Buena Vista Social Club

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Buena Vista Social Club

G

Released Jun 4, 1999

1h 41m

Documentary

Music

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Popcornmeter

92%

Tomatometer

48 Reviews

90%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

This documentary by lauded German filmmaker Wim Wenders follows renowned guitarist Ry Cooder and his son, Joachim, as they travel to Cuba and assemble a group of the country's finest musicians to record an album. Among the artists included in the project are singer Ibrahim Ferrer and pianist Rubén González, who are both interviewed and featured in studio footage. Eventually the ensemble travels to the United States to perform in front of rapt audiences.

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Critics Consensus

A hopeful gesture of cultural outreach set to an irresistible soundtrack, Buena Vista Social Club is an enriching and zesty experience.

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Ed Gonzalez

Slant Magazine

Wenders is clearly an outsider-looking-in.

Rated: 2.5/4

Aug 19, 2001

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

The movie reminded me of a concert where somebody behind me is talking and moving around all the time. Let them play.

Rated: 2/4

Jan 1, 2000

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Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

An impressionistic glance at Cuba's vibrant cultural heritage, Wim Wenders' Buena Vista Social Club is an often times intriguing portrait of notable musicians and their craft.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 12, 2020

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Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

It is nearly impossible to watch this documentary without being moved.

Rated: 3.5/4.0

Sep 4, 2020

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Landon Palmer

Nonfics (Substack)

Buena Vista Social Club resonates almost like a diplomatic effort that helped set the stage for a post-revolutionary relationship to Cuba, a rare meeting between neighbors after decades of distance.

May 9, 2017

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James Kendrick

Q Network Film Desk

Wenders packs in an impressive amount of experience and, most importantly, secured the place of these amazing musicians in the larger scope of history

Rated: 3/4

Apr 25, 2017

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Irene Z

unfortunately I missed tonight's show! for some reason I missed the date - I first saw the ad that said "Tuesday August 24" which was perfect for us. I never even looked at the date after that! I feel horrible that We missed it. I have their CD from long ago - before we visited Cuba1 Can I get a refund for my 2 tickets

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/23/23

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Vince C

Ebert isn't wrong - and for me it was a curate's egg when I saw it in 2000, but I bought the DVD then anyway because the Cubans and their surroundings and their music are beautiful. I watched the DVD for the first time now (26/8/25). I always remembered Ry Cooder as resembling Jabba the Hutt in a Hawaiian shirt drowning out every single piece of music with his overloud, badly improvised slide guitar, which, however, I recall, is low down in the CD mix. Strange how jaundiced one's memory can be! It's not really quite that bad.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

09/10/25

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Dominik M

This movie made me appreciate musik like never before

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/31/25

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Mason M

The music is phenomenal, and the story is great, but this film is too badly made for me to really enjoy it. It takes way to long introducing characters and only gets into the plot in the last 20 minutes. It's just very bad at telling a good story.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

09/15/24

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Dave S

In the Wim Wenders documentary Buena Vista Social Club, American guitar virtuoso Ry Cooder travels to Havana with the intent of gathering Cuba’s most renowned musicians, most of them elderly and many of them forgotten, to create an album to showcase the country’s rich cultural heritage. Interspersed with live concert footage from Amsterdam and New York, the musicians briefly tell their life stories, most of which are remarkably inspiring, emphasizing the fact that they play for the love of their art, not for fame or fortune. Granted, those who don’t enjoy Cuban music may find the concert footage tedious at times, but the interviews and the glimpses into Cuban culture are consistently compelling.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/21/24

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Harrison R

Haven't seen it in 20 years but it was good and the music is great

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/22/23

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Wim Wenders

Director

Luis Barzaga

Self

Joachim Cooder

Self

Ry Cooder

Self

Julio Alberto Fernández

Self

Ibrahim Ferrer

Self

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Synopsis

This documentary by lauded German filmmaker Wim Wenders follows renowned guitarist Ry Cooder and his son, Joachim, as they travel to Cuba and assemble a group of the country's finest musicians to record an album. Among the artists included in the project are singer Ibrahim Ferrer and pianist Rubén González, who are both interviewed and featured in studio footage. Eventually the ensemble travels to the United States to perform in front of rapt audiences.

Director: Wim Wenders
Producer: Ulrich Felsberg, Deepak Nayar
Screenwriter: Wim Wenders
Distributor: Artisan Entertainment
Production Co: Kintop Pictures, Road Movies Filmproduktion [de]
Rating: G
Genre: Documentary, Music
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 4, 1999, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 18, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $7.0M
Runtime: 1h 41m
Sound Mix: Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Surround

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