Wood's film cannot seem to make up its mind about its central focus. Or, rather, the focus is constantly shifting between the "micro" and "macro" perspectives.

| Feb 15, 2021

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 21, 2006

Though the film would benefit from further cuts, Machuca still manages to convey the frailty of convictions and the difficulties of growing up -- be it a child or a nation.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 26, 2006

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Thanks to a pristine eye for period detail and strong acting skills by the entire cast, there's no need for the script to press any points.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 13, 2006

Chilean director Andres Wood sharply observes and re-creates the era.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 12, 2006

A fine, exciting film that makes a bloody historical event live all over again by showing it through the eyes of children on the edges of the conflict.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 9, 2005

[The film] examines how this unstable social climate strains the incipient friendship between two boys.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2005

That rare film that merges the personal and political without sacrificing restraint or intellectual honesty.

| Nov 18, 2005

Wood is content to pace his film with a methodic leisure that both suits his tone and stretches his story a bit thin.

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

A visually stirring film that asks many questions about Chile's 1973 coup, without providing any easy answers.

| Oct 27, 2005

[The film has] an unerring eye for time and place that's counterbalanced by an overly passive, if sympathetic, central character.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 21, 2005

It's a sensitively wrought work that reveals a time in Chile when class differences were both ignored and emphasized, depending on your perspective.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 15, 2005

Has moments of vivid clarity and power, mixed randomly with clunky samples of other coming-of-age films.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 15, 2005

Dense and well-crafted.

| Original Score: '3/4' | Jul 13, 2005

The film succeeds...in fleshing out the central characters, lending credence to their personal experience of historically sweeping events

Full Review | Jul 10, 2005

As perceptive about youth as were the French New Wave films, and in its wide sympathy and honest outrage extends some of the rich implications of The Motorcycle Diaries.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 8, 2005

Machuca doesn't just recite a history lesson for us - it lives it as only two children on the cusp of adulthood can.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jun 17, 2005

An eloquent and moving take on the tragedy of a society that attacks its own and successfully humanises difficult ideas of political and class loyalty.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 10, 2005

A remarkable and compelling film you won't soon forget.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 29, 2005