Flies: reviews

What the critics say average 7.7 from 40 outlets

• 9.0 El UniversalAlejandro Alemán Eimbcke is still an exceptional director and this may well be the best Mexican film of the year. Read
• 8.5 The Hollywood ReporterDavid Rooney There’s too much depth of feeling for Moscas ever to feel contrived or cute. Read
• 8.5 Sight and SoundNicolas Rapold Eimbcke delivers a humbly poignant film that affirms his lineage with the great children’s auteurs like Lamorisse and Truffaut. Read
• 8.5 Rolling Stone en EspañolAndré Didyme-Dome 'Moscas' is modest only in appearance. Its ambition lies not in the scale but in the precision. Read
• 8.5 La JornadaRafael Aviña Contrary to what you might expect of 'Moscas', there is not the slightest trace of sentimentality; instead a bittersweet humour runs through a story where the everyday turns into solidarity and empathy and pain is carried with dignity and realism. Read
• 8.5 CorrecámaraMiguel Ravelo Showing only a few days in the life of its three characters, Eimbcke manages to create three whole worlds inside the great universe that is the Multifamiliar Miguel Alemán and its residents. Read
• 8.3 IndiewireRyan Lattanzio As end-of-innocence tales of youth go, “Flies” is refreshingly unsentimental. Read
• 8.0 The Film VerdictDeborah Young It is also a film of few words and many resonating images. Read
• 8.0 ScreenAnarchyDaniel Eagan Her transformation from depressed to buoyant is perhaps the most delightful surprise in Moscas, a simple, sincere, winning film that deserves wider exposure. Read
• 8.0 El MundoLuis Martínez A delicate, precise fable about the discovery of pain.
• 8.0 El PeriódicoQuim Casas It is a film of mutual discovery, of a fascinating simplicity in the telling. Read
• 8.0 La VanguardiaPhilipp Engel A great humanist film, as funny as it is endearing, and not without a political charge.
• 8.0 Otros CinesVioleta Kovacsics The filmmaker takes a fundamental and, as things stand, almost countercultural decision: to travel the road of respect and offer his characters the possibility of laughter and of humanism. Read
• 8.0 La Voz del InteriorRoger Koza You can see here the sensitive intelligence of a filmmaker able to join a knowledge of childhood thought out from an adult's point of view with a memory of childhood that still lives on inside the adult.
• 8.0 EscribiendoCineLaura N Vitali Small and loving, 'Moscas' grows large in the way it paints its characters and in the current of growing empathy and affection that builds between them. Read
• 8.0 La NaciónAlejandro Lingenti Eimbcke avoids caricature, underlining and cliché, and goes for a subtler unfolding of events, far from the solemn temper of epic redemptions. Read
• 8.0 Página/12Ezequiel Boetti The story keeps the freshness and the innocence of a child's gaze, even when everything around him seems to be falling apart. Read
• 8.0 El Sol de MéxicoGerardo Gil A story of solidarity imposed by fate, which takes you by surprise on a human, narrative level.
• 8.0 Letras LibresFernanda Solórzano Like other Eimbcke films, particularly 'Temporada de patos', his 2004 debut, 'Moscas' deals with pain and loss. Read
• 8.0 NoticineSantiago Echeverría Olga's arc is perhaps the finest thing in the film. Read
• 8.0 MusicZineCelso Hoyo Arce 'Moscas' confirms him once again as an expert in minimalism on screen, in small, cracked humour, in grudging spontaneity. Read
• 8.0 La EstatuillaRicardo Gallegos It is not a new idea in cinema, but it is one that, as Fernando Eimbcke shows in 'Moscas', can be moulded to touch hearts, raise laughs and explore the world through the eyes of children. Read
• 7.5 VarietyGuy Lodge If “Flies” is familiar in many senses, it’s too warmly and honestly felt to feel formulaic, and while its young lead Bastian Escobar is winsome as can be, the film is colored by a deeper melancholy that staves off cutesiness. Read
• 7.5 Screen DailyJonathan Romney Overall, the stylistic execution makes for a combination of austerity, warmth and dogged taciturnity that’s not unlike Olga herself. Read
• 7.5 Dennis Schwartz Movie ReviewsDennis Schwartz In its quiet way, the keenly observant and well-acted film reminds us we all need some love. Read
• 7.5 MicropsiaDiego Lerer There is a certain dryness to the humour which, along with the absence of incidental music, keeps 'Moscas' from ever turning sugary or syrupy. Read
• 7.5 La JornadaLeonardo García Tsao What is worth praising is how it sustains the interest of its story, leaning on humour that does not rule out dramatic moments. Read
• 7.5 CinemagaviaDiego Gil 'Moscas' is a full, well rounded account of the unexpected bonds that life hands out. Read
• 7.5 Cine y LiteraturaCamila Gordillo Varas Fernando Eimbcke understands that company can open a crack in loneliness, even if it never quite erases it. Read
• 7.5 M de MilenioRené Villaseñor Without grandstanding, the film understands that growing up and growing old are processes that happen at the same time, face to face. Read
• 7.0 IONCINEMA.comNicholas Bell There’s always the danger of precocious children to appear as twee, especially when they’re central narrative figures, but newcomer Bastian Escobar is quite exceptionally naturalistic Read
• 7.0 The Reviews HubRichard Maguire Young actor Bastian Escobar may just be the find of this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Read
• 7.0 El PaísJavier Ocaña True, the story is skeletal, but the charm of the piece and Eimbcke's staging hold the whole thing together, even if at times it can feel like a short film stretched out. Read
• 7.0 ClarinPablo O. Scholz The director of 'Temporada de patos' and 'Club Sándwich' builds in 'Moscas' a story that, in other hands, would have been hackneyed and even cloying. Read
• 7.0 Cine malditoCristina Ejarque The drama floats around the characters, but it is never obvious or underlined; it is part of the present, a second plane that keeps you alert. Read
• 7.0 Decine21 The relationship between father and son is beautiful, right up to the moment they are temporarily separated. Read
• 6.7 AwardsWatchMia Pflüger A film that works with quiet precision, but never quite finds the courage to let its own unrest fully erupt. Read
• 6.0 The UpcomingSelina Sondermann If the festival gave out an award for Best Opening Scene, Moscas would be the clear winner. Read
• 6.0 ABCOti Rodríguez Marchante A drama without excess, a comedy without laughs and a hard story its director makes no attempt to soften, yet which fires off tenderness.
• 5.5 In Review OnlineMichael Sicinski However, Flies overall feels a bit like an aesthetic step back from the director’s previous film Olmo. Read