Papi Chulo
Pacific Northwest Pictures | Release Date: June 7, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaJun 13, 2019
The buddy comedy Papi Chulo could go wrong in all sorts of ways, so it’s kind of a minor miracle how much it actually gets right. Funny, empathetic and tender, it pretty much sneaks up and catches you off-guard with its sly charms. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedJun 6, 2019
Papi Chulo eventually turns effectively…poignant. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJun 22, 2019
Ultimately, its most poignant details come from depicting a nonsexual friendship between a straight guy and a gay guy. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 5, 2019
The performances present an engaging contrast, with Bomer growing on you as you start to appreciate what’s broken in Sean, and Patiño’s deadpan shrug evolving into something more compassionate. Read full review
60
Film ThreatAlex SavelievJun 8, 2019
Matt Bomer and Alejandro Patiño, who play the two leads, have a chemistry that brings to mind Tom McCarthy’s superior studies of seemingly disparate characters bonding against all odds, The Station Agent and The Visitor. That unlikely companionship – the heart of Butler’s film – goes a long way to make up for other lags: underdeveloped secondary characters and a few misjudged sequences that unwittingly titter on the brink of “racist.” Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarJun 6, 2019
This banally titled buddy dramedy won’t solve our critical drought of empathy or advance our social justice preoccupations, but it’s a mostly enjoyable drop in the right direction. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeJun 10, 2019
An egregiously miscalculated rent-a-companion comedy from Irish writer-director John Butler (“Handsome Devil”). Read full review
40
TheWrapMonica CastilloJun 6, 2019
Well-intentioned but at times insensitive, Papi Chulo is a complicated movie. It wants so badly to do the right thing when the situation is all wrong. Read full review
40
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeJun 6, 2019
Papi Chulo tries to subvert the conceit that casts brown people as uncomplicated support systems for conflicted white people, but lacks the vision to transform these familiar stereotypes. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comNick AllenJun 7, 2019
Papi Chulo is a buddy comedy, but only by its ramshackle design — it’s a forced friendship, and it’s not cute, let alone funny. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezJun 5, 2019
A shrill and insipid spectacle of cross-cultural communion, but don’t call it stupid, as that would suggest that it doesn’t know exactly what it’s doing. Read full review
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