Jauja
Cinema Guild | Release Date: March 20, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
77
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekMar 17, 2015
Even beyond its charismatic star, Jauja is captivating, not least because of Alonso's ability to capture the cruel beauty of the natural landscape — you can almost see the earth itself refusing to accept European imperialism blithely. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 23, 2015
Jauja is a rapturously bizarre movie that resists knowledge. That’s its secret, intoxicating power; the less you understand, the more mesmerized you are. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 19, 2015
The rounded-off corners of the almost-square frames evoke early movies and antique photographs, and there is wit and mischief in the way Mr. Alonso plays with the relationship between what we see, what we don’t see and what we expect to see. Read full review
88
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJun 11, 2015
Alonso sustains an atmosphere of otherworldly immanence in a vivid setting, with a style involving long takes with characters posed as if in tableaux vivants. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineJake ColeSep 19, 2014
Other films of this ilk use widescreen composition to highlight a terrifying existential void, but these cramped frames tend to produce the nutty energy of cabin fever. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMar 18, 2015
Everything signals birth—of Argentina, cinema, the nuclear family—until Dinesen descends into a womb-like cave and Jauja takes a hard left turn into enigma. Even the title is a mystery, the Spanish byword for a land of plenty. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonAlex Dudok De WitApr 7, 2015
A Lynchian coda upends the entire film, raising several questions and resolving none. Fans of rigorous storytelling may find it to be one whimsical step too far, but others will marvel at this miraculous coup de théâtre. Jauja is a film to make you wonder. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid ParkinsonApr 6, 2015
Challengingly spellbinding. Read full review
80
Time OutAlex Dudok de WitMar 17, 2015
A Lynchian coda upends the entire film, raising several questions and resolving none. Fans of rigorous storytelling may find it to be one whimsical step too far, but others will marvel at this miraculous coup de théâtre. Jauja is a film to make you wonder. Read full review
80
VarietyScott FoundasSep 22, 2014
In Jauja, Alsonso saves his most dazzling trick for last: a sudden plunge down a Lynchian rabbit hole that should, by all means, rupture the film’s hypnotizing atmosphere, but instead pulls the viewer in even deeper. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoMay 21, 2015
There are more enigmas than answers in Jauja, an artsy South American Western directed by Lisandro Alonso, an Argentine filmmaker who delights in undermining movie conventions. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMar 26, 2015
Jauja makes one cryptic leap too many at the end, but until then it evocatively confounds. Read full review
70
The DissolveScott TobiasMar 19, 2015
Locking into the film’s rhythms requires patience and an abandonment of preconceptions, but it’s nonetheless Alonso’s most accessible work to date, buoyed by spare but lush photography and Viggo Mortensen’s magnetic presence in the lead role. It takes a special kind of charisma to bring viewers along on a journey to nowhere. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungSep 22, 2014
The last sequence takes the esoterism one step farther, in a beautiful ending that seems to link European wealth to those long-ago events in Latin America. Read full review
63
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeMar 18, 2015
With ravishing landscapes, violent political allegory and a glacial narrative that takes an abrupt left turn in the third act: Lisandro Alonso’s Jauja resolutely checks every 2015 art-film box. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 22, 2014
It is a demanding watch, but at the same time, Alonso's latest has a bizarre, beguiling quality which drifts towards the sublime even if it never quite gets to its destination. Read full review
58
The PlaylistJessica KiangSep 22, 2014
Perversely episodic, strangely empty, and unfolding in a series of beautifully composed but static wide shots (giving us the unusual experience of literally yearning for a close-up), the film is a test of patience. Read full review
50
HitfixGuy LodgeSep 22, 2014
Intermittently playful, consistently confounding, finally petrified, it's a film of fussy, cultivated austerity. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJordan HoffmanMar 20, 2015
There’s a line between artfully contemplative and just plain boring. This film eventually crosses it into Snoozeville. Read full review
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