Daniel Elías and Margarita Molfino in The Delinquents Photo: courtesy of Mubi
Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents is, to my mind, one of the best films of 2023, even if it does make him blush when I say so. He’s one of those people of unusual intelligence who still seems a little surprised when people notice it. The characters in the film are not quite as sharp, but are nonetheless interesting, and learn as they go along. There’s Morán (played by Daniel Eliás) who, rather than spend his whole life working, decides to rob the bank where he works, hide the money, turn himself in and spend a shorter period of time in prison; and there’s Román (Esteban Bigliardi), whom he chooses as his accomplice. It’s how things develop subsequently, however – and how the film explores the limited framework of the men’s thinking – that makes it so intriguing.
Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents is, to my mind, one of the best films of 2023, even if it does make him blush when I say so. He’s one of those people of unusual intelligence who still seems a little surprised when people notice it. The characters in the film are not quite as sharp, but are nonetheless interesting, and learn as they go along. There’s Morán (played by Daniel Eliás) who, rather than spend his whole life working, decides to rob the bank where he works, hide the money, turn himself in and spend a shorter period of time in prison; and there’s Román (Esteban Bigliardi), whom he chooses as his accomplice. It’s how things develop subsequently, however – and how the film explores the limited framework of the men’s thinking – that makes it so intriguing.
- 3/19/2024
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Our year-end coverage continues with a look at the best performances of 2023. Rather than divide categories into supporting or lead or by gender, we’ve written about our 35 favorites, period. Find our countdown below and start watching the ones you’ve missed here and here.
35. The Cast of How to Blow Up a Pipeline
The hallmark of a great ensemble is one where each player feels precisely in-tune with the tone and goal of the film, willing to shine in their moment while sharing the spotlight. Perhaps the most even-handed, harmonious example this year is with Daniel Goldhaber’s nail-biting eco-thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline. Featuring Ariela Barer (also co-writer), Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Jake Weary, and Irene Bedard, it’s a feat of perfect casting, each performance feeling lived-in and an essential piece to the heist puzzle. – Jordan R....
35. The Cast of How to Blow Up a Pipeline
The hallmark of a great ensemble is one where each player feels precisely in-tune with the tone and goal of the film, willing to shine in their moment while sharing the spotlight. Perhaps the most even-handed, harmonious example this year is with Daniel Goldhaber’s nail-biting eco-thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline. Featuring Ariela Barer (also co-writer), Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Jake Weary, and Irene Bedard, it’s a feat of perfect casting, each performance feeling lived-in and an essential piece to the heist puzzle. – Jordan R....
- 12/13/2023
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
The Delinquents is the sort of pleasurable movie that never feels rushed, masterfully carrying a viewer along a variety of detours over its three-plus hour runtime. It is languid yet never inert. It deftly moves between genres including comedy, romance, and Western. A heist picture at its core, with that comes the expected tense moments—moments that never play as out of place within the pacing of the rest of the film. It’s a remarkable achievement from Argentine filmmaker Rodrigo Moreno.
The Un Certain Regard highlight begins with the two unexpected criminals at the center of this heist: Principled, unassuming Morán (Daniel Elías) has calculated the exact sum he would earn if he worked at this regional bank until retirement, multiplying that tally by two on an old school calculator. The theft is an expedited retirement plan for Morán: he’s determined a few years in actual prison is...
The Un Certain Regard highlight begins with the two unexpected criminals at the center of this heist: Principled, unassuming Morán (Daniel Elías) has calculated the exact sum he would earn if he worked at this regional bank until retirement, multiplying that tally by two on an old school calculator. The theft is an expedited retirement plan for Morán: he’s determined a few years in actual prison is...
- 10/23/2023
- by Caleb Hammond
- The Film Stage
Heist movies tend to operate by a narrative rule of three: You show the preparation; you detail the execution, bit by painstaking bit; and you map out how the criminals and/or their crew get away with it, or don’t. The Delinquents, Argentine writer-director Rodrigo Moreno’s left-of-center contribution to the genre, dispenses with the first part entirely, and fast-forwards you right to second base. A bank manager named Morán (Daniel Elías) wakes up in the morning, gets dressed, and leisurely strolls through the streets of downtown Buenos Aires to work.
- 10/21/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Rodrigo Moreno’s heist thriller The Delinquents has many tricks up its sleeve, from outsized musical motifs to droll office comedy. Yet one of the most potent tools at Moreno’s disposal is one that was unplanned. Like the events chronicled in the film, the production spread out across over five years, a duration that created a space for the Argentine writer-director to contemplate deep existential questions as if in parallel with his characters. It’s but one pane in a full house of mirrors that creates some fascinating cinematic refractions.
Though the robbery of a Buenos Aires bank marks the inciting incident of The Delinquents, this sui generis crime caper quickly moves beyond tactical considerations and enters a philosophical realm for Morán (Daniel Elías) and Román (Esteban Bigliardi). The former of the two bank employees smuggles out enough money for both men to retire, wagering that a few years...
Though the robbery of a Buenos Aires bank marks the inciting incident of The Delinquents, this sui generis crime caper quickly moves beyond tactical considerations and enters a philosophical realm for Morán (Daniel Elías) and Román (Esteban Bigliardi). The former of the two bank employees smuggles out enough money for both men to retire, wagering that a few years...
- 10/19/2023
- by Marshall Shaffer
- Slant Magazine
Mubi to release in US, Latin America, UK, other regions.
Argentina’s selection committee has submitted Rodrigo Moreno’s Cannes Un Certain Regard entry The Delinquents (Los Delincuentes) as this season’s international feature film contender.
The Delinquents: Cannes review
Mubi acquired rights for North America, UK & Ireland, Latin America, Turkey, Italy, India, and Benelux from Magnolia International.
The Delinquents stars Argentinian actors Daniel Elías, Esteban Bigliardi and Margarita Molfino and follows a Buenos Aires bank employee who dreams up a plan to free himself and his co-worker from the humdrum routine of their working lives.
Laura Paredes, Mariana Chaud,...
Argentina’s selection committee has submitted Rodrigo Moreno’s Cannes Un Certain Regard entry The Delinquents (Los Delincuentes) as this season’s international feature film contender.
The Delinquents: Cannes review
Mubi acquired rights for North America, UK & Ireland, Latin America, Turkey, Italy, India, and Benelux from Magnolia International.
The Delinquents stars Argentinian actors Daniel Elías, Esteban Bigliardi and Margarita Molfino and follows a Buenos Aires bank employee who dreams up a plan to free himself and his co-worker from the humdrum routine of their working lives.
Laura Paredes, Mariana Chaud,...
- 10/2/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
A group of bored Argentine bank employees plan a heist and try to figure out what to do with $650,000 in the latest trailer to Rodrigo Moreno’s “The Delinquents.”
Watch the trailer embed above.
The Spanish-language film stars Argentinian actors Daniel Elías (“The Snatch Thief”), Esteban Bigliardi (“The Summit”), Margarita Molfino (“The Accused”), and features Laura Paredes, Mariana Chaud (“La Flor”), Cecilia Rainero (“Trenque Lauquen”) and Germán De Silva (“Las Acacias”).
According to the film’s official synopsis: Bank employee Morán (Eliás) schemes to steal enough money to liberate himself from corporate monotony, then confesses and serves prison time while his co-worker hides the cash. Soon under pressure by a company investigator, accomplice Román (Bigliardi) later encounters a mysterious woman who will transform him forever.
“I punch in every day,” Morán says in the trailer. “All that for what?”
“The Delinquents” was written and directed by Moreno, who was a...
Watch the trailer embed above.
The Spanish-language film stars Argentinian actors Daniel Elías (“The Snatch Thief”), Esteban Bigliardi (“The Summit”), Margarita Molfino (“The Accused”), and features Laura Paredes, Mariana Chaud (“La Flor”), Cecilia Rainero (“Trenque Lauquen”) and Germán De Silva (“Las Acacias”).
According to the film’s official synopsis: Bank employee Morán (Eliás) schemes to steal enough money to liberate himself from corporate monotony, then confesses and serves prison time while his co-worker hides the cash. Soon under pressure by a company investigator, accomplice Román (Bigliardi) later encounters a mysterious woman who will transform him forever.
“I punch in every day,” Morán says in the trailer. “All that for what?”
“The Delinquents” was written and directed by Moreno, who was a...
- 9/14/2023
- by Umberto Gonzalez
- The Wrap
"I punch in every day... All that for what?" We all wonder this every day, right...? Mubi has revealed the official US trailer for an acclaimed Argentinian film titled The Delinquents, originally Los Delincuentes in Spanish. This premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year to rave reviews, and it's set to open this fall across the world thanks to Mubi giving it a proper release. This slow burn heist film is about a couple of bankers in Argentina. Morán and Román are looking for freedom and adventure. One commits a robbery, discovering an alternative to his boring life, while the other hides money that doesn't belong to him. Their destiny as new criminals will bring them together. It's a story about how both having money and not having money can be a burden, and it's nearly impossible to escape from the shadow of money and find true freedom.
- 9/14/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Few titles from this year’s Cannes were a bigger surprise than The Delinquents, a three-hour-plus Argentinian crime comedy with existentialist leanings. Word from the festival was largely outstanding, critics finding Rodrigo Moreno’s treatment of the heist subgenre entirely fresh when such seems impossible. Ahead of its October 18 release from Mubi, a trailer has arrived.
As Rory O’Connor said in our review, “In each of those lives the film’s central question about the nature and cost of freedom is finely sketched out. The men Morán encounters in prison enjoy a freedom of time and thought that is alien to him at first; while in Córdoba, both men discover a freedom beyond the reach of their urban, consumerist lives. The money, of course, promises another kind of freedom entirely. These ideas are drip-fed over The Delinquents‘ leisurely runtime, and thanks to Moreno’s patient, wistful approach, there is no...
As Rory O’Connor said in our review, “In each of those lives the film’s central question about the nature and cost of freedom is finely sketched out. The men Morán encounters in prison enjoy a freedom of time and thought that is alien to him at first; while in Córdoba, both men discover a freedom beyond the reach of their urban, consumerist lives. The money, of course, promises another kind of freedom entirely. These ideas are drip-fed over The Delinquents‘ leisurely runtime, and thanks to Moreno’s patient, wistful approach, there is no...
- 9/14/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Ever had a horrifically boring job, one that you would do anything to get out of? Well, how about rob your own bank?
Argentinian film “The Delinquents,” written and directed by Rodrigo Moreno, plays out like a modern (and more serious) “Office Space.” The film premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section and screened at TIFF; it will next premiere stateside at the New York Film Festival.
In this surreal comedy, Buenos Aires bank employee Morán (Daniel Elías) dreams up a scheme to liberate himself from corporate monotony: he’ll steal enough money to support a modest retirement, then confess and serve prison time while his co-worker (Esteban Bigliardi) holds on to the cash. Soon under pressure by a company investigator, accomplice Román heads to a remote rural idyll to hide the funds. There, he encounters a mysterious woman (Margarita Molfino) who will transform his life forever.
Argentinian film “The Delinquents,” written and directed by Rodrigo Moreno, plays out like a modern (and more serious) “Office Space.” The film premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section and screened at TIFF; it will next premiere stateside at the New York Film Festival.
In this surreal comedy, Buenos Aires bank employee Morán (Daniel Elías) dreams up a scheme to liberate himself from corporate monotony: he’ll steal enough money to support a modest retirement, then confess and serve prison time while his co-worker (Esteban Bigliardi) holds on to the cash. Soon under pressure by a company investigator, accomplice Román heads to a remote rural idyll to hide the funds. There, he encounters a mysterious woman (Margarita Molfino) who will transform his life forever.
- 9/14/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
The best capers are endowed with a professional gambler’s spirit of self-assured play, and this inherent mischievousness is both taken to logical extremes and given a less flashy treatment in Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents. The film constantly toys with its audience, deploying genre cues only to sidestep their expected payoffs and moral resolutions. Whether one interprets the routes that it takes as relatively frivolous fun or serious arthouse theme-making hardly affects the pleasure of watching it. That distinction is just one of many that are defied in a film that treats the very notion of identity like an easily foiled con man.
The Delinquents alternatingly dares the viewer to read it as a caper flick, a moral parable, a comedy of coincidences, and an existential probe. It probably lands closest to the latter, though in fine existential fashion, it also cautions against searching for too much weighty significance in its story.
The Delinquents alternatingly dares the viewer to read it as a caper flick, a moral parable, a comedy of coincidences, and an existential probe. It probably lands closest to the latter, though in fine existential fashion, it also cautions against searching for too much weighty significance in its story.
- 9/9/2023
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
Near the halfway point of The Delinquents, a funny, existential epic from Argentina, a banker dips into an arthouse cinema. Though almost all the seats are free he can’t decide which one to choose. What’s the point of all those options, the film asks, if you’re always left wanting more? In another moment the elder statesman of a prison yard explains that the only advantage a cellmate holds over those outside is having all the time in the world to think. (What’s the point of freedom itself if you’re a slave to the algorithm?) “There wasn’t more freedom,” another man explains, reminiscing about an objectively worse era in Argentinian history, “but you could smoke anywhere.”
One of the very best films from this year’s Un Certain Regard, The Delinquents, the seventh feature from Argentine director Rodrigo Moreno, is set in motion with a delicious bit of game theory.
One of the very best films from this year’s Un Certain Regard, The Delinquents, the seventh feature from Argentine director Rodrigo Moreno, is set in motion with a delicious bit of game theory.
- 5/26/2023
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Lost in the Night (Amat Escalante).The more familiar one becomes with Cannes, the less one comes to expect anything like aesthetic coherence from it. Even if one accepts its nominal (or self-proclaimed) status as the standard-setter for international arthouse cinema, there’s still a fair amount of variation within its vast program. Which is to say that while one can lament the general calcification of festival-circuit aesthetics, the arbitrary programming decisions of Thierry Frémaux, or the often perplexing set of awards handed out each year, there are always films worth seeking out. In 1982, the French critic Serge Daney remarked that Antonioni’s Identification of a Woman and Godard’s Passion were part of cinema’s “secret factory”: that is, films which wouldn’t receive awards, but from which future directors would draw inspiration in years to come. The challenge with each edition, of course, is to discover which films those are.
- 5/25/2023
- MUBI
The Spanish-language comedy-drama screens at Cannes in Un Certain Regard.
Mubi has acquired Rodrigo Moreno’s Cannes Un Certain Regard entry The Delinquents in an all-rights deal for North America, the UK, Ireland, Latin America, Turkey, Italy, India and Benelux.
The global distributor and streaming service will release the Spanish-language comedy-drama theatrically in North America, the UK and other territories, with release plans and exclusive streaming dates expected to be announced soon. Magnolia International is representing worldwide rights to the film.
Starring Argentinian actors Daniel Elías, Esteban Bigliardi and Margarita Molfino, The Delinquents centres on a Buenos Aires bank employee...
Mubi has acquired Rodrigo Moreno’s Cannes Un Certain Regard entry The Delinquents in an all-rights deal for North America, the UK, Ireland, Latin America, Turkey, Italy, India and Benelux.
The global distributor and streaming service will release the Spanish-language comedy-drama theatrically in North America, the UK and other territories, with release plans and exclusive streaming dates expected to be announced soon. Magnolia International is representing worldwide rights to the film.
Starring Argentinian actors Daniel Elías, Esteban Bigliardi and Margarita Molfino, The Delinquents centres on a Buenos Aires bank employee...
- 5/18/2023
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
Rodrigo Moren’s “The Deliquents” has been scooped up by Mubi out of the Cannes Film Festival. The distributor has acquired the rights to the film in North America, UK, Ireland, Latin America, Turkey, Italy, India, and Benelux and has plans for both a theatrical and streaming plan in the coming months.
According to the film’s official synopsis: Morán (Daniel Eliás) is a bank employee in Buenos Aires who dreams up a risky plan to liberate himself and his co-worker Román (Esteban Bigliardi) from the shackles of working life: Morán will steal enough cash from the bank to fund their retirement if Román hides the money for him after he confesses and serves prison time; in three years’ time, they’ll reunite, split the cash, and never have to work again.
Departing to the countryside to fulfill his side of the deal, the less adventurous Román finds himself transformed...
According to the film’s official synopsis: Morán (Daniel Eliás) is a bank employee in Buenos Aires who dreams up a risky plan to liberate himself and his co-worker Román (Esteban Bigliardi) from the shackles of working life: Morán will steal enough cash from the bank to fund their retirement if Román hides the money for him after he confesses and serves prison time; in three years’ time, they’ll reunite, split the cash, and never have to work again.
Departing to the countryside to fulfill his side of the deal, the less adventurous Román finds himself transformed...
- 5/18/2023
- by Kristen Lopez
- The Wrap
Exclusive: Here at the Cannes Film Festival, Mubi has taken rights in North America, UK, Italy, Latin America, Turkey, India and Benelux to Un Certain Regard movie The Delinquents (Los Delincuentes).
Mubi will theatrically release the Spanish-language comedy-drama in North America, UK, Latin America, and some of their other markets.
The deal was negotiated between Mubi and Magnolia International who represents worldwide rights to the film.
Rodrigo Moreno’s feature stars Argentinian actors Daniel Elías (The Snatch Thief), Esteban Bigliardi (The Summit), Margarita Molfino (The Accused), Laura Paredes, Mariana Chaud (La Flor), Cecilia Rainero (Trenque Lauquen), and Germán De Silva (Las Acacias).
Pic follows Morán and Román, who are both looking for freedom and adventure. One commits a robbery, discovering an alternative to his boring life, while the other hides money that doesn’t belong to him. Their destiny as new criminals will bring them together.
Pic is produced...
Mubi will theatrically release the Spanish-language comedy-drama in North America, UK, Latin America, and some of their other markets.
The deal was negotiated between Mubi and Magnolia International who represents worldwide rights to the film.
Rodrigo Moreno’s feature stars Argentinian actors Daniel Elías (The Snatch Thief), Esteban Bigliardi (The Summit), Margarita Molfino (The Accused), Laura Paredes, Mariana Chaud (La Flor), Cecilia Rainero (Trenque Lauquen), and Germán De Silva (Las Acacias).
Pic follows Morán and Román, who are both looking for freedom and adventure. One commits a robbery, discovering an alternative to his boring life, while the other hides money that doesn’t belong to him. Their destiny as new criminals will bring them together.
Pic is produced...
- 5/18/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Arguably the first slow cinema heist movie, Rodrigo Moreno’s dreamy and discursive “The Delinquents” might kick off with one of the most low-key bank robberies anyone has ever attempted, but it’s hard to overstate how thrilling it feels once the thief finally tells us about what he stole.
Morán (Daniel Eliás) is a middle-aged employee at a musty Buenos Aires bank that seems to have gotten stuck in the 1970s — a fitting touch for a workplace that functions as a repository for lost time. People start there when they’re young, only to wake up in the same place some 55 years later and realize that the job they performed to help pay for their life has actually become their life somewhere along the way. When the sun rises on Morán’s apartment in the morning, his colorless uniform is already laid out on the chair next to his...
Morán (Daniel Eliás) is a middle-aged employee at a musty Buenos Aires bank that seems to have gotten stuck in the 1970s — a fitting touch for a workplace that functions as a repository for lost time. People start there when they’re young, only to wake up in the same place some 55 years later and realize that the job they performed to help pay for their life has actually become their life somewhere along the way. When the sun rises on Morán’s apartment in the morning, his colorless uniform is already laid out on the chair next to his...
- 5/18/2023
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
If Pedro Almodóvar and Eric Rohmer teamed up to compose a meanderingly long crime caper it might look like this
Very few films make you ask “what just happened?” at the end – and also in fact “what is happening right now?” at various points during the running time. But this is what I said, out loud, in the course of this deeply strange, utterly distinctive, beguiling and fantastical shaggy-dog story about a bank robbery in Buenos Aires, from Argentinian director Rodrigo Moreno. If Pedro Almodóvar and Eric Rohmer teamed up to compose a meanderingly long heist movie it might look like this, but something in the film’s waywardness makes it very difficult to fit into the heist genre – or any genre.
The scene is a bank in the city, where Moran (Daniel Elías) has been joylessly working for years as a cashier; his long service and palpable dullness mean...
Very few films make you ask “what just happened?” at the end – and also in fact “what is happening right now?” at various points during the running time. But this is what I said, out loud, in the course of this deeply strange, utterly distinctive, beguiling and fantastical shaggy-dog story about a bank robbery in Buenos Aires, from Argentinian director Rodrigo Moreno. If Pedro Almodóvar and Eric Rohmer teamed up to compose a meanderingly long heist movie it might look like this, but something in the film’s waywardness makes it very difficult to fit into the heist genre – or any genre.
The scene is a bank in the city, where Moran (Daniel Elías) has been joylessly working for years as a cashier; his long service and palpable dullness mean...
- 5/18/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Magnolia Pictures International has acquired worldwide sales rights — including U.S. sales rights — to heist comedy-drama “The Delinquents” from Argentinian writer-director Rodrigo Moreno (“The Custodian”). The film will world premiere as part of the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival.
In “The Delinquents,” the routine lives of two bank employees, Morán and Román, break down when Morán steals a small fortune from the bank’s vault. On the run, he glimpses a possible alternative to the gray life he’s been living and, in addition, falls in love. But he is forced to choose between this radical alternative and following through on his heist plans, so he resigns himself to a short prison stint. His colleague Román, unwillingly in possession of the stolen money, feels trapped by the secret he’s keeping; his paranoia increases until he too finds a way out, and also discovers a new love.
In “The Delinquents,” the routine lives of two bank employees, Morán and Román, break down when Morán steals a small fortune from the bank’s vault. On the run, he glimpses a possible alternative to the gray life he’s been living and, in addition, falls in love. But he is forced to choose between this radical alternative and following through on his heist plans, so he resigns himself to a short prison stint. His colleague Román, unwillingly in possession of the stolen money, feels trapped by the secret he’s keeping; his paranoia increases until he too finds a way out, and also discovers a new love.
- 4/24/2023
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
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