Popular reviews

• 

  Review by laird ★★★★★ 9

  I read a 1950s horror comic last month in which a mad scientist kidnaps two starry-eyed youths who are madly in love and locks them in a cage without food or water as part of a sadistic experiment which he proposes will prove that the bonds of love will easily crumble once the two begin to starve and their primitive animal instincts take over. Luis Buñuel wasn't so sadistic, but he certainly shared this scientist's (and Freud's) view that men are driven by repressed and irrational animal forces that, given the right set of circumstances, will overpower the (sometimes arbitrary) norms, barriers and boundaries of polite society.

  Los Olvidados has the superficial appearance of a social problem melodrama--fatherless, impoverished youths…

• 

  Review by Ethan Colburn ★★★★ 6

  Buñuel slays it!

  This movie is a pretty uncomfortable watch as it’s a brutal look at poverty in 50s Mexico. It follows a gang of kids navigating a life of crime both to survive and often just generally being assholes to hopeless people. This along with the animal cruelty and the implied rape make it visceral but difficult to deny the power of. It’s spectacular in its scope and weight, reminding me most closely of City of God.

  It feels more like the Italian neo-realists than Buñuel’s other work. Buñuel tends to lean most into the surreal and aside from the dream sequence, this is firmly grounded in reality.

  It was despised by those in power at the time of…

• 

  Review by Edgar Cochran ✝️ ★★★★★ 10

  ***One of the best 150 films I have ever seen.***

  SPANISH REVIEW:

  Luis Buñuel es otro de mis directores gigantes del cine, y estoy orgulloso de presentarles la primera mejor película de su entera filmografía, la cual está considerada también como una de las mejores películas mexicanas de todos los tiempos por una versión de la revista "SOMOS" publicada en 1994, ocupando el segundo puesto justo después de ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! (1936), de Fernando de Fuentes. A pesar de que Luis Buñuel haya nacido en España, me enorgullece decir que Los Olvidados es un verdadero tesoro nacional cuyas generaciones posteriores preservarán afectuosamente con admiración y respeto. Los Olvidados se ha convertido en un ícono del cine nacional y es…

• 

  Review by Jaime Rebanal ★★★★★ 5

  I've never been more conflicted than ever on what to label such an effort but whichever category you would place it in, whether it be Mexican realism or surrealism, Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados is still one of the finest films about poverty to have ever been made. The films of Luis Buñuel were always weird in some way or another but nevertheless, they always made for extremely fascinating results and offer a scathing critique of some sort which exposes a sort of cleverness that ranks him among the greatest filmmakers of his own kind. But Luis Buñuel was truly a one of a kind filmmaker if one were to speak in that regard, whether we go from surreal comedies like…

• 

  Review by Sally Jane Black 4

  I expected this to be another Bunuel satire or something with at least a touch of humor to it, but instead, it was a brutal, sometimes bizarre story of poverty, juvenile delinquency, and general tragedy. It follows a group of kids as they cause trouble, but quickly focuses on two of them--Jaibo and Pedro. Jaibo is a burgeoning sociopath, and Pedro is just a kid who wants to be good but doesn't always succeed. Jaibo preys on Pedro, using him as an accomplice and victim.

  Pedro is unloved, lost, and impotent, and the world treats him poorly for it. His mother scorns him, Jaibo uses him, and the authorities do not listen to him. In the end, he is treated…

• 

  Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger ★★★★½ 10

  A pool of helplessness. Los Olvidados does not find virtue or nobility in poverty. It just finds pain. This is a film with no romantic notions, just ruthless characters in unfortunate circumstances. While at times Los Olvidados is reminiscent of the darkest versions of social realism, Luis Buñuel maintains his trademark surrealism. There are odd shots, unexpected imagery, and disturbed dreams. The film uses plenty of implication too, in order to discuss sex and violence within the limits of the time. The grisly deaths are not always believable but they are strongly felt in their harshness. Los Olvidados presents a world of destitute children, struggling mothers, and disabled men living in poverty. There is no logic to Los Olvidados, just…

• 

  Review by Graham ★★★½

  Luis Buñuel delivered a harsh and direct 85 minutes of Mexican gorgeousness, focusing of the wee shites of Mexico City in the 50's.

  Living in the slums and getting by through all manner of crime and misdemeanor, these young people, their parents and other characters from the area had a tough time of it in the nation's capital. On release, the Mexican big-wig's were not at all happy with it and tried to have the film banned as they did not appreciate the reflection it presented of a poor city filled with crime and poverty.

• 

  Review by Adi Cohen ★★★★

  A raw, authentic and disturbingly real portrayal of the young upbringing of Mexican juveniles in a poor Mexican village. Exactly the kind of Film I needed after watching a short Film by Wes Anderson.

• 

  Review by Stephen Gillespie ★★★ 2

  Defined by rawness and unflinching realism, this doesn’t always connect but does have real impact.
   
  Age and iteration have made the plotting feel awkward and I found it hard to always engage. There are also moments that don’t work, and a bitterness that at points seems relentless; however, the sparing touches of Bunuel’s trademark surrealism really work.

  You can feel the influence exuding off of it. You can feel its urgent message and there’s a moody authenticity to it. I feel I just prefer the films that came in its wake.

  One to rewatch in a better frame of mind, perhaps.

• 

  Review by Milo Paulus ★★★★½ 8

  Luis Buñuel's disquieting and difficult masterpiece Los Olvidados is a landmark in 50's neo-realism and an unflinching lament for the human condition lacking sentiment or sugarcoating — also one of the first and finest features about juvenile delinquents.

  "I hope they'll kill every one of them before they are born."

  This line — being uttered by an old, blind man near the end of the film — perfectly encapsulates the pure awfulness of the world these young boys live in. They live in a world of petty crime, intense poverty, judicial injustice, parental disdain, obtuse violence, loss of innocence and inner distrust. In Los Olvidados Buñuel paints a portrait of Mexico City that seems to smother the inhabitants and the…

• 

  Review by DallasFrance ★★★★½ 4

  All the bourgeoisie skewering Luis Bunuel does in the 60s and 70s came from a place of real anger, and mid-career films like Los Olividados show the empathy he felt for impoverished youth and families.

  Even when Pedro (Alfonso Mejia) wants to straighten out and gain back his mother’s trust, an older bully implicates him in a crime he didn’t commit. Even when the head of a juvenile rehabilitation “farm school” shows faith in Pedro by sending him on an errand, his life on the outside immediately interferes with going back. And even when Pedro’s mother realizes she lost faith in him too soon, she’s powerless to help him turn things around.

  Buneul’s range as a filmmaker is stunning. While there are a couple of the experimental flourishes he’s known for, Los Olividados is much closer to neo-realism than surrealism. He could truly do it all.

  
  Luis Bunuel Ranked

• 

  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★

  Luis Buñuel fever nightmare of extended cruelty and shattered youth dreams. At this point, Buñuel’s Mexican period has been recovered enough this doesn’t play quite as isolated film, bu it still benefits to be seen as part of it than his European ones. The cruelty and the sense of agnostic Catholicism are much more personal than the occasional absurdist touch.