42
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaArizona RepublicRandy CordovaThe buddy comedy Papi Chulo could go wrong in all sorts of ways, so it’s kind of a minor miracle how much it actually gets right. Funny, empathetic and tender, it pretty much sneaks up and catches you off-guard with its sly charms.
- 63Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreThe performances present an engaging contrast, with Bomer growing on you as you start to appreciate what’s broken in Sean, and Patiño’s deadpan shrug evolving into something more compassionate.
- 60Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarLos Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarThis banally titled buddy dramedy won’t solve our critical drought of empathy or advance our social justice preoccupations, but it’s a mostly enjoyable drop in the right direction.
- 60Film ThreatAlex SavelievFilm ThreatAlex SavelievMatt Bomer and Alejandro Patiño, who play the two leads, have a chemistry that brings to mind Tom McCarthy’s superior studies of seemingly disparate characters bonding against all odds, The Station Agent and The Visitor. That unlikely companionship – the heart of Butler’s film – goes a long way to make up for other lags: underdeveloped secondary characters and a few misjudged sequences that unwittingly titter on the brink of “racist.”
- 40The New York TimesTeo BugbeeThe New York TimesTeo BugbeePapi Chulo tries to subvert the conceit that casts brown people as uncomplicated support systems for conflicted white people, but lacks the vision to transform these familiar stereotypes.
- 40TheWrapMonica CastilloTheWrapMonica CastilloWell-intentioned but at times insensitive, Papi Chulo is a complicated movie. It wants so badly to do the right thing when the situation is all wrong.
- 40VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeAn egregiously miscalculated rent-a-companion comedy from Irish writer-director John Butler (“Handsome Devil”).
- 38RogerEbert.comNick AllenRogerEbert.comNick AllenPapi Chulo is a buddy comedy, but only by its ramshackle design — it’s a forced friendship, and it’s not cute, let alone funny.
- 12Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSlant MagazineEd GonzalezA shrill and insipid spectacle of cross-cultural communion, but don’t call it stupid, as that would suggest that it doesn’t know exactly what it’s doing.