The ending’s a downer, all right, but you might just smile too. Then feel bad about it. Then chuckle. Which is when you realize Potrykus has you right where he wants you.

| May 12, 2025

Most of its impact comes from going into the movie without any preparation and feeling as if you’re watching a blank tabletop being filled in with puzzle pieces until a full picture emerges.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 2, 2025

Spasmodically funny, though hardly a comedy, “Vulcanizadora” is raw, moving and, briefly, horrifying.

| May 1, 2025

Joel Potrykus looks without flinching at the ultimate consequences of permanent adolescence.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 27, 2025

Much of the movie’s power is owed to Potrykus’ own performance as a cartoonish manchild, in the vein of studio comedies led by Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell, only Potrykus is quick to unearth the nuanced layers

| Aug 27, 2024

Potrykus’s latest begins as a darkly funny heavy metal comedy that deftly shifts into a poignant existential drama, but it’s his and Burge’s transformative performances that carry this unconventional gem.

| Jun 20, 2024

Vulcanizadora is a dark, sombre film, and yet it speaks of something so genuine in such an urgent way that the courage driving it brings with it an implicit kind of hope.

| Jun 15, 2024

Vulcanizadora doesn't know how to cope with these truths, and will alienate much, if not most, of its audience as a result. But the honesty with which it expresses these dark thoughts is commendable.

| Original Score: B | Jun 10, 2024