Nine Queens
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 19, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
If you want a brain puzzler that will ensure a lively conversation on the way home, Nine Queens is the real deal.
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A con within a con within a con. There comes a time when we think we've gotten to the bottom, and then the floor gets pulled out again and we fall another level. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Two suggestions as you watch it: Never take anything for granted, and keep your hand on your wallet as you leave the theater. Read full review
80
SalonJeff Stark
If the movie isn't true, it's at least true to itself. When Nine Queens spirals out of the realm of believability, we've already been won over enough that we don't care. Read full review
90
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A seductively structured and superbly acted suspenser that breathtakingly piles swindle upon scam without giving away the game until the very end. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Clever, compelling, funny and unpredictable, and it has a lollapa-looza of an ending.
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
This cleverly structured Argentine heist movie isn't as original or ingenious as it tries to be, but it's fun watching the chicanery veer down one unexpected pathway after another. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Fast-paced and unerringly surprising. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeJonathan Perry
Elaborately layered movie about schemes and more schemes that pile up faster than chips on a blackjack table. The other half is realizing, about halfway through the film, that you won't figure it out until it's over. Read full review
80
New Times (L.A.)Robert Wilonsky
Here it is -- another double cross for which you will, and should, hand over your few grubby bucks. Read full review
90
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Wickedly clever drama. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Bielinsky's debut is a fine con picture, but at its best, it achieves even more, presenting the profession as a lifestyle with almost existential ramifications. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyPaul Malcolm
Writer-director Fabián Bielinsky's devilish Nine Queens serves as further evidence that Argentina's film industry is at the forefront of a resurgent Latin American cinema. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
When you think you've figured out Bielinsky's great game, that's when you're in the most trouble: He's the con, and you're just the mark. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
It would be a crime in itself to reveal the surprises of Nine Queens, which provides two solid hours of corking entertainment. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Bielinsky's movie builds like a poker game in which the players, having invested everything, cannot afford to fold. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Often more ingenious in appearance than fact. The hunter-gets-captured-by-the-game scenario is predictable and the sequence of shell games does not, when reconsidered, actually add up. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Has a customarily jovial air but a deficit of flim-flam inventiveness. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It may not keep you guessing to the end, but there are enough surprises and wry revelations, right down to the last play, to make this a most satisfying cinematic confidence game. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
An accomplished and enjoyable Spanish-language debut feature by Fabían Bielinsky.
90
The New York TimesStephen Holden
The kind of movie that seduces you into becoming putty in its manipulative card-sharking hands and making you enjoy being taken in by its shameless contrivance. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Has more twists than the Pacific Coast Highway and more layers than a stack of silver-dollar pancakes. If you can wrap your mind around one unlikely condition, the picture provides unalloyed pleasure for connoisseurs of cinematic con artists. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Leaves you feeling tense and terrific. It's fun to be fooled. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie may be Nine Queens, but it slakes your thirst for surprises and thrills because of its Nine Jokers.
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
If Nine Queens were a great film, instead of just a very good one, this rottenness would be so pervasive that it would burst the bounds of the plot; it would make us shudder. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
As tricky and satisfying as any of David Mamet's airless cinematic shell games. Mamet's films are all plot and no atmosphere; this one has a squalid, urban-greed-meets-the-gutter mood that lends its filigreed cleverness an unusually resonant kick. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Deliciously funny and fiendishly clever con-man comedy that begins on a note of ingenuity that it then sustains with the tension of a high-wire act. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderRonnie Scheib
The actors are charismatic, particularly Ricardo Darin. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Bielinsky's feature debut is a smart, enormously entertaining thriller whose preposterous conclusion in no way diminishes the fun of getting there. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
But for all the duplicitous minds playing games with each other on the screen, Nine Queens' best con artist turns out to be Bielinsky himself -- and his target is the audience. Read full review
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