Carandiru
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 14, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
22
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A prison movie of unusual richness and jarring power. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Carandiru, which ends with actual footage of the prison being demolished in 2002, marks a terrific comeback for Babenco - it's the roughest picture of life behind bars since "Midnight Express." Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyJohn Patterson
Babenco's kindly, concerned eye seeks out the humanity in even the worst of his characters, and by the time he re-creates the massacre, with shocking power and force, one has been equally captivated and appalled at the world he shows. The result is one of the richest prison movies in years. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Exudes a throbbing flesh-and-blood intensity so compelling that it's impossible to avert your eyes. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Carandiru is Babenco's fourth film set inside some type of incarceration facility and meshes his documentary style and fondness for realism with the escapism of storytelling found in "Kiss of the Spider Woman." It plunges us deep inside a corrupt system and its sincere empathy creates a stirring mix of emotions. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
No element in the story, or collection of stories, has much novelty: yet the picture grips, because we sense that the director clearly knows he is treating familiar material and forges ahead out of passion. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
The film splits the difference between the brutal reality of the cable-TV prison series "Oz" and the romanticized fantasy of "The Shawshank Redemption" and provides a vivid, well-rounded gallery of inmate portraits. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Long, grim, but utterly engrossing. Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
It is Carandiru's ability to humanize its central characters ... that gives the movie its wrenching, tragic power Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The movie is powerful, if numbing. What movie about a massacre isn't? Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It has the resonant feel of myth, buoyed by simultaneously vicious and compassionate performances from the men on both sides of the bars. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Lays on the compassion a little thick, yet its heartfelt squalor stays with you. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
The warden implores the prisoners to relinquish their weapons, and out of the cells come flying a zillion blades of all sizes. In a Mel Brooks movie, this bit would be funny. Here, it sums up the chilling situation in five seconds. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Harrowing, realistic, humanistic. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Harrowing but compassionate. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
In a prison filled with vivid, Dickensian characters, several stand out. There is, for example, the unlikely couple of Lady Di (Rodrigo Santoro), tall and muscular, and No Way (Gero Camilo), a stunted little man. They are the great loves of each other's lives. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Searing and hypnotic docudrama. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Angry and tragic, Carandiru is finally, in its own way, uplifting. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
The movie observes and dramatizes, yet seeks no overriding social moral. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Babenco does a better job with place than with people: His explosively overcrowded jail is a teeming tenement, which makes the inevitable climax feel, finally, like something real. Read full review
63
PremiereAaron Hillis
Stylistically, Carandiru is definitely less monochromatic than an "Oz" rerun. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
A sprawling prison drama that seeks, by turns, to endear itself and then traumatize its audience. Read full review
60
Film ThreatStaff (Not credited)
A large, magnificent cast brings this story vividly to life, supported by superb art direction and technical contributions. Capped by Babenco's vigorous, often ferocious direction, the film is a towering achievement, offering an unforgettable portrayal of the lives and plight of the forgotten. Read full review
60
VarietyDeborah Young
A low-structure, high-involvement Brazilian free-for-all destined to take its place among hellish prison films, Carandiru plants a fist in the viewer's stomach. Read full review
50
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Carandiru's every scene is cut from factory-issue prison-genre cloth to fit jailhouse stock characters. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This film's rhythms suggest nothing so much as a weirdly macho telenovela, full of family drama, isn't-it-ironic humor and maudlin twists of cruel fate. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Babenco's hard work is undercut by his squarely theatrical notion of realism: Specifically, how did the touring company for "West Side Story" wind up in such an awful spot? Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Director Hector Babenco's sentimental, unconvincing adaptation of Varella's book, is a soft, simplistic look at a tough, complicated subject. Read full review
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