Mexico Best Films- Page 5 of 5

Son of Monarchs – The Immigrant Experience and Lost Identity

Son of MOnarchs Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

A Mexican biologist living in New York returns to his hometown after the death of his grandmother. Unlike the urban jungle of New York, his hometown in Michoacán is surrounded by the Monarch Butterflies he studies. His isolation abroad forces him to contemplate his new identity, displayed on screen in vivid magical scenes and memories.

From: Mexico, North America
Watch: Trailer, HBO Max
Next: Lingua Franca, I'm No Longer Here, I Carry You With Me

Son of Monarchs Breakdown

Mendel is fated to test gene editing theories on Monarch butterflies. He’s both named after the father of modern genetics and hails from Angangueo, the main access point for the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. However, the coldness of his job, working in a laboratory in New York, doesn’t match the warmth of his memories growing up at home. The many shots of butterflies under the microscope being picked apart by Mendel’s scalpel removes the majesty of the butterflies and displaces Mendel from his past. At his work, the butterflies are just instruments to test the latest gene editing technology. Whereas, outside of work, they remind him of his home.

As the film progresses, Mendel seems conflicted with how he coldly pulls apart the Monarch butterflies at work. It’s implied that their beauty inspired him to become a scientist and they also appear in some of his happiest memories, as alluded to in the film’s flashbacks. Even in the narrative, he speaks of their majesty and mythology – that they are the souls of the dead returning home, and that they can even perceive mountains that have been hidden for millennia. From the way he dreams and speaks about them, he appears to revere them, instead of wanting to change them. The microscope shots of Mendel dissecting them runs against his thoughts and words.

A few times in the film, the director shoots Mendel in bed with a swarm of butterflies sitting on his body. The image emphasizes Mendel’s affinity for the Monarch butterfly. They like him, travel across imaginary borders to foreign lands before returning home. Their secrets are also hidden, just like Mendel’s buried trauma. These butterflies come to symbolize both his personal past (as the scene pops up when his traumatic nightmares surface) as well as his Mexican identity. Editing their genes perhaps symbolizes how he is also losing his own identity in New York. He’s lost touch with his family and the brother he looked up to and longs for reconnection when he returns home after his Grandmother’s death. At home, he spends his time reliving memories with his friends and family instead of speaking of his new life in New York. When the only colleague he identifies with leaves, he becomes even more lost abroad, which reflects in his attitude – ghosting his white girlfriend and showing no pride in his accomplishments. To regain his self, he has to embrace the butterfly and revere it. So he edits himself to pay respects to the animal that represents home.

Son of Monarchs is a brilliant character study of a Mexican scientist in a foreign land. Like other film’s that focus on the immigrant experience in New York – Lingua Franca, I’m No Longer Here – he doesn’t quite feel at home, and his thoughts are conveyed uniquely through his symbolic relationship with the butterfly. The only distractions are the side narratives which feel a bit empty due to the lack of exposition. These include name dropping the Trump presidency and immigrant crisis without development as well as leaving Mendel’s family relationships undercooked. The butterflies and Tenoch Huerta (who plays Mendel) are the crux of this film.

What to Watch Next

If you’re looking for more indie movies featuring the immigrant experience in New York, check out Lingua Franca and I Carry You With Me. The latter also features a lot of jumping back and forth into the memories of the main characters. There’s also I’m No Longer Here, which follows a similar Mexico-New York-Mexico arc with more of a character study like Son of Monarchs.

Or for more small town Mexico films, you could try Nudo Mixteco, an anthology film set during the Festival of San Mateo in Oaxaca, or Kings of Nowhere, a documentary that follows the last few residents of a flooded town in Northwestern Mexico.

Lastly if you want to watch more movies of protagonists identifying with animals – try Awakening of the Ants from Costa Rica or Aronofsky’s Black Swan.

Pornomelancholia – Outfest Los Angeles 2023

Pornomelancholia is a slow paced character study of a up-and-coming porn star navigating the Mexican porn industry. It has plenty of dry humor and an underlying commentary on social media culture.

The film starts with a mid-range shot of Lalo standing alone by a busy street in the city. People walk past him and cars pass behind him as we watch him peer around. It seems like he’s waiting for someone or taking a breather in a chaotic day. However, before the shot lingers further, Lalo breaks down into a soft sob as the title credits pop up: Pornomelancholia. It’s a prelude for the critique of superficial influencer-culture that Lalo uses to make his way into the porn industry.

Lalo is portrayed as a lonely man parading as a popular sex icon. His Instagram videos hide the fact that he works in a small factory with two other people that he hardly talks to. His confidence in his sexuality online contradicts his inability to come out to his family – shown in the rehearsed voice messages he can’t bring himself to send to his mother. It follows films such as Sweat in showing that the digital lives promoted by influencers don’t always reflect reality.

Despite the underlying commentary, there is dry humor in Pornomelancholia. This is probably the only film that you can watch that is built around a Zapata led Mexican revolution porn film. It also probably runs on for too much of the film, but the pornographic shots, which linger for more than expected are designed to make you awkwardly uncomfortable (like Lalo himself). The sex scenes are provocative, but not as outrightly as another Mexican festival film – Battle in Heaven.

Overall, if you’re looking for a slow-paced festival film that follows a gay man working his way into the porn industry, Pornomelancholia is worth a watch. Whilst the culture fostered by the industry and Lalo is portrayed as fake, his journey feels unique, real and believable.

Alla En El Rancho Grande – The Genesis of Mexico’s Golden Age

Alla En El Rancho Grande Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

The Mexican Golden Age of Cinema started with Alla En El Rancho Grande which became the first Mexican blockbuster in 1936. It established the film industry in Mexico and introduced one of the most popular genres in Mexican film history: la comedia ranchera – essentially the cowboy musical – which reinforced Mexican identity at home and abroad.

From: Mexico, North America
Watch: YouTube, JustWatch, IMDb
Next: Enamorada, Maria Candelaria, The Pearl

Alla En El Rancho Grande – Breakdown

1936 was a big year for the Mexican film industry. It saw the release of the country’s first ever blockbuster which put Mexico on the film world map. But how did this film break through and kick off the Mexican Golden Age of Cinema? Two external factors were crucial: revolutionary fatigue and timing.

1. Revolutionary Fatigue

In Mexico, the revolution had been running more hot than cold since 1910. The chaos did not end with Pancho Villa’s surrender in 1920. Multiple revolutionary politicians fought over power for the best part of the next two decades, and a violent religious rebellion (the Cristero War) split the heart of the country in the late 1920s.

In 1934 Lazaro Cardenas won the general election and outmaneuvered Elias Calles – the man holding the strings of power for the previous 6 years – to take control of Mexico. Cardenas is one of Mexico’s most popular leaders for establishing wide-spread land reform and nationalizing the Mexican oil industry (Pemex). Less known is that his administration founded the Filmoteca de la UNAM and incentivized domestic film production with tax breaks and grants. Cardenas and his administration saw film as an opportunity to strengthen national identity. After years of revolutionary uncertainty, the country needed to restore national pride to re-unite the country. Alla En El Rancho Grande was just the film to do this. It hearkened back to the ‘simple’ pre-revolutionary days, re-establishing the iconic charro dress and popularizing Mexican ranchera music.

2. Timing

Whilst the film-making wheels were turning in Mexico with the new initiatives from the Cardenas administration, the film centers in the U.S. and Europe were on the road to World War II. Film production in the U.S. and Europe were de-prioritized for the war effort, reducing competition for Mexican films to reach more cinema-goers domestically and abroad. This helped spike the immense popularity of Alla En El Rancho Grande and was the spark that lit up the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.

Building a National Identity

Alla En El Rancho Grande, still had to win the popularity of the Mexican public. So what made this the film to do it?

Similar to Hollywood musicals, Alla En El Rancho Grande built a fictional utopian vision of a romanticized past (in this case, pre-revolutionary Mexico). It features self sufficient haciendas run by benevolent landowners that take care of their workers (even if they are idly drunk all day, everyday) and problems that are sung away in spontaneous song. This conservative romanticized past ran against the progressive revolutionary reform of Lazaro Cardenas. It evoked nostalgia for ‘simpler pre-revolutionary’ days which helped create a post-revolutionary calm. In turbulent times, nostalgia thrives.

The romanticized past was crucial in building national identity. It popularized the ranchera style; charro dress for men and china poblana style dresses for women, and built on this visual style through the songs, especially the guitar playing and rap-battle style singing. These tokens of the Mexican past became signifiers for Mexico throughout the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema and beyond, creating a style and culture that are still used today to express Mexican pride at home and abroad.

What Next?

For something different from the same director behind this film, check out Vamonos con Pancho Villa. Unlike Alla en el Rancho Grande, which tries to blur the memory of revolutionary violence, this one brings the brutality of the war all back without censorship.

For more comedias rancheras, explore the filmography of Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete (Dos tipos de cuidado and Los tres Garcia). These two prolific singers, made huge names for themselves through their musicals at the height of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, following Tito Guizar’s lead.