Movie Review

Sin Nombre (2009)

EW's GRADE
B-

Details Limited Release: Mar 20, 2009; Rated: R; Length: 96 Minutes; Genre: Thriller; With: Karl Braun and Kristian Ferrer

Blue Bayou: Paulina Gaitan
 plays an immigrant traveling to America in Sin Nombre | Sin Nombre
Image credit: Eniac Martinez
Blue Bayou: Paulina Gaitan
 plays an immigrant traveling to America in Sin Nombre

This Sundance prizewinner is a journalistic saga of immigration directed with a thriller's physicality by Cary Joji Fukunaga. Casper 
(Flores) has long been a member of the Mara, a cutthroat cult of Mexican youths who wear so many scary tattoos, they're like the Maori of the barrio. He ends up on the run, joining a group of immigrants who are traveling, literally, atop a train while seeking passage into the U.S. They include Sayra 
(Gaitan), a Honduran teenager who's the film's clear-eyed, one-note heroine. Whenever Sin Nombre turns violent, it seizes you with its convulsive skill, but the film's images 
 vastly outstrip its imagination. B–

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Originally posted Mar 18, 2009 Published in issue #1040 Mar 27, 2009 Order article reprints

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