Rotten
Had the filmmakers slathered as much mascara on their characters' eyelids as they did stoking the plot with sentiment, the cast would have spent the last third of the picture bumping into things.
Scott Marks, San Diego Reader
Overview
Jesús, a young hairdresser, works at a Havana nightclub for drag performers and dreams of being a performer himself. Encouraged by his mentor, Mama, Jesús finally gets his chance to take the stage. But when Angel, his estranged father recently released from a 15-year stint in prison, abruptly reenters his life, his world is quickly turned upside down. The macho Angel tries to squash his son’s ambition to perform in drag. Father and son clash over their opposing expectations of each other, struggling to understand one another and reconcile as a family. Shot in a gritty neighborhood far from the Havana most tourists know, Viva is a heartrending story of music, performance, and survival.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
80%
Tomatometer
Rotten
A movie that never quite comes to life, despite its title.
Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic
Fresh
Slick and raunchy when it might have been grindingly realistic, "Viva" is finally all heart.
John Hartl, Seattle Times
Fresh
The story is slightly melodramatic, but director Paddy Breathnach finds ways to make it surprisingly moving at times, in the same way that he makes the Havana slums look paradoxically beautiful.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
Fresh
The lively setting helps, but the main attration here is the familiar story, which has been around forever and yet never gets old.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
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