Movies like el ángel

El Angel (Spanish: El ángel) is a 2018 Argentine-Spanish true crime film directed by Luis Ortega. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. It is inspired by the true story of Argentine serial killer Carlos Robledo Puch. It was selected as the Argentine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

Carlos is a 17-year-old teenager with the face of an angel whom no one can resist. He gets everything he wants. In high school he meets Ramón and together they form a dangerously charming duo. They embark on a path of theft and lies, and quickly killing becomes a way of communicating.

Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com wrote that director Luis Ortega took liberties with the true story by reimagining Carlos as a gay psychopathic killer, despite a lack of any proof this was true in reality. Castillo complimented lead actor Lorenzo Ferro's performance as "eerily hollow and effectively scary" but said eventually "the character's eerie coldness leaves the movie feeling shallow." For The Canadian Press, David Friend said Ferro's performance evokes "the demonic cuteness of Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son."