesthetic marvels before sound came along to set things back for a while. Read full review
90
Village VoiceChuck WilsonMar 26, 2013
The new film from Spanish writer-director Pablo Berger is a silent, black-and-white film so witty, riveting, and drop-dead gorgeous that moviegoers may forget to notice that they can't hear the dialogue. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 2, 2013
Best of all: the musical score by Alfonso de Vilallonga. It's terrific — witty, symphonically lush and shrewdly informed by flamenco strains throughout. Read full review
83
The PlaylistGabe ToroMar 29, 2013
You don’t need to know the resume of Maribel Verdú to know that the “Y Tu Mama Tambien” star is this film’s meal ticket. With an equal division of screentime with her co-star, Verdú’s ferocious sexuality projects that she was meant to become the fairest of them all by sheer force of will. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayMar 27, 2013
Berger also shows a dark wit and a faith in old-fashioned melodrama that puts Blancanieves more in the camp of Pedro Almodóvar than Guy Maddin’s golden-age pastiches. (And aside from being silent and a period piece, the movie has almost nothing in common with "The Artist.") Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnMar 27, 2013
If nothing else, Blancanieves offers an excellent case for revisiting the early days of cinema -- and for recognizing how much has been lost in its absence. While "The Artist" recalled the silent film industry, Blancanieves solely pays tribute to the art. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJul 12, 2013
This Iberian spin on the Snow White legend is a curio and a wonder; a silent fairy tale woven from softest velvet. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottMay 3, 2013
Berger's film is still far more magical than it is macabre. And so although a black-and-white, foreign-film adaptation of a very familiar tale might, indeed, be a hard sell, audiences who buy into it are in for an undeniably rewarding movie-going experience. In a word: ¡Ole! Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 4, 2013
Blancanieves is a feast for the film-crazy. [8 April 2013, p.89]
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMar 30, 2013
We’re not in Disney’s world. Berger knows his Grimm, and he suffuses his entrancing fairy tale with a moving sense of melancholy. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMar 26, 2013
Expressively (Berger knows his grammar), a white communion dress is dipped in black dye as her custodial grandmother passes away and an evil castle beckons. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMay 1, 2013
Blancanieves never lags, per se, it’s just awfully in love with itself: with its gorgeous black and white chiaroscuros and whirling-dervish first-person camera perspectives, the Spanish-guitar-scored dance sequences (that include the undeniable dance of the matador in action), and battering winds of emotional extremes. By the end of this sumptuous and sincerely felt melodrama, I was rather in love with it, too. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMay 31, 2013
While the story, shorn of its supernatural elements, is mired in abuse and tragedy, its effect is sensual and superficial. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 12, 2013
Blancanieves is funny, inventive and daring enough to change the story’s ending, going out on a note of bittersweet, unexpected melancholy. Read full review
75
NPRElla TaylorMar 28, 2013
Brimming over with sadism and the occasional touch of kink, Blancanieves piles on the pathology that's the birthright of any fairy tale worth its salt. Yet it's still a tale of lost innocence, and Berger keeps faith with a prototype revered by the Disneys and the Grimms alike: the resilient, enterprising girl who overcomes wave after wave of adversity. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMar 28, 2013
In an attempt to be both modern and traditional, this gorgeously made film ends up betwixt and between. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 28, 2013
It communicates the delights of pastiche rather than the thrill of original creation, a secondhand movie love that is seductive but not entirely satisfying. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineNick McCarthyMar 28, 2013
Pablo Berger digs for emotional intensity in his gothic retelling of Snow White and only uncovers layers of gloss. Read full review
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