David Lamble Bay Area Reporter Jun 2, 2020

Rodrigo Pla uses a staple of tabloid news, a brutal home-invasion robbery by a band of feckless teens, to concoct a gripping moral thriller that pits the fearful residents of a wealthy gated community against an armed slum kid.

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Enrique Buchichio Uruguay Total Aug 25, 2009 3/5

Un excelente thriller dramtico, narrado con precisin y buen elenco, que es sobre todo una inquietante reflexin sobre uno de los temas ms candentes y polmicos de nuestro tiempo.

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Dave Calhoun Time Out Oct 17, 2008 4/6

This slick, serious-minded tale of upper-crust vigilantes protecting their gated community at any cost is a nihilistic but thoughtful portrait of a country divided .

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Jamie Russell Film4 Oct 17, 2008 3.5/5

Latin American middle-class panic needs no translation in this strong thriller about the worries of the wealthy. Fans of JG Ballard's novels will relish it.

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James Christopher The Times (UK) Oct 17, 2008 3/5

The viral atmosphere of intimidation is alarming, and thick with resonant premonitions of a legion of dystopian urban tomorrows.

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Peter Bradshaw Guardian Oct 17, 2008 4/5

A smart movie, dramatically lean and mean, exciting and often shocking.

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Rob Daniel Sky Cinema Oct 17, 2008 4/5

Dark, compelling, and with the courage of its hard-nosed convictions, La Zona starts off gripping and squeezes like a vice come the disturbing conclusion.

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Chris Hicks Total Film Oct 17, 2008 4/5

Director Rodrigo Pl pulls off a biting critique of middle-classes living in smug seclusion, but doesn't compromise on tension as the suburbanites' morals spiral out of control.

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Nigel Andrews Financial Times Oct 17, 2008

A Mexican thriller-with- a-message, brings the message and forgets the thrills.

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Anthony Quinn Independent (UK) Oct 17, 2008 4/5

The screenwriter, Laura Santullo, is slightly heavy-handed at times, but she expertly captures the mood of paranoia and self-righteousness gripping this middle-class enclave.

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Derek Malcolm London Evening Standard Oct 17, 2008 3/5

This is a well-made realist study of what happens when society is divided between rich and poor. But it is also so schematic that some of its power drains away.

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Matthew Turner ViewLondon Oct 17, 2008 4/5

Gripping thriller with strong performances and a script that is both chilling and scarily prescient.

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Pablo Villaça Cinema em Cena May 1, 2008 2/5

Sacrifica o que poderia se tornar um forte comentrio poltico em funo da absoluta falta de sutileza com que desenvolve a narrativa.

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Bilge Ebiri New York Magazine/Vulture Mar 24, 2008

Some may sniff at director Rodrigo Pl's deliberately exaggerated style, but it makes no pretensions to authenticity. Indeed, it's just audacious enough to work -- like Crash reimagined by Rod Serling.

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Mary Ann Brussat Spirituality & Practice Mar 22, 2008 5/5

An explosive Mexican drama depicting how the poor are being given the shaft in a class war that is raging around the world as the privilges of the rich and the powerful are protected.

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Ed Gonzalez Slant Magazine Mar 13, 2008 2/4

If the insult of La Zona is not as significant as Paul Haggis's Crash, that's because director Rodrigo Pl doesn't trivialize a society's racial dynamics, only its class relations.

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David Nusair Reel Film Reviews Oct 16, 2007 1.5/4

...a slow-moving drama...

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Kirk Honeycutt The Hollywood Reporter Sep 18, 2007

Signals another promising discovery in a film industry that is definitely coming into its own golden age.

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Jay Weissberg Variety Sep 5, 2007

An impressive feature debut that sweeps the viewer into the horrors of vigilante justice

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