[Luis Buñuel] meant to produce a savagely realistic film-document about juvenile delinquency in Mexico, and in that he certainly succeeded.

| Sep 19, 2022

The direction by Luis Buñuel is remarkable for directness and economy.

| Sep 19, 2022

Bunuel knew that poverty can't be prettied up, that it needs to be shown as a dehumanizing cycle.

| Jul 18, 2020

A savage, beautifully wrought portrayal of Mexican juvenile delinquency and a harsh indictment of the society that fosters it.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 18, 2020

The most horrifying of all films about juvenile crime.

| Jun 1, 2015

An objective, unrelenting closeup of life among some delinquents in a Mexican slum.

| Mar 26, 2009

Casts an unblinking gaze on the wretched lives of amoral Mexico City slum kids without sentiment or preaching.

| Feb 16, 2007

Buuel was, among other things, the great dirty surrealist of cinema.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 16, 2007

This is grim reality, and social realism is not precisely Buuel's forte; it is the poetic departure from this reality that makes Los Olvidados so riveting.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 16, 2007

A hugely influential film, foreshadowing the likes of A Clockwork Orange and Kids, and its matter-of-fact brilliance continues to astonish.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 16, 2007

Bunuel's superb and uncompromising portrait of the the debasement of humanity in certain situations retains all of its original power.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 14, 2007

It's a masterpiece that tangles individual and social ills into a knot, which, as we're warned in an opening voiceover, it offers no easy way to untie, rousing a sickening sense of injustice.

| Feb 9, 2006

The film that Buuel said reinvigorated his career, and indeed, its love of his young characters and his energetic, grassroots direction imbues it with a seemingly youthful vigor, even though Buuel was 50 when he made it.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 3, 2005

Every viewing of Los Olvidados offers further proof of its perfection.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 13, 2005

Starkly beautiful [and] diligently economical.

| Original Score: A | May 4, 2005

Once seen, this movie can never be forgotten.

Full Review | Jan 25, 2005

Although made with meticulous realism and unquestioned fidelity to facts, its qualifications as dramatic entertainment -- or even social reportage -- are dim.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 12, 2003

Less controversial for the brutality of its images than for the objectivity of Buuel's gaze, Los Olvidados purposefully lacks optimism.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 6, 2002

Buuel's apparent lack of compassion for his juvenile delinquents is what finally makes the film an unusually powerful social document and a disturbing piece of drama.

| Jan 1, 2000