Critic Reviews
81
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
positive
17(89%)
mixed
2(11%)
negative
0(0%)
Showing 19 Critic Reviews
100
Infectious, intoxicating joy is the emotion conveyed in every frame of this ravishing, exuberant documentary.
100
A poetry of love, longing and affirmation bleeds through the music of Cuba, and some of the best sounds the island ever created are captured with embracing humanity.
90
Being able to hear this kind of playing is a special moment in time, one we don't want to end and one that we're privileged to experience.
90
I've never seen another movie that so clearly expresses the sensual sustenance that great folk culture provides its practitioners.
90
The concert scenes find the stage awash in such intense joy, camaraderie and nationalist pride that you become convinced that making music is a key to longevity and spiritual well-being.
90
The movie comes closer to pure happiness than anything else in the theatres at the moment, and it has an intriguing and moving subtext: the Cubans' buried but irrepressible love of things American.
88
A 140-minute film masterpiece.
80
Wenders lets the music and the sprightly people who make it speak for themselves, although the director's ongoing fascination with the urban environment is in top form as the camera serenely cruises the streets of Havana, often at a velvety dusk.
80
The film is short on biographical details and the history of the music, and long on impressions of the musicians' character and motivations.
80
Feels like a timeless blast from the past.
