It is this strength and beauty that drew people to her, and it is the heart of the documentary.

| Aug 17, 2021

Watching Chavela Vargas sing is like watching rain clouds gather against a hill; she appears onstage, takes to the mic, and sings in her husky tenor. The pain in her songs plays out through the twitch of an eyebrow...

| Jan 8, 2019

The late Chavela Vargas, a sad and fiery legend of Latin American song, is the subject of an adoring portrait as straightforward as its title, Chavela.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 8, 2017

What a wonderful and worthy tribute to a woman who led such a fascinating life.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 7, 2017

Still, the film is an eye-opening primer on an intoxicating performer about whom too little is known.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 22, 2017

A solid if conventional bio.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 26, 2017

As this documentary by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi reveals, Vargas came by her tragic persona honestly.

| Oct 19, 2017

A fond but clear-eyed tribute.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 19, 2017

The film marvels with her but doesn't have much of an answer. But we do get performances. We hear her on record, from in her youth and in cabaret and concert appearances from late in her life. Every note has majesty.

| Oct 5, 2017

Throughout Chavela, onscreen translations of lyrics accompany concert clips. A literal understanding of the songs is hardly necessary, though. The emotion in the performance says everything we need to know.

| Oct 5, 2017

Chavela is presented as a grandiose enigma, the kind that inspires more research afterward and seeking out her music, but the film is too ordinary to feel like it does her legacy complete artistic justice.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 4, 2017

It plays like a dirge, not a celebration.

| Oct 3, 2017

Mesmerizes with its impressionistic blend of archival photos, musical performances, concert footage and candid interviews with the legendary singer herself, as well with her ardent friends like Pedro Almodvar and former lovers.

| Oct 2, 2017

The film's hopscotching-in-time structure, informed by specific remembrances of Chavela Vargas's life, is refreshingly unconventional.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 2, 2017

This tuneful portrait of Chavela Vargas, "born singing" in 1919 Costa Rica, admiringly explores her impact on the world of Mexican music as an out lesbian ... a charismatic figure and a great artist.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 15, 2017

The core material is augmented with a wealth of archive footage and photographs, as well as extensive interviews with music aficionados, associates, friends, lovers and admirers.

| Feb 12, 2017

Chavela is a vivid portrayal of an artistic, social and sexual rebel whose difficult but finally triumphant life finally proved that there sometimes really are second acts in showbiz lives.

| Feb 12, 2017

Loaded with concert footage, interviews with friends, and terrific photos, this well-balanced documentary directed by Gund and Daresha Kyi celebrates the woman and the legend, and if the stock archival material doesn't always fit, few will mind.

| Feb 12, 2017