At its best, Alamar affirms that the "patient, meditative" film or the stylistic exercise is far less of a cinema pestilence than emotionally cynical works like Life During Wartime.

| Jul 1, 2013

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 28, 2011

It's hard to tell whether this line has been scripted or captured, but it packs an emotional punch all the same.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 25, 2011

So little is said on any subject that we're free to make our own conclusions about the world Natan inhabits.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 25, 2011

"Alamar" takes a lyrical approach to a story about father-son bonding in the tropics. It's as sketchy as it is beautiful.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 2, 2010

It is to Gonzlez-Rubio's credit that he can celebrate nature so joyously, yet suggest neither the preferred lifestyle of either parent is superior to the other.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 14, 2010

As much home movie as neorealist non-narrative, Alamar provides a nearly hypnotic immersion in the brilliantly aqua, impossibly tranquil Caribbean -- a Paradise Regained not just for Natan but for everyone.

| Oct 14, 2010

Magic realism in the purest, simplest sense.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 15, 2010

This slight and picturesque faux-documentary is like a family photo album brought to life.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 10, 2010

Alamar, for all its laid-back charm, offers no real answers and its naivety is perplexing.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 9, 2010

A joyous exploration of family life that will touch and surprise.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 9, 2010

Moving but never sentimental, ambient but rigorously focused, this is an assured, refreshingly simple film where the dramas and responsibilities of parenthood exist inside a bubble of blissed-out tropicalia.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 8, 2010

Pedro Gonzlez-Rubio takes the viewer on a leisurely journey through the timeless ritual of catching and cleaning fish, and the natural progression of paternal love over the course of a few days.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 19, 2010

Without the director resorting to sentiment, we experience the growing bond between father and son. Their happiness is infectious.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 30, 2010

There isn't much to Alamar -- and Gonzlez-Rubio sometimes seems to go out of his way to keep the film uncluttered by incident -- but it's short and agreeable...

| Original Score: B | Jul 15, 2010

Elegantly photographed by Mr. Gonzlez-Rubio, Alamar makes every shot a composition.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 15, 2010

Settling into a small hut on stilts surrounded by turquoise water, Alamar casts an uncommonly realistic spell, father bonding with son as they pull wriggling snappers from the depths alongside a grinning grandpa.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 14, 2010

Alamar is as much about the way a coat of yellow paint looks spread across wooden planks as it is the tender regard a father bestows on his son or the manner by which a lobster is speared and stripped.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 11, 2010

A lovely, soulful feature from multihyphenate Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio that plays on the border between documentary and fiction.

| Jul 6, 2010