A frantic crime thriller that never transcends its influences to arrive anywhere interesting.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 10, 2004

It feels lightweight and forgettable.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 8, 2004

I suppose Nicotina is a gimmick film, but it's brought off with such verve it's great fun.

| Sep 24, 2004

Skitters between dull and forced, this despite the use of split screens, jaunty music and the personable Luna.

| Sep 24, 2004

While obviously not a unique or uniquely satisfying experience, the film still does the job in a pinch, and looks cool doing it.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 10, 2004

Rodríguez keeps the story moving with multiple images, quick zooms and other editing tricks that serve as reminders that Nicotina is not to be taken seriously.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 26, 2004

Lightweight but enjoyable entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 20, 2004

This grisly, comical shaggy-dog thriller from Mexico provides the latest evidence that the international movement we might call Tarantinismo is alive and well.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 19, 2004

Appealing combination of mordant humor and cheerful pessimism.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 19, 2004

Mr. Rodriguez and screenwriter Martin Salinas create inspired moments of dark humor.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Aug 19, 2004

The significance of this nicotine obsession, except as a clumsy subplot connector, eluded me entirely, as did that of almost everything else that transpires in this self-satisfied, incoherently busy farce.

Full Review | Aug 19, 2004

It arrests with violent bursts and anxious pauses until its three plots merge in a satisfying resolution; its laughs caught in my throat like smoker's cough.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 19, 2004

Recognizably part of the energized Mexican new wave, though nothing to write home about artistically.

Full Review | Aug 18, 2004

What does it mean? Not all that much, really -- just a pleasurable hour and a half passing, like an extended cigarette break.

| Aug 17, 2004

The smoke that powers the film's narrative is a whole lot of hot air.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 26, 2004