Cuban Rafters
Seventh Art Releasing | Release Date: July 23, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleJonathan Curiel
Full of drama, poignancy and some heartbreaking moments. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A heart-rending account of people trying to dodge the hurdles that politics puts in front of them. By the end of this humanist epic, some are ennobled by their struggle. Most are exhausted. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
The creators of the magnificent Balseros stayed involved with its subject, a group of Cuban boat people who made it to the United States, for a full seven years. If you put in that kind of time, you witness life happening in front of you in all its compelling, confounding drama. What could be better than that? Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The results, for the most part, aren't pretty. The newly expanded Balseros, which adds an hour of footage to the previous film, is an even more compelling, if grimmer, work than the original. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDave Kehr
It remains a documentary at heart, full of astonishing glimpses of human resiliency that have nothing to do with artfulness and everything to do with patience, persistence and sympathy. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Brilliantly edited from well over 100 hours of tape, the final two-hour film recalls Michael Apted's 7 UP series. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Becalmed or bobbing along, they remain balseros -- but then, as this engrossing documentary suggests, so are we all. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Well-done documentary. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Poignant, spirited, revealing. Read full review
70
VarietyEddie Cockrell
Noteworthy for its detail and evenhandedness. Read full review
60
Film ThreatStaff [Not Credited]
An ambitious, smartly edited documentary epic by a pair of journalists who tenaciously followed their subjects over the course of seven years, the film is both intimate and sweeping. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
Achieves a rare depth and intimacy in its portrait of dreams fulfilled and shattered. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Balseros doesn't fully measure up to Michael Apted's work because of the dingy quality of its video-to-film transfer, as well as flaws inherent to a project that started as one type of documentary and ended up as another--namely, that the filmmakers didn't ask enough of the right questions in the first two installments to make the third fully connect. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
What's fresh for these people is, frankly, old news for anyone who has seen even one or two documentaries on similar subject matter. Read full review
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