We had to watch this in Spanish class back in the day. Overall it's alright, but it has a silly, cartoonish, and inaccurate morale. The main positives were learning the word "chingada", and the hope that anyone who lived in Mexico would think twice about illegally crossing the border after viewing it.

Depressing but not engaging or illuminating

The multitude of styles is both the film's greatest strength and its main weakness. The heavy realism combined with bits of surrealism allow it to show both actions and emotions genuinely while avoiding melodrama and the short scenes help the pace feel quick despite the length as whole. The acting isn't great but the emotions feel so honest that they overcome the occasionally mediocre delivery. It made a bold choice with the ending that worked, but for some reason didn't hit me like it could've.

Nava, an American, starts from a standpoint well on the outside of the people and their culture, and makes little headway toward narrowing the gap. This can have certain advantages, as in the amount of anthropological, or just touristic, documentation done by Nava. But two hours and twenty minutes is time enough to have made the two siblings into something more than stick figures

The two lead actors project such sweetness and innocence and sibling love that it is truly heartbreaking to watch their spirits gradually get crushed. This is a bitter and moving look at the empty promise of the "American dream." It's not especially subtle or sophisticated, and maybe somewhat manipulative, but it always touches me. The music is also wonderful (except perhaps for the over-reliance on Barber's "Adagio for Strings").

"In El Norte's defense, it does not, unlike those contemporary films, filter its view of an ethnic subculture through the eyes of a white protagonist." - Matt Noller

Had some low-budget trappings but in the end it's a very moving film with an unusual and fascinating perspective.

"...a deeply moving film that is simultaneously entrancing, horrifying, sad, and profoundly humane."

Politically interesting without being polemical, and deeply moving.