The New Yorker slams Los Javis' 'La bola negra': 'Not a monument, a failure'
The US magazine's review calls directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi pretentious, even as the film keeps winning over critics and audiences.
Not everyone is clapping. The New Yorker has published a harsh review of La bola negra, the film by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, better known as Los Javis.
The magazine's verdict is blunt: "It's not a monument; it's a failure." The review calls the two directors "pretentious" and says their stories suffer from "insubstantiality". It also describes their storytelling as "repetitive trauma".
The verdict stands out because of how the film has been received so far. In the United States, critics and audiences have largely welcomed it. In Spain, it has become one of the biggest box-office phenomena of 2026.
So the film now has a very public dissenting voice, from one of the most influential magazines in the US. Whether the review changes how American audiences see it is another question. For now, La bola negra keeps collecting attention well beyond Spain's borders.
