77
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleThere might be no better time than now to mainline a story about a repressed woman pushing at restrictions in her culturally conservative world, which Nathalie Álvarez Mesén’s Clara Sola offers up with a forestful of divine energy, artistry, and mystery.
- 83IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichClara Sola is fleshed with the feeling that love and repression are braided together. It’s bound by the sense that we smother the things most precious to us in order to keep them from getting away.
- 82TheWrapSteve PondTheWrapSteve PondClara Sola mixes religion, mysticism and sexuality in a way that feels simultaneously odd, disquieting and richly rewarding. It starts out beautifully restrained and ends up somewhere else entirely, but it’s all the more interesting for its split personality.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenThe Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenSet in a rural village and cast with nonactors, led by a feral performance from dancer Wendy Chinchilla Araya, the drama occupies its own territory, tinged with magical realism and deeply immersed in the sensory world. It’s also a vivid reminder that even a matriarchy can be paternalistic.
- 80VarietyJessica KiangVarietyJessica KiangMesen’s delicate yet earthy, thoughtful yet sensual movie never tips its hand as to whether Clara’s abilities are real or imaginary — indeed it makes the line between fact and fantasy seem as nonsensical as it might to a horse — and it pays off in one of those obscurely uplifting endings.
- 80Screen DailyJonathan RomneyScreen DailyJonathan RomneyWhat gives the film a force that balances out the delicacy is a commanding, charismatic lead by Wendy Chinchilla Araya, best known as a dancer, whose highly physical presence in turn evokes Clara’s sensitivity, isolation, vulnerability, fury and – despite the pressure to keep it hidden – powerful sexuality.
- 80The New York TimesDevika GirishThe New York TimesDevika GirishAraya is remarkably tender as she sinks her fingers into the earth or gingerly lifts bugs off the ground, while Sophie Winqvist Loggins’s hushed, soft-focus camerawork imbues these moments with an almost spiritual grace.
- 78Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganPaste MagazineNatalia KeoganClara Sola remains rooted in a magical realism that gracefully grapples with the patriarchal limits imposed on women’s sexual pleasure, particularly when fellow women enforce them.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreIt makes for an engrossing character study, a Latin film with lots of local color, a hint of magical realism and an air of hopelessness tinged with menace — a unique cinematic experience.
- 75RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyRogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyThis is Mesén's debut feature film, and it's a powerful and intuitive piece of work.