Critic Reviews

Benjamin Naishtat directs with a steady hand and a strong vision. Pedro Sotero’s cinematography reveals the place and time in a respectful style that captures the period without satirizing it. This is a film that satisfies on every level and bears repeated viewings.

Writer/director Benjamin Naishtat’s subtle, twisting, state-of-the-nation drama works effectively as a noir-like thriller, and as an exploration of a country that has lost its moral compass.

Rojo is a witheringly provocative examination of temporary moral eclipse becoming permanent moral apocalypse.

Adopting a cool, oblique yet accessible approach that complements the washed-out, nicotine-stained palette, Naishtat builds a modular narrative that increasingly bristles.

Rojo is a sophisticatedly entertaining reminder of our propensity for malevolent apathy.

With each subplot reinforcing the simmering sense of unease, this compelling recreation of a pernicious period soberingly exposes the ease with which morality can become a casualty of human nature.

The film does not serve up its ideas in easily digestible bites. The audience needs to work with a dislocated string of scenes that sometimes highlight absurdity, sometimes violence and frequently say very little at all.

It’s a disquieting parable of iniquity.

The detective plot is shaggy and never fully resolves itself, but the implications of the story resonate like a distant drum.

It masterfully sustains a sense of “wrongness” that will be felt even by those unfamiliar with Argentina’s history.