Mesmerising, beautiful, sad and hopeful all at once.

| Aug 7, 2024

It’s difficult to make this sort of film, in which nothing of great dramatic import happens on screen, but Avilés has an ace up her sleeve: Sentíes, a first-time actor who carries the movie on her quietly expressive face.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 20, 2024

Confirms Avilés as a great creator of realistic situations while not having to resort to artifice to move the viewer. [Full review in Spanish]

| Feb 20, 2024

Tótem is life-affirming.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 15, 2024

There’s never a doubt that Avilés and her cast are tuned in to what matters, even when characters prioritize other concerns.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 15, 2024

Avilés shows family life as a kind of net, contracting and expanding according to the whims and needs of the people caught up in it.

| Feb 6, 2024

This is a movie about a celebration astride the abyss, and, as it continues, it takes on the eerie power of a séance.

| Feb 2, 2024

Tótem is one of those films about death that overflows with life, and it’s a testament to filmmaker Lila Avilés that this gentle drama never collapses under its own weight or lets sorrow fully take the wheel.

| Jan 29, 2024

Regardless of how it fares in the American awards season, “Tótem” cements Avilés as a new pioneer for Mexican cinema whose potential could one day rival or even surpass the Cuarón’s and Del Toro’s of this world.

| Original Score: A | Jan 29, 2024

The year is young, but you’re unlikely to see a film as richly textured as Avilés’ masterful child’s-eye view of death and family. Part of the film’s power is in how organically the movie unfolds, free of sentimentality or overemphasis.

| Jan 26, 2024

Vibrant, rhythmic and unsentimental, Tótem proves the power of film to immerse the audience in an entire life and culture where the highly specific and universal merge, and move mightily

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 26, 2024

It is restrained, poignant, and the type of slice-of-life film that is absolutely precious to the portrayal of the human condition.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jan 26, 2024

The result is both joyful and devastating, sometimes in such quick succession that it might seem manipulative. It ends up being closer to miraculous.

| Jan 25, 2024

Avilés moves from character to character with enormous delicacy, revealing gossamer threads of personal connection and, like a crack portraitist, catching faces at their most revealing.

| Jan 25, 2024

There are worlds inside worlds in “Tótem,” a soulful drama populated by an array of creatures, some with two legs and sad smiles, others with feathers, fur and shells.

| Jan 25, 2024

The surprising thing about this film, given its potential for devastation, is how funny it can be.

| Jan 19, 2024

Avilés takes her time letting the audience get to know, and grow to care for, every odd, flawed, and flailing member of Sol’s extended clan...

| Dec 13, 2023

Without ever verging on cloying, it’s a film about death that becomes a heartfelt celebration of life.

| Dec 9, 2023

Tótem is exquisite – a vital ensemble drama that’s suffused with joy and love.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 4, 2023

Tótem is a compassionate little wonder of a film.

| Aug 21, 2023