One of those films that finds strength in its directness, that passes up the fireworks and cheap tricks and just goes straight for the starkness of a powerful situation.
Cinema Crazed
April 29, 2009
Moreno gives a very memorable debut performance...
The fact that [Moreno's] Maria is so believable, so compelling, rests entirely on what she brings to the part, not what the part brings to her. Her face is the kind that can carry a movie on the strength of sheer screen presence.
ReelTalk Movie Reviews
April 28, 2010
'Maria Full of Grace' offers a clear picture of the economics that drive the hopeless many to take risks in the enrichment of the few.
the filmmaker's eye and ear for authentic detail and believable characterization...make the film an unusually tough and gritty slice of underworld life.
The subject could be, and has been, exploitative in other films, but Joshua Marston shrewdly sketches asides of drama about whether Maria should simply remain in New York. To his credit, that outcome feels as fraught with peril as her drug-running.