Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

l_rawjalaurence Based on the presidential referendum of 1988, called by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a way of validating his 15-year regime, NO focuses on the campaign waged by those implacably opposed to his authoritarian rule. A motley crew of idealists, Marxists, revolutionaries, those who suffered at the hands of police repression, they engage René (Gael Garcia Bernal), a hotshot advertising executive, to run their campaign. Director Pablo Larrain highlights the contrast of values between them: the political supporters believe in the message, René in the medium. Eventually they come up with a campaign based on the idea of happiness with the symbol of a rainbow. What renders this film more complex is that René's boss Lucho (Alfredo Castro) is engaged on a consultancy basis by the rival "Yes" campaign: employee and employer are set against one another. The film shows the power of propaganda; how Chile in the mid-Eighties managed to combine capitalist enterprise with repressive dictatorship to promote a favorable view of the world, which was very difficult to dislodge, given the power of the security services. Combining documentary film footage and reconstructed action, shot in a deliberately fuzzy style, appropriate to mid-Eighties archive footage, the film offers an astute reflection on the power of politics and the role of capitalism within it. The ending is both happy yet profoundly negative - while the No campaign emerges triumphant, this does not mean that the Chilean world necessarily changed.

pruthvishrathod Based on Chilean political history, NO is about a political campaign which completely changed the country. I had no knowledge of the history which is in the background of the film. But that is really not required. The film is not actually about how new government was formed in Chile or on the protests but it emphasizes on a TV campaign.The whole idea is really fascinating. Featuring a country in a crucial situation and a hopeless election campaign. One could not imagine the role of TV advertisement could be so important. I was really amazed to see how such a radical political campaign can be handled so neatly. The treatment is brilliant. It nicely develops tension and fearful environment. It deals with some serious issue of Chile during that time but never looses its main track.The film tops on editing department. And acting is just flawless by everyone. I firmly believe that Gael Garcia Bernal is one of the best international actor at present. He's proving that with each and every film. He beautifully plays the role of an Ad Executive - a common man and a worried father with a voice to say.In a nutshell, NO has a precious concept handled by flawless treatment and what we have is a ironical political drama. Highly Recommended.

SnoopyStyle Military dictator Augusto Pinochet calls a referendum on his rule in 1988 under exterior pressure. While his advertising company is given the work for the YES side, young advertising exec René Saavedra (Gael García Bernal) is hired to help the NO side. He finds the NO side run by a committee of old party leaders who want to use the campaign to complain about the tyrannical rule. They have no expectation of victory, and resist René's advertising skills.This is fascinating history. It wasn't really big news other than for people in Chile. The mechanics of it is very interesting. I guess this is a fairly faithful retelling of the story. It might be better if they added something to make it a more thrilling story.The story is mostly serious. In a way, I wish it was more like the commercials they made. I wish they had more jokes. Gael is a serious actor. However the character should be bigger. There should more drama inside the NO campaign. There could be some funny moments added. Maybe fictionalizing the real story would be too complicated. I'm sure some people in Chile would raise holy hell.

Nolan Dalla "No" suffers from trying to be, and succeeding at, being far too realistic.As preposterous as this criticism sounds, a promising political drama based on true events surrounding a 1988 election campaign in Chile abandons all the fundamentals of modern movie making. There's no soundtrack. There's no witty dialog. There are no special effects. The performances aren't particularly memorable. As a result, a potentially riveting political thriller drags badly in this poorly-scripted, abysmally-shot re-enactment which debuted last year in Chile. It's now finally making rounds in American movie theaters, its longevity based on being nominated earlier this year for an Oscar in the Best Foreign-Language film category."No" has the sophomoric look and feel of a film school project shot with a couple of Beta cams. That's because director Pablo Larrain curiously decided to shoot his entire movie with the same outdated videotape stock used by actual television news crews during the 1980's, when this film takes place. He presumably did this to add the look of realism. Borrowing a visual device that worked masterfully when Steven Spielberg employed World War II-era Bell and Howell movie cameras to film the famous Normandy Beach scenes in Saving Private Ryan (1998), the same technique might have proved a powerful cinematic accompaniment had it been used selectively. Instead, the entire movie is shot in a grainy film texture which not only becomes annoying, but quite distracting after the first few scenes when we realize this is the way the entire will be. It becomes like trying to watch a movie through a dirty window pane.This is unfortunate because "No" had great potential. The movie is all about the 1988 political referendum on the brutal dictatorship of Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet. One of the most despised political leaders in Latin American history, Pinochet ruled the South American nation of Chile with an iron fist between 1973 and 1988. However, his dictatorship faced growing international pressure to hold free elections, and so a national referendum was called in 1988 to vote on the question if Pinochet should be allowed to stay in power.The premise sounds rather simple. But after the military junta's 15 years of disappearances, torture, intimidation, and media control, those Chileans brave enough to work on the "No" campaign took enormous risks, both professionally and personally. What if they worked against Pinochet and then lost the election? What would then be their fate? Would they ever work again? Would they eventually be arrested? Could they end up as political prisoners? "No," which gets its name from the actual anti-Pinochet campaign, recounts the atmosphere of fear those brave enough to oppose the dictator had to endure during the 27-day campaign. Given the overwhelming odds stacked against them, no one -- not even the movement's most committed followers -- gave the "No" campaign a chance.But if that was the case, we wouldn't be watching a movie about these events some 25 years later.That's where the star of "No" comes in. Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal plays a young hotshot advertising wizard hired by the anti-Pinochet ("No") movement to orchestrate its media campaign. The very real issue of how to run a national campaign amidst this culture of fear gets compounded by a deep divide within the camp between those who want to use this rare opportunity to showcase Pinochet's horrific human rights abuses versus the younger pragmatists who view the selling of a candidate about the same as marketing beer or tires.Given the extraordinary circumstances of this unique moment in history and all the subplots of running an underdog campaign fraught with danger, one can immediately see similarities to some of movie history's best political thrillers -- including The Candidate (1972), All the President's Men (1976), Primary Colors (1998), and most recently -- Argo (2012). Had "No" employed a top-notch screenwriter and shot the movie in a more conventional manor (on standard film, for starters), it might have taken its place among the pantheon of great political dramas. Instead, a fascinating story gets lost in the abyss of a poorly contrived and under-budgeted mess.One final note: Without revealing any spoilers, "No" is probably a must see for political junkies if for no other reason than to watch this unlikely campaign unfold, and at times completely unravel before ultimately becoming a serious challenge to one of the most notorious political and military regimes in Latin American history. This is a fabulous story with some truly mesmerizing moments of triumph. However, the film fails to convey these remarkable real-life events in a manner worthy of those brave heroes who actually set out to achieve the impossible.