La ciénaga

El Biffo

Middle class family in total state of decay...can't even tell how many kids they have. Nice picture of a complete mess.

Eric Rucker

¡Peligro! ¡Peligro! The children of the conquistadores and missionaries are upside down and submerged in the endless swamp of all the karma they have inherited, held under by the continuing material dividends they feed from. The true original savages, zombies, infecting everything they touch with bog. An absolutely terrifying film.

Wee Hunk

RIP Filmstruck. Who's in charge if nobody's in charge? The kids end up having to be their own parents because the people who are supposed to be in charge are too self-involved. What I really enjoyed was how even the kids had their own well-defined personalities. There's a lot going on here both on and under the surface. A very powerful if somewhat pessimistic film.

Renton47

It opens with a shuffle reminiscent of Romero’s zombies, which leads to one of the film’s many festering wounds. And physical paroxysms aren’t the only thing in decay, certainly the abundant metaphors could be accused of leaning too hard on a social contempt which her subsequent work is better at integrating into the texture. But through sheer atmosphere we are convinced of the purgatory on display.

Matthew Martens

Well worth a revisit, particularly in the equally (but differently) muddy light of Zama, Martel's recent di Benedetto adaptation, which sort of sets in (semi-stagnant) motion the swamp in which this earlier film's later characters swelter and discharge.

Warren Spratley

This is pretty impressive, though I early on began to be of the opinion that Martel's tactics are often too self-assertive, redundantly cynical, &, at times, kind of unpleasant. Though the film is filled to overflowing w/ detailed, suggestive visual ellipses, & endlessly shaded sound-design, these characteristics too repetitiously serve 2 underline the potential 4 violence within this milieu. Hated the final minutes.

Jason

I was blown away by the unimpeachable excellence of Martel's subsequent two features, but it took seeing her debut feature to make me realize that she is one of the finest artists working today in any medium. I was absolutely floored. I can honestly not think of a greater debut in cinema ever. And it does exactly what any great debut does: it faultlessly discovers a way.

Christopher M. Jones

It's pretty rare to see something so narratively diffuse with so many characters not get bogged down or tiresome. at once formless and deliberate