Norte is extremely watchable, and there’s the rub: it’s reasonable to expect transcendence at that sustained length, but instead we get a relatively straightforward tract on political abuses...

| Jan 25, 2023

Superbly shot and featuring a host of interesting characters, it echoes a type of intelligent, painstaking cinema from a bygone era.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 30, 2019

For those willing to give Diaz's film a chance, Norte will provide one of the year's best viewing experiences.

| Original Score: 8.2/10 | Jun 18, 2019

Norte, the End of History offers no easy answers nor happy endings. Instead, we're deftly (and sensually) immersed in the lives of these desperate souls, where contentment -- let alone justice -- is a luxury few can afford.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 2, 2019

Most directors would let the medium be subservient to the rich storyline but not Diaz who elevates and elucidates the themes of the narrative through full mastery of his craft

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 2, 2018

Diaz's embrace of a mobile camera and exploitation stories suggests that "contemplative" cinema has probably never really been a reproof to Hollywood spectacle and suspense, so much as it's been an extension of spectacle by other means.

| Oct 26, 2018

It's a monumental achievement: a four-hour film you wish could be longer.

| Sep 6, 2018

This is the work of a filmmaker blessed with the gift of chronicling the unbearable heaviness of being. He basks in the redemptive glow of thematic ambition.

| Aug 21, 2018

An endangered species, Diaz makes a point to treat cinema as a complex, multifaceted art form in which sensual, intellectual, and sacred experiences are inextricably linked.

| Nov 11, 2017

A deaf and tragic prison drama of ideologically intertwined stories. [Full review in Spanish]

| Feb 21, 2017

A dense, intense and lush cinematic experience. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 30, 2016

Four hours of academic moralising could be a lot more opaque than this crafty, organic film presents them as being.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Mar 1, 2015

Even though this movie is over four hours long, it presents only part of the story. A lot of its length is due to long, uncut static camera shots where little or nothing is happening.

| Original Score: C | Jan 19, 2015

Diaz roots his film in the quotidian so as to make it all the more noticeable when he reaches for the transcendent, a lofty goal he frequently achieves.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jan 10, 2015

In a time when so much art and entertainment is designed to be consumed in bite-size portions with little aftertaste, it's inspiring that a mental, emotional and spiritual feast like this can see the light of day.

| Original Score: A | Jan 8, 2015

Powerful and humbling, this 2013 drama is worth every minute you're willing to give it.

| Sep 4, 2014

Diaz has shaped his material with a mesmerizing rhythm, digital lenser Larry Manda's imagery often stunning.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 29, 2014

A political and spiritual parable, but related with such subtle realism and incantatory rhythms that it is far more mysterious than didactic.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 28, 2014

If the movie's universal themes don't impress, its specific details do.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 7, 2014

While the final hour or so of the film is depressing beyond belief, the middle section does grab attention, with Diaz creating some truly memorable moments amid the rambling narrative.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2014