Tragic Jungle establishes its setting well, and manages to repeatedly set up a foundation of tension throughout the story, but rarely actually delivers on that strong foundation.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Jan 16, 2023

Doesn't allow room to breathe. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jul 27, 2022

As an imagistic travelogue Tragic Jungleis precise, but as story its ideas feel too nascent to be affecting

| Oct 25, 2021

Viewers who pay close attention to the sights and sounds that comprise this haunting film will be rewarded... This is a stunning tale of oppression writ large

| Jul 21, 2021

To be frank, I couldn't find one single original idea in this shapeless movie.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jul 11, 2021

A spellbinding and atmospheric exploration of colonialism in Mexico told through a popular Mayan legend. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 10, 2021

The Mayan jungle and the local myth of a femme fatale known as Xtabay give form and meaning to this suspenseful Mexican mystery.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 21, 2021

Mexican filmmaker Yulene Olaizola's fifth and most assured feature seduces you away from the legibility of its premise so gradually that you don't realize you've lost your bearings until it's already too late...

| Original Score: B | Jun 14, 2021

But through the alien beauty of its visuals, Andrewin's hidden-waters-run-deep performance, and its increasingly tense atmosphere, Tragic Jungle casts an unsettling spell.

| Jun 14, 2021

The result is an immersive experience, a jungle western whose secret weapon is the look of Indira Rubie Andrewin that fascinates men, and the public as well. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Jun 14, 2021

Nothing serious, nothing that disturbs or minimizes the main findings of a fable about the power of nature and the miseries of man. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 14, 2021

Olaizola threads between fantasy and naturalism to recreate a forgotten realm of history. By doing so, Selva Trágica transcends the boundaries of period pieces in search of a complex physical and conceptual experience. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 11, 2021

Tells a story that remains eerily resonant despite its period setting.

| Jun 11, 2021

Though the film is a rather trim 96 minutes, its slow pace makes it seem much longer than that.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 10, 2021

More conceptual than intuitive, Tragic Jungle offers the problem without the passion: a journey into the heart of darkness without the thrill of the unknown.

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 9, 2021

Unfortunate in its reliance on an atmosphere of feverish malaise and other tropes of the tropics.

| Jun 5, 2021

This is a quietly captivating tale that feels cautionary and yet does not have an easily parsable moral, perhaps because the justice it serves is mapped to a timescale much longer than humanity's.

| Nov 25, 2020

A searing fable brought to rich, tactile life by cinematographer Sofia Oggioni, Tragic Jungle is a direct reversal of the imperialist tragedy.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Nov 14, 2020

Trespassing any of these limits carries grave consequences ripe for captivating cinema in the proper hands. That's indisputably the case here.

| Original Score: A- | Oct 13, 2020

There is much to enjoy about Tragic Jungle, but in the end, one is left hungry for something more than what the film actually is.

| Oct 13, 2020