This study explores the relevance of multimodality to critical media literacy. It is based on the understanding that communication is intrinsically multimodal and multimodal communication is inherently social and ideological. By analysing two English-language learners' multimodal ensembles, the study reports on how multimodality contributes to a critical perspective when engaging with media texts, and on the ways in which learners orchestrate multiple semiotic resources to demonstrate their analysis of the politics of representation and the resulting consequences. The findings reveal that, on the one hand, the students were able to identify the power relations between characters as well as how particular characters are marginalized in the media texts they viewed by paying attention to the multiple modes that make up the text's representation. On the other hand, the students were able to articulate the ideological subtexts they identified through the orchestration of various modes rather than relying on the linguistic mode, making their message as persuasive and effective as those in the media texts viewed.