60
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe film deliberately works against most cinematic expectations.
- 80VarietyDeborah YoungVarietyDeborah YoungBoth intensely exciting for its cinematic inventions and terribly uninvolving on emotional and dramatic levels.
- 80Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonPromiscuously inhabiting several planes at once, Reygadas's restless inquisition may already be this year's movie to beat.
- 80Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasReygadas asks audiences to plunge headlong into his chaotic vision of the world, no questions asked but complete trust required. Not everyone is going to be willing or able to take this leap of faith, but those who do go along with Reygadas may well feel they have come away having undergone a stunning revelatory experience.
- 75TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxSimultaneously shocking and deeply religious, Carlos Reygadas' follow-up to his acclaimed 2002 debut, "Japon," tells the story of one man's battle for spiritual redemption through a series of explicit images rarely seen by even the most jaded art-house audiences.
- 70The New York TimesManohla DargisThe New York TimesManohla DargisWorking again with Diego Martínez Vignatti, the cinematographer for "Japón," the director doesn't just seize our attention; he commands it - forcing us into a world of terror and beauty.
- 67The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayBattle In Heaven is like a serious of artful photographs, except that Reygadas also moves the camera in astonishing and unusual ways, swooping around the conventional x- and y-axes while teasing the audience with what he's about to show. He's got an astonishing technique. Here's hoping that someday he'll use it to make a movie.
- 50Film ThreatFilm ThreatThere is an interesting set-up here for something great but Battle In Heaven never lives up to the expectations.
- 40L.A. WeeklyL.A. WeeklyBattle in Heaven cannot be so easily dismissed - indeed, it is that rare failed film that leaves you as eager to see what its maker will do next as you were when you walked in the door.
- 33Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumA notorious opinion divider last year at Cannes, Battle in Heaven is less about heaven or battle, or hell on earth, or the soul of Mexico, and all too much about gawking. And so, for all the ''shock'' of the movie's clinical carnality, this battle is lost.