Mexico Best Films- Page 3 of 5

Desierto

Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Did you enjoy Gravity or The Revenant? Then maybe this film is for you. This all action, no dialogue thriller draws a lot from the horror genre to bring you a film heightened by recent events (think Trump). It will keep you on the edge of your seat from the beginning to the end and will scare you from attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border from outside of your air-conditioned car for life!

Why Watch Desierto?

It is Mexico’s foreign language entry for the 89th Academy Awards
Are you scared of Trump’s America!
To see how barren the U.S.-Mexico borderlands are
Pure action thriller and no dialogue (think of Gravity)

The Breakdown

Desirto opens with an expansive shot of the dimly lit desert. The sun slowly rises from behind some mountains in the distance revealing the scorched landscape in front of us. A small truck drives through this beautiful, barren wasteland. In the back of the truck is a handful of hopeful migrants looking for better lives in the U.S. We are not told anything about them and we can only judge them based on their appearance. For them, this horror movie is about to start as the truck grinds to a halt… their only means of getting through the desert has broken down!

There is probably only 20 lines of dialogue in this film, less if you remove character’s talking to themselves. Just like Gravity, another film scripted by Cuaron, Desierto is pure action from the start. However, luckily for Cuaron, no dialogue is needed to explain the characters because Trump’s America gives them authenticity, making them even more scary. The whisky drinking white man with the confederate flag is now a much more real and much more scary prospect. Combine that with the racist rhetoric used by Trump and you think, maybe this film could happen in real life!

In Desierto the yellows of the barren deserts and rocky outcrops dominate from the opening scene. The director excludes most signs of life from the film to emphasise the emptiness of the desert. The only animals that are living in this environment are rattlesnakes, a symbol of living death. The hostility of the environment makes us feel that we are not welcome there, that we are intruding on someone else’s land. And this feeling of intrusion is an important first stage of the horror genre. (e.g. Texas Chainsaw Massacre where hitch-hikers ‘intrude’ on Leatherface’s land).

Conclusion

Desierto is an interesting addition to the horror genre because it creates a horror out of an often debated political issue: illegal immigrants. This association, and the current zeitgeist in America, gives this film an extra layer which is lacking in the dialogue.

Battle In Heaven

Battle in Heaven Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

This film is provocatively shocking! Even more so than the most shocking scenes of Heli or Y Tu Mama Tambien. If you’re not a fan of provocative images then this might not be for you. But if you can handle it, watch on, and see Mexico City. Witness the power structures, class divides, religion, and football.

Why Watch Battle in Heaven?

For something very provocative, like a lot of Mexican films!
To see Mexico City: the streets, the people, the shops, the rich neighbourhoods, and more
Big juxtapositions: Ugliness vs. Beauty, Rich vs. Poor, Powerful vs. Weak
For a pretty cool soundtrack (which often ends up distracting Carlos)

The Breakdown

In one of the most controversial openings of a film ever, the film opens with a close up of Carlos’ chubby face. He is middle aged, bearded, has dishevelled hair, and wears big glasses. He is not attractive. The camera then slowly pans down his naked body, showing us his man boobs and huge belly. However instead of showing us his penis, we see the back of a female head with matted hair. Just in case it is not obvious what she is doing, the camera cuts to the side, showing her young face sucking the penis of this fat, middle aged man.

It is not the oral sex that is that is the most shocking part of the introduction but the pairing of the old man with the young woman. These two people should not be together. However, Reygadas later challenges our prejudices when he shows the naked bodies of Carlos and his even more chubby wife. Their paired naked bodies are even more repulsive than the opening scene, even though their pairing is way more normal. Provocation is a theme of Battle in Heaven, and Reygadas shows us shocking images of things that are wrong, and things that are not wrong, but equally shocking.

Outside of the provocation, Battle in Heaven portrays Mexico City well. Reygadas shows us the streets, the stall run by Carlos’ wife, and the rich neighbourhoods and the city centre. He also depicts two of the biggest things that constitute Mexico: Religion and Football. Firstly, there are a lot of football fanatics. The chief police inspector is wearing a football shirt, there’s an entire scene at a football game, and the Pumas win the Championship. Secondly, religion dominants the mise-en-scene (the setting) throughout. There are plenty of religious icons and pictures in all the houses (although not Ana’s house), there is a religious march of pilgrims, and we are shown the real image of La Virgen in the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.

Conclusion

Battle in Heaven is dominated by some controversial film that, on one hand, challenge us, but on the other, might put you of from watching on. If you can look past the provocation, and the relatively bare plot, Reygadas’ film is a well thought out portrait of Mexico City. It is an opportunity to see what drives the city (football and religion), the rich/poor divide, the power structures (military and police), whilst watching city life.

Lupe Under the Sun (Lupe Bajo El Sol) – London Film Festival 2016

Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Lupe Under the Sun features an ageing migrant worker from Michoacan working in California’s Central Valley. It deals with the vagueness of migrant identity – is Lupe Mexican or American? Or both and neither at the same time? The director, Rodrigo Reyes, shows migration to be both an inspired act of hope and a frightening leap into the unknown.

Why Watch Lupe Under the Sun?

For a timely look at the life of a lonely migrant worker in the U.S. a group verbally assaulted by Trump
To see an old man riding a tricycle
Step in somebody else’s shoes – take a walk through the eyes of an immigrant worker in an unfamiliar environment which you call home
What does it mean to not belong?

The Breakdown

The film starts with a narration by Lupe’s grandson as Lupe walks through arid landscape and orchards.

He says that his grandfather told him a secret; that he was going to America to paint a really big house that will take him a long time. He won’t be back for some time, because he has to keep painting.

Does Lupe really belong here? He doesn’t talk to anyone, except one scene where he is gambling around a small table with two other guys. He doesn’t answer his girlfriend, he mumbles back to the doctor, and doesn’t make any effort to start any conversation. His lack of dialogue emphasises his lack of belonging and identity. He has no friends and no one he cares about in the Central Valley. He has no reason to stay where he is or go home.

Furthermore, his days are occupied by ritual. He wakes up at 4am each morning, cooks his eggs, showers, and shaves his moustache before he gets picked up to go pick fruit. Each day we are shown this same ritual emphasised by fixed shots of the alarm clock, the cooking hob, and the kitchen sink. The repeated shots emphasise the mundaneness of Lupe’s life – is he brave for sticking out this monotone life? His only joy seems to come from riding his tricycle around town.

Why is Lupe living here? Why doesn’t he go back to Mexico where he might feel a little more belonging? Lupe is symbolic of the ‘no-man’s land’ of migrant identity – he is both the man of his past life in Mexico and the man of his present in the U.S. Pick this one for a quiet night in to watch with someone else – watching it alone might make you question your loneliness.

Ruinas Tu Reino – Deconstructing Latin American Cinema

Ruinas Tu Reino Film Difficulty Ranking: 5

We don’t believe in a cinema that yells “¡Viva la revolución!” but in one that instead formally critiques the structures that originally created the profound injustice that exists today.
Pedro Escoto, Director of Ruinas Tu Reino

If you’re not familiar with slow film or meditative cinema, the lack of story line and raw experimental shots of Ruinas Tu Reino might prove to be too much of a challenge. The long shots of the sea and fishermen sitting around makes the film feel more like a film exhibit you’d see in a modern art museum. However, if you have the patience to observe, you’ll find a film imbued with poetry; literally in words that appear on screen, and visually in the meditative shots of the fisherman’s existence. It’s a film that seeks to deconstruct Latin American cinema by transcending historical narratives, reverting to DIY production, and focusing on the power of very raw images.

To get more from this film, I strongly recommend reading Ela Bittencourt’s profile of Pablo Escoto for Lyssaria and also Pedro Escoto’s interview with Pedro Segura for Ojos Abiertos (in Spanish).

From: Mexico, North America
Watch: Trailer, Letterboxd, Vimeo (via Tweet from Director with Password)
Next: Mysterious Object at Noon, Too Early, Too Late, El Dorado XXI

I Carry You With Me – AFI Fest 2020

I Carry You With Me is an epic cross generational, border crossing love story that hops between Puebla in Mexico and New York in the USA. It’s shot across three time periods: the present in NY, the past in Puebla, and the distant past reflected in childhood memories. The majority of the film takes place in the middle where Ivan and Gerardo meet. It contains the bulk of the film’s emotion and narrative. However, the cuts to the present imbue it with nostalgia by situating it in the past. It makes it feel like a dream period for the couple that contrasts with the uncertainty of their lives in the present.

The style also contributes to the dream like qualities of the middle period. Like Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, Heidi Ewing uses a lot of color filters to imbue warmth and feeling to I Carry You With Me. Instead of warm reds and oranges, there’s greens, oranges, and blues that create a world that feels unique and special. It captures the excitement of their romance. Also like In The Mood for Love, there’s food. A plate of Chile en Nogada replaces a bowl of hot steaming noodles. Chile en Nogada being one of Puebla and Mexico’s most iconic dishes and one that is notoriously hard to make. It both situates their romance and symbolizes their love.

The portrayal of Puebla also challenges the typical American Dream narrative presented in U.S.-Mexico films. It depicts a Mexican city full of warmth, beauty, and life to contrast with the lonely, bleak, coldness of New York. In this film, the U.S. is not the land of opportunity that it is often depicted to be. Instead of leaving to escape poverty, they leave for the opportunity to start a new life.

I Carry You With Me is not without it’s own cliches. There’s the gay guy with the female best friend and another who’s best friend is a flamboyant drag queen. Then there’s the haunting memories of the first time their fiercely patriarchal families put them down. Obviously not all families in Mexico are like this, and whilst I don’t doubt these events happened to the real Ivan and Gerardo, they feel like exploitative throw in scenes designed to evoke sympathy and emotion. However, despite the cliches,I Carry You With Me is a brilliantly romantic portrayal of generation and border crossing love.

Head to our AFI Fest Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2020.