Carancho 2010

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: At heart an unlovely love story illuminated by sudden flares of violence, the film reeks of hopelessness and moral destitution, offering its lovers few means of escape. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Hard to watch, though fascinating for its performances, and the bottomless corruption it portrays. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A stark, compelling crime drama, shot in lurid close-ups and leading inexorably toward a devastating end. Read more

Sam Adams, AV Club: Even when tackling more mainstream fare, Trapero does it with integrity... Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: This is a film that's musical with the cracking of bones and crashing of cars. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The Argentinean actor Ricardo Darin (The Secret in Their Eyes) has an almost Bogart-like gift for playing world-weary rotters with a core of nobility. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Carancho begins to accelerate with alarming speed - and doesn't stop until the startling, bitterly ironic final frame. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: "Carancho" was Argentina's nominee for the foreign-language Oscar. It didn't make the short list, but life isn't always fair. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: You can see the influence of 1950s film noir, the ballsy renegades of 1970s American cinema (especially early Martin Scorsese) and a little touch of the Coen brothers. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: A no-frills version of a perennial dark story: how love of a sort can take root in a festering place. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: The desolate Edward Hopper nightscapes provide an effective context... Read more

Nick Schager, Village Voice: [Trapero's] stylistic showmanship eventually pays off in a bravura single-take climax, his camera navigating physical and emotional spaces with the fatalistic urgency and despair of film noir. Read more