‘Chicuarotes’ are the inhabitants of San Gregorio Atlapulco, a neighbourhood of Mexico City (according to Wikipedia, it literally means hot peppers, or ‘stubborn or nasty’). Its director’s international prestige should bring festival exposure, but commercial prospects outside Latin America look limited. It’s the tonal discontinuity that really scuppers the filmĪ street life story that comes across somewhat like a WhatsApp-era Los Olvidados, Chicuarotes has energy to spare, but shaky dramatic strategy, skipping awkwardly between goofy comedy, hard-nosed violence and wildly overplayed melodrama. While that film was a coolly ironic depiction of Mexico’s spoiled middle-class youth, Chicuarotes returns, more or less, to Amores Perros territory in the story of two young working-class chancers desperate to improve their lot – and screwing up in every way. Otherwise, however, the film disappoints as a belated follow-up to García Bernal’s first directing feature Deficit (2007). Now he hands the baton over to new talent in Chicuarotes, a convincing enough achievement as far as the acting goes. 95minsĪt the turn of this century, Gael García Bernal charismatically incarnated the fresh new spirit in Mexican cinema as the star of Amores Perros and Y Tu Mamá Tambien.
0 kommentar(er)
