It ought to be required viewing -- on both sides of the border.

| Nov 2, 2021

Its images are so forceful, and so beautiful, that they transcend the story's simplicity and reach into a realm that can be justly called poetic.

| Aug 3, 2021

[Audiences will] get plenty for their money: powerful acting, flint-clean cinematography, a riveting story that transcends geographical boundaries, and a touch of the supernatural thrown in for good measure.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 3, 2021

There is no question El Norte is one-sided, even propagandistic and sentimental at times, but its emotional and visual power supersedes some of its predictability.

| Aug 3, 2021

Through the efforts of cinematographer James Glennon, Nava has almost succeeded in matching the unique style of Latin American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez whose tales are a vibrant mixture of fantasy and reality.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 3, 2021

A vibrant moving picture of grim realities.

| Aug 3, 2021

El Norte is an epic story told on a small, intimate human scale.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 3, 2021

Things go wrong in fairly predictable ways and the movie's last 15 minutes are undeniably maudlin. But by then we're so caught up in Enrique and Rosa's struggles, it's easy to forgive the film's unabashed sentimentality.

| Aug 3, 2021

El Norte gives us a vision of the downside of the American dream. The film's concentration on the plight of its young hopefuls, however, is done with much humour and compassion, so that the tragedy of its message is very bracing.

| Aug 3, 2021

Haunting, poetic and warmly sympathetic.

| Aug 3, 2021

It never drags and has moments of Costa Gavras-like suspense which Nava presents in a style all his own.

| Aug 3, 2021

Despite its length and sadness, a tolerant viewer will appreciate the portrait of the intricacies of a hidden culture in El Norte.

| Aug 3, 2021

It is Nava's shaping of his characters, through their encounters and through the sprinkling of illusion that the director adds to the film, that gives El Norte its moments of liberation, of spiritual release.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 3, 2021

Working without major studio support, Nava and Thomas prove themselves filmmakers of exceptional skill, taste and idealism, who have made El Norte both an impressively finished and deeply moving vision of three very different Americas.

| Aug 3, 2021

I very much doubt if you'll have seen anything quite like El Norte before.

| Aug 3, 2021

Expressionist, too, is the use of music in what is in many ways a film of operatic emotional dimensions.

| Aug 3, 2021

It has its moments of gritty realism, but also many of humor, and the technical production is spectacularly good with stunning color photography by James Glennon.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 3, 2021

El Norte is a considerable achievement and a moving experience.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 3, 2021

Part wondrous myth, part tragic reality, El Norte provides the husband-and-wife team of director Gregory Nava and producer Anna Thomas with the raw material for some exceptional filmmaking.

| Aug 3, 2021

It's inspired fiction that conveys levels of truth and humanity that usually elude the most well-meaning of documentaries.

| Aug 3, 2021