Uchoa and Dumans’ distanced, matter-of-fact portrayal of their vagabond renders Araby an elusive and open film. It’s particulars aren’t always announced, because — as with Bresson — the text ask viewers to meet it where it stands.

| Dec 13, 2023

The hard politics of capitalism are omnipresent, and yet that doesn't ruin the pleasure of this light-touch gem.

| Apr 4, 2019

"You could say that the film is not about anything but, really, it's about everything".

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 6, 2019

The Brazilian Araby is an example of this Latin American cinema that is looking at the sociocultural interior of its idiosyncrasy without prejudices or folklore. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 1, 2019

Araby demonstrates that you can tune in to a character's story despite the level of gloom. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Feb 25, 2019

A highly nuanced work of lyrical realism, Araby is an instant classic.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 22, 2019

The fantastic element of Araby is that it is reality filtered through writing. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Feb 22, 2019

Araby is filled with as much melancholic emotion as it is with poetry and pain. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 22, 2019

A marvelous offering with neorealist roots that displays everyday life with so much tragedy, but also a warmth and delicacy. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 22, 2019

Even with all its flaws, you will be moved by its humanity, but don't be surprised if a deep feeling of solitude invades your spirit.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 14, 2019

It's a social and political commentary of a modern day industrial power and the polarisation and inequality prevalent in most developing nations.

| Nov 3, 2018

It's doubtlessly true, relentlessly dreary and certainly part of the modern conversation. The question is: Does it add anything to that conversation?

| Original Score: C+ | Oct 19, 2018

It's a wonderfully vibrant film that connects to the Depression-era working-class films in America.

| Original Score: A- | Oct 8, 2018

The directors prove they have a rare ability to make a flow of words really cinematic.

| Sep 6, 2018

Without pretense or sentiment, Araby is one of the year's richest cinematic experiences. It unearths the costs of constantly roaming free, chasing memories, leaving people behind, and refusing to express one's self in the moment.

| Aug 20, 2018

An austerely beautiful, minimalist film like this either works for you or it doesn't. Initially just mildly intrigued, I eventually found Araby something of a revelation...

| Aug 17, 2018

Araby is unmistakably contemporary in its fashions, settings, and physical behavior; the similarities to the past seem found rather than manufactured.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 16, 2018

A beautifully turned Brazilian movie that carries on as if a social-cause documentary and a folk song confessional had entered into a poignant embrace.

| Aug 9, 2018

The filmmakers dramatize, thinly but ardently, the rise of self-consciousness, of a revolution in the soul that hints at political action.

| Jul 5, 2018

It's a soft bolero of a film, painting a searing portrait of life for developing-nation laborers but coming around in the end to touches of loveliness and humanity we didn't see coming.

| Jul 5, 2018