69
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternWall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSome films make do with stories that present an interesting surface and little more. In “The Boy From Medellín” undercurrents run constantly. Depression and anxiety provide two of them, but the most dramatic one—the source of the film’s genuine suspense—flows from politics.
- 75RogerEbert.comCarlos AguilarRogerEbert.comCarlos AguilarThrough Balvín’s plights, Heineman invites us to consider how entertainers have become commodified and disassociated from their humanity in our eyes. That’s not a cry for pity or compassion, but to investigate our expectations of them as people and not solely as distant figures.
- 70Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleEgo-stroking bio docs being a cottage industry these days, Balvin is one of the more disarmingly open figures to get this kind of treatment. But it’s also nice that The Boy From Medellín makes the most of its allotted time with a busy phenomenon to at least dabble in the ins and outs of an artist contemplating his place in the world.
- 70VarietyChris WillmanVarietyChris WillmanIf the film falls short as a possible tale of heroic enlightenment, it’s still pretty absorbing, in the in-between moments, as a study of a dude still working out the intersections between wild public success and neurotic torments. To the extent that its middle and best section is really a story of politics driving someone already prone to depression deeper into it, that’s when The Boy From Medellín feels most timely.
- 67IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichHeineman only falters in the same place that his subject often has: In knotting those disparate parts into a cohesive whole.
- 60The New York TimesBeatrice LoayzaThe New York TimesBeatrice LoayzaHeineman delivers a relatively sophisticated form of celebrity publicity in this film, armed with stunning concert footage but unoriginal insights into the burdens of modern fame, like the difficulty of balancing the expectations of fans with personal desires.
- 60The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawWhat the film shows – perhaps not entirely intentionally – is that maybe you need someone vain enough to think he is destined to make a difference, and cunning enough to see how the vanity-economy of movie celebrity can generate media attention and cash.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeThe Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeWhile offering some of the expected musical material and concert footage, the film is much more interested in the singer’s emotional health, especially as it pertains to political unrest in his native Colombia. Though these themes might open the film up to interest outside Balvin’s fan base, neither is explored with enough depth to really accomplish that; in practice, Boy is for pretty devoted fans only.