It's been too long since we've seen a film so luscious that it practically whisks you away to another time, another place. The animated film (and Oscar nominee for best animated feature), Chico & Rita does just that.

| Sep 8, 2017

When a place and its people are this stylish, we can't help but be drawn to them.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 6, 2012

"Chico & Rita" is that rare thing, a cartoon for adults, with a bittersweet take on love and fate and a romantic's view of the night.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 16, 2012

A pure delight, a keenly affecting, visually ravishing tale.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 16, 2012

A buttery rich animated tale of love, jazz, showbiz, fame and politics in the late '40s and early '50s that is as catchy as its tunes.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 8, 2012

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 3, 2012

When a soundtrack this fluidly elegant is married to trite dialogue, thin characterizations, and chockablock animation, it has to go down as a missed opportunity.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 1, 2012

Presented in a wash of animated colors, this story of a hot-headed sexy Latina songstress and her jazz piano player takes on new life.

| Original Score: B | Feb 24, 2012

Remarkably sexy for its genre (it's not for kids at all), it's nostalgic about a time and place that rarely gets treated on film ("Godfather II" touched on it), and it has an emotional pull that may catch you by surprise.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 23, 2012

It's entertaining to watch, and I enjoyed the way they slipped in such real-life figures as Dizzy Gillespie beside the fictional leads.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 23, 2012

By virtue of its simple, stylized look - bold lines and color blocks - and effervescent Cuban jazz score, the Spanish animated feature "Chico & Rita" rises above its routine story of a troubled love affair between talented musicians.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 16, 2012

There's an outline of an epic love story here, but the screenwriters never bother to fill it in all the way.

| Feb 10, 2012

The real romance here is between the filmmakers and the cultural moment they hope to document.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 10, 2012

"Chico and Rita'' beguiles first and foremost as a bebop romance that evokes a bygone era as well as, or maybe even better than, "The Artist."

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 10, 2012

This sexy, pulpy, very grown-up film is not your usual best animated feature material.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 10, 2012

A dazzling and delightful work of modernist animation, a classic movie romance and a hip-swinging, finger-popping tale of musical revolution...

Full Review | Feb 9, 2012

Sexy, sweet and laced with a sadness at once specific to its place and time and accessible to anyone with a breakable heart, "Chico & Rita" is an animated valentine to Cuba and its music.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 9, 2012

It's so passionate about the Latin and big-band music of the '40s, '50s and '60s that it'll make anyone who grew up listening to those vibrant rhythms feel like a kid again.

| Feb 9, 2012

This is the kind of sophisticated storytelling you rarely get even in live-action movies any more, full of unexpected turns and unruly human complications.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Feb 9, 2012

A heady wonder for fans of the music, the era, or visual creative art in general.

| Original Score: A- | Feb 9, 2012