Chile '76
Kino Lorber | Release Date: May 5, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarMay 19, 2023
Concise, yet affecting, Chile ‘76 assuredly occupies the post as one of the finest Latin American productions to open stateside this year. Read full review
90
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeMay 4, 2023
Chile ’76 is a sly genre exercise, an example of how political repression can squeeze a domestic melodrama until it takes the shape of a spy thriller. Read full review
90
VarietyManuel BetancourtApr 19, 2023
What begins as a muted marital melodrama slowly boils into a restrained political thriller, with an ease and skill all the more impressive in a first feature. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiAug 16, 2023
What Martelli and her co-conspirators have created with the radicalization of Carmen in Chile ‘76 – and what, incidentally, eludes so many contemporary horror films – is the palpable sense of dread. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMay 5, 2023
It’s a hell of a performance from Küppenheim as the heroine, precisely because she demonstrates how hard it is to be heroic. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpMay 5, 2023
The sensation of the film, on the other hand, is suspicion, the relentless and sickening notion that nobody can be trusted. Whether the thrumming electronic soundtrack or Rodríguez’s photography, composed to the point of feeling suffocating, Chile ’76 drives that anxiety like a knife in the heart. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithMay 4, 2023
Chile ’76 subtly illustrates how difficult it becomes to separate the personal and the political in an authoritarian state. As it goes on, it develops from a character portrait into an unusually realistic thriller, with danger asserting itself everywhere. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellMar 30, 2023
As historical noir, Martelli’s film is thrilling, but as a document of the comforts of complicity and the terror of resistance, 1976 is visceral. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMar 30, 2023
1976 is made with thrilling assurance, and the tension and Carmen’s spiritual crisis are superbly conveyed, with a nerve-jangling score by María Portugal. It’s a great example of Chilean antifascist noir. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeMar 30, 2023
Küppenheim is terrific, her precision and restraint in the role drawing us into the story. Read full review
80
Screen DailyAllan HunterMar 30, 2023
The blend of character study, Hitchcockian intrigue and an excellent central performance from Aline Kuppenheim makes for a tensely involving tale. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellMar 30, 2023
As historical noir, Martelli’s film is thrilling, but as a document of the comforts of complicity and the terror of resistance, 1976 is visceral. Read full review
80
Little White LiesMarina AshiotiMar 29, 2023
As well as boasting an all-female crew, Martelli’s film exquisitely evokes Carmen’s muted revolutionary spirit, making for an invaluable demonstration of feminine revolutionary cinema. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 13, 2023
Chile ’76 turns out to be a paranoid thriller altogether worthy of the era it captures with such cool, self-contained style. Read full review
75
Film ThreatSumner ForbesMay 15, 2023
Slow pacing and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it details abound, placing the film in the tradition of foreign arthouse films. Read full review
75
The Film StageJaime GrijalbaMay 4, 2023
Martelli has managed to create an accurate portrayal of that feeling of naiveté which permeated Chilean society in those years while simultaneously creating a highly metaphorical work. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 4, 2023
An intimate psychosocial character study that — true to the film’s title — unfolds at a national scale. This isn’t a story about one affluent woman’s gradual radicalization against authoritarianism, it’s a story about the illusion of not taking sides. Read full review
75
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMay 3, 2023
[A] portrait of one woman’s heroism and the means by which it’s motivated by guilt, regret, fury, and despair—the last of which, ultimately, proves inescapable. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMay 5, 2023
There’s subtlety, and then there’s deliberate evasion. In pursuing the former, “Chile ‘76” only achieves the latter. Read full review
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