I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Excellent but underrated film

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Pablo is 12 years old and is abused by his father while his friend Alfredo and Alfredo's family watch.Film is done in a very interesting style. Not much violence is used. Pablo isn't shown doing great histrionics. Father also isn't shown a neurotic or a psychopath. It's just that their chemistry has gone wrong somewhere and they can't get along. Pablo comes across as a energetic, non-conformist boy. Relationship between all the characters are very real and full of daily conversation. Film doesn't have a single dull moment.Pablo's father steals the show here. Great acting. Acting is mostly above average and cinematography is amazing. Pablo is really very good and so is his friend. Scene where Alfredos father pull up Pablo and Alfredo in the car is very good. I kept wondering what would be the end of the film. To my expectation the ending was perfect ending. Good film. 8/10.

This must be one of the most overrated Spanish films in history. Its lack of subtlety and complexity and its total political correction make it really childish, with only good/bad characters. The world is just not like this, and good movies show complex characters with opposite impulses, dilemmas, etc. However, what I HATE most about this film is Bola's friend's father. The director tries to teach us a good lesson: tattoo artists with shaved heads are not always bad guys, in fact they can be better than the average looking dad (wow, this is like... philosophy, or something). Thank you, Achero. I'll propose you for the Nobel prize of literature.

Very simple movie, but so powerful, the type of movie you won't find in the theater near you,a little hidden treasure. Excellent cast and performances. A lesson in life growing up, of friendship, despair and hope. You do not want the movie to end, to me its a sign of something special. I see the game they are playing on the train tracks as a dare, but also a death wish, even as children they are playing a game that are similar to their way of life, comes the newcomer who has a normal upbringing and find the game stupid and refused to play it,shows the difference between the children depicted in the story, one raised by loving parents, the others living their life with no structure, no love, having to fight their own battles.

What is particulary gut-wrenching about this film is being reminded very vividly how utterly helpless our children actually are once delivered to the mercies of adults. It must remind one of Dostoevsky's great parable questioning the very foundations of faith and life on this planet: the tears of a brutalized child, how can anything be right if the innocence itself gets choked and humiliated so early on? Who knows how many millions upon millions of defencless little men and women gets brutalized physically and mentally on an endless train of abuse? And to think that this is the age where there's at least some inkling of how horridly despicable abuse patterns are. +++ *Within this framework, shore, one would find the delicate homage to Les 400 Coups (the amusement park scenes, the friendship among the city boys...) *The music score is so brilliant that is stand out on its very own.