Manuel Betancourt
Tomatometer-approved critic
Publications:
Variety,
Los Angeles Times,
Paste Magazine,
AV Club,
The Atlantic,
Film Comment Magazine,
The Film Experience,
Esquire Magazine,
Out Magazine,
Vice,
That Shelf,
Los Angeles Review of Books,
Mic.com,
Remezcla,
Vague Visages,
FilmWeek (LAist),
Electric Literature
Sneaks (2025)
33%
“I just kept wondering how any of this makes sense.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Apr 18, 2025
Full Review
The Wedding Banquet (2025)
88%
“A quiet little wonder of a movie.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Apr 18, 2025
Full Review
Viet and Nam (2024)
100%
“There is a mundanity to the world Trương depicts here. Yet also a kind of beguiling vision of what this very world holds. The film’s long, languid takes make almost every scene feel like a beautifully composed tableau.” –
Los Angeles Times
Apr 16, 2025
Full Review
Bring Them Down (2024)
90%
“It makes The Banshees of Inisherin look like a feel-good movie.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Armand (2024)
75%
“The way that [Renate Reinsve] captures a wounded vulnerability that can become quite wounding in the way she lashes out... I found it quite masterful.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Jazzy (2024)
95%
“At times I was really taken with it and at times it was hard not to realize it was doing the same thing over and over again, but this is just what childhood is.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Suze (2023)
100%
“What a gentle balm of a film.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Parthenope (2024)
45%
“The myth making ended up feeling repetitive... At times it feels like a parody of a Sorrentino film.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
No Other Land (2024)
100%
“It's powerful, enraging, and it's frustrating that it doesn't have a distributor.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Love Hurts (2025)
19%
“It's not even "so bad it's good good." It's listless.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Hard Truths (2024)
95%
“It is claustrophobic to spend so much time with Pansy, but it clicked for me once I understood it as a post-lockdown film and the anti-sociality that was encouraged during the time. ” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Grand Theft Hamlet (2024)
93%
“It really shouldn't work as an exercise in absurdity, and yet at times it is so touching and heartfelt.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Wolf Man (2025)
50%
“I found it utterly forgettable and a waste of fantastic actors. ” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
From Ground Zero (2024)
98%
“There are some quite beautiful and harrowing stories here. ” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Vermiglio (2024)
93%
“Secrets start ballooning and it really becomes something quite beautiful.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
2073 (2024)
48%
“It's so ambitious that I don't think it lands it. It doesn't quite work. ” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Better Man (2024)
88%
“It should not work, and yet the commitment by director Michael Gracey is such that it's hard to look away. ” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Nosferatu (2024)
84%
“In choosing to make Count Orlok repulsive, you sap it of both the metaphorical potential and the effect you want on your audience. ” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Babygirl (2024)
76%
“These are really thorny questions that the movie takes very seriously, and there's a comedic bent throughout that lets you know you're in really good hands. ” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
A Complete Unknown (2024)
82%
“The movie begins from the assumption that you're already invested in who Dylan is and that you enjoy his music, and it doesn't reach out to an audience who doesn't take that for granted. ” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Feb 11, 2025
Full Review
Disfluency (2021)
85%
“If its ambitions never quite meet its execution, “Disfluency” is (clunky title aside) an amiable watch with its heart (and head) in the right place that still manages to charm, perhaps because it so exalts the very concept of imperfection.” –
Variety
Jan 26, 2025
Full Review
The Last Showgirl (2024)
83%
“I was bowled over. It's a really small, intimate movie, but Anderson really anchors it. ” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Jan 17, 2025
Full Review
Oh Canada (2024)
64%
“The change in point-of-view probably works better on the page, and Schrader never quite figures out how to make that sing on the screen.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Jan 17, 2025
Full Review
Nickel Boys (2024)
91%
“One of the best films of the year. What marriage of form and content!” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Jan 17, 2025
Full Review
September 5 (2024)
93%
“A brisk, well told, efficiently workmanlike thriller.” –
FilmWeek (LAist)
Jan 17, 2025
Full Review
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