71
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 88PremiereGlenn KennyPremiereGlenn KennyAs forceful as its title suggests, and sometimes unbelievably ballsy.
- 83Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanThere's no denying its grip: It is lurid, fascinating, sickening, and eye-opening.
- 80New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinKohn’s gripping Manda Bala is the opposite of a high-school science doc. It’s a free-form portrait of a place--Brazil--with scary running motifs: kidnapping, mutilation, plastic surgery, bulletproofing, and frog farming.
- 80VarietyScott FoundasVarietyScott FoundasCrammed into a lively 85-minute package delivered with loads of dark humor and cinematic flair, this is a worthy winner of Sundance's Grand Jury prize for documentary.
- 80Village VoiceVillage VoiceWith an excess of excitable style, samba music, and heady, montage-driven metaphor that threatens to bury his film's key ideas, young-gun director Kohn--a New Yorker with South American roots--has clearly set out to make a splash. So far, he's succeeded.
- 80SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirGorgeous and terrifying.
- 80L.A. WeeklyElla TaylorL.A. WeeklyElla TaylorThere’s no denying the sharpness of his (Jason Kohn) insights into a society that hasn’t so much collapsed as reconstituted itself around venality, profiteering and rage.
- 80Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranLos Angeles TimesKenneth TuranEdgy and provocative but with a weakness for sensationalistic footage.
- 70Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWhat the film does best is document the lengths to which people are going to protect themselves -- subcutaneous microchips for identification, ever-heavier armor for fancy cars.
- 60The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenInstead of seriously investigating corruption, money laundering and the buying of politicians, Manda Bala would rather spend its time showing slimy brown frogs slithering over one another as they are dumped from one container into another.