El Bonaerense (2002) poster
2002 · drama · crime

El Bonaerense

Directed by Pablo Trapero1h 45m2002
ElsewhereIMDb6.82kRT92%Metacritic66TMDB6.838
  • sombre
  • measured
  • intense
Movie DNA

Sombre, measured, measured drama / crime, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, measured.

How every film is hand-scored →

Zapa is a locksmith in a remote and quiet little town, lost somewhere deep in the province of Buenos Aires. After getting involved in a crime, his uncle, a retired policeman, bails him out and gets him a spot to join the Provincial Police as an aspiring officer in the thick urban sprawl of Greater Buenos Aires' West Zone. Soon he will get involved in a new type of corruption.

Our read · El Bonaerense (2002) reads as a sombre, measured, grounded drama · crime entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook.

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The shape of El Bonaerense

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a gritty detached portrait of sliding into police corruption.

ends ambiguousit stays with yousteady all the waygrips by minute 15attention 4/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightYou want clear heroes, fast crime thrills or moral victories.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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