notforthrees Reviews

The Heirs (2015)

Los Herederos (2015)

[7/10 · 16 October 2017]

Los Herederos (2015) "The heirs" is an honest (although not very deep) view of the Mexican high class (mid-high, may be?), especially the teenagers. We see them drink, party, fighting for the girls. All this with close to no supervision by their parents, probably way too busy closing a business deal or something like that. When they get bored of this, using all the freedom and resources, and in the context of virtually total impunity of the Mexican justice system, they decide to engage in activities more and more violent. And this is when things go wrong.

The interactions between the teenagers are very authentic, if you are non-Mexican Spanish speaker you will probably not understand half of it. I honestly felt some dialogues so Mexican- dense, that in the first half I found it a little annoying.

As a drawback, if you are not used to this kind of films you may find the pace too slow.

LuTo (2013)

"Meltdown of a perfect relationship", the Mexican take

[6/10 · 14 October 2017]

In recent years, the 'sub-genre' of "meltdown of a perfect relationship in non-chronological order" has been one of my one of my favorites things to watch. I watched LuTo (Luisa- Tomás) without knowing it would be an example of this.

In general I enjoyed the film, and I appreciate that Mexican directors are making this kind of movies, reflective, sober, nice cinematography and great use of subtle slow electronic music. As a plus, like many of the good Mexican films in the recent years, it offers a (somewhat small) window to know a little more about Mexican lifestyle, in this case mid- class Mexico City.

However, I did find a couple of issues that almost ruined for me the whole experience. The first one is that I did not feel empathy for the couple, I did not feel sorry for watching the downfall of their relationship because I did not buy the "they were the perfect couple" from the beginning. This is in part due to the not so strong (IMO) performances of the main characters and in part the non-chronological storytelling; filmmakers really have to master it to make it work.

It is a decent effort that is well worth your time. I definitely look forward to watch more films by this director.

Open Cage (2014)

Mexican version of "meeting a grumpy neighbor"

[8/10 · 8 October 2017]

Los Bañistas (2014) is another example of pretty decent Mexican movie that went pretty much unnoticed by the general public. It gives yet another take on the somewhat over-exploited plot of "our protagonist meets a grumpy old neighbor" but without falling the usual commonplaces or this kind of movies (incidentally few days before this I watched 'This Beautiful Fantastic', 2016).

Like most of the great Mexican movies of this century, this movie explores, on the surface, bleak themes like the broken economy, unemployment, crime, social injustice; in other words, the things mexicans are pretty much used to by now. Much of the subtext of the story of the film is given radio news reports our protagonists hear, or other times we get this information from devices that remains of filmmakers like Alfonso Cuarón (think Children of Men 2006).

I enjoyed a lot the cinematography, especially the use of mirrors in some of the shots. Background music is nearly nonexistent, following the overall feel of minimalism. I look forward to see the other two films the director has made after this, "Mist, 2016" and "Bruma, 2017".

Preludio (2010)

Totally worth your time.

[8/10 · 11 August 2016]

I know is not fair to rate a movie based on the circumstances on how it was created, however, this is a remarkable accomplishment for a movie filmed in one shot, with almost no budget, basically done by a bunch of friends.

The premise is basic and certainly not very original, two people meet before a party and start chatting, getting to know each other, talking a little bit of everything. The acting in general is good and it feels natural.

This might not resonate with everyone, but I appreciated that, contrary to the great majority of Mexican films I have seen over the year Preludio does not talk at all about Mexico, it's idiosyncrasy, political or social situation, violence, drug lords, etc.

Strange enough, several year later there is no news from the director Eduardo Lucatero. I even found 2010 information that he was working on a (non-direct) sequel "Epilogue", but nothing so far.

The Chosen Ones (2015)

like most of the good Mexican movies lately

[8/10 · 11 August 2016]

Las elegidas (The chosen ones) is not easy to watch, is not that it has a lot of violence or nudity, is just the kind of story we would prefer not to see, not even think there is people suffering such problems (think Heli, 2013).

It is very well done and avoids falling in most of the clichés of the genre (not all, though). Grabbing a bunch of non-actors has worked way better than other films, I think. Special mention deserve the father and brother of the male protagonist, I think they were picked extremely well, both have at the same time a certain charm that is well contrasted with the terrible acts they commit.