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Hola! I've been on a Mexican Cinema kick recently, and I thought we could use a place to talk about it (tbh I think we should have threads for every major film producing country, but I'll leave those to other people). Its a country with a pretty long & wonderful cinematic history, and these days is home to a vibrant & depressing indie scene. There have been several major directors to recently come out of Mexico and make their mark in the US, notably Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo Del Toro. Obviously they've done bunches of American stuff but all of them have pretty cool early Mexican movies such as Amores Perros, Sólo Con Tu Pareja, Y Tu Mamá También, Cronos (as well as Del Toro's insanely sick and funny short film Geometria). There have also been several insanely famous Spanish-language filmmakers who aren't techincally Mexican, but made movies in Mexico such as Alejando Jodorowsky and Luis Bunuel. Most exciting to me is the current Mexican Indie scene, which features a lot of brutal, uncomfortable movies. As one might expect when a country is facing such an enormous problem, cartels & drugs feature prominently in many of them. A couple to get you started are... Heli  Note: While this .gif looks like it could be from Mexican Napoleon Dynamite, do not be fooled by it. Heli is about the titular character, a poor factory worker, and his family living in Mexico. His little sister is dating an older guy who's a bit of a loser and wants marry her and run away together. This loser devises a get-rich-quick scheme that will him and Heli's sister to run off & start a new life together, which goes tragically wrong. Drug cartels get involved and descend upon Heli's family. There are some pretty brutal scenes of torture in this movie, in case that sort of thing bothers you. This movie's director, Amat Escalante, has a new movie about an erotic tentacle alien that won him the award for Best Directing at the 2016 Venice Film Festival. Quite the change from Heli, and I'm anxious to see it! Escalante worked as an assistant to Carlos Reygadas who's a pretty big figure in the indie scene in Mexico. Post Tenebras Lux  This is Carlos Reygadas' most recent movie, and maybe the best to start on (they are all pretty out there, this is just the most aesthetically pleasing). Some really beautiful cinematography. Its about an upper class family that retreats to the country life in the mountains of Mexico, and is a surreal meditation on their life and their various personal problems. Worth it for the cinematography alone! Like all of his films, its pretty controversial and could easily put people off. Batalla en el Cielo is by some regarded as his best work, but it opens with a shot that puts The Brown Bunny to shame, if you know what I'm talking about. Después de Lucía  This movie by Michel Franco is about a High School girl who, shortly after transferring to a new school, has a video of her having sex leaked around the school. Impossibly cruel bullying follows and things get very dark. It is reminiscent of Heli in the sense that it is filled with long, static shots of things that are very painful and awkward to watch. If you are a movie masochist like me, you'll love it! Franco's most recent movie is called Chronic and stars Tim Roth, its about end of life care. This guy's a real joker! 600 Millas  The directorial debut from a guy who produced some stuff of Michel Franco's this one stars Tim Roth. In this thriller(ish?), Tim Roth is some sort of cop / agent who, in the process of busting a cartel weapons deal, ends up getting taken prisoner by a lower ranking cartel member who is in over his head and taken to Mexico. A cool & unglamorized take on the drug war creeping into the United States... I feel like a recurring theme in Mexican movies are idiots who get in over their head with drugs / gangs. This one has a lot of English in it if you don't like reading subtitles. Miss Bala  I think this one got some sort of US release, so you might have seen it. And what do you know, another depressing thriller involving cartels and kidnapping? This one is about an aspiring Beauty Queen who witnesses some cartel killings and is kidnapped. She is used to smuggle drugs / seduce people / etc. by the gang. A real laugh riot!!! Semi based on a real life incident, but pretty loosely. So let's use this thread to celebrate all Mexican movies, old and new. Talk about Inaritu's / Del Toro's early work, sci-fi luchador movies starring El Santo, the "Golden Age" of Mexican Cinema, Cantinflas (who's a character sort of regarded as Mexico's Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp in terms of fame), documentaries about Mexico, or whatever the hell else you want see if I care!!!! If anyone would like to do a write-up on any major Mexican figures or films, I will add them to this OP. I will keep researching and updating the OP assuming this thread gets any sort of a positive response. I'll be back in a few days to go over some more Mexican movies, but hopefully this can get the conversation started! SpiritOfSanDimas fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Mar 6, 2017 |
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Mar 5, 2017 03:42
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Heli is absolutely grueling but an outstanding movie, it really needs a proper US release.
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Mar 5, 2017 04:31
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Uncle Boogeyman posted:Heli is absolutely grueling but an outstanding movie, it really needs a proper US release. It owns!!!! Like all the best grueling movies, I like how stuff with good intentions goes horribly wrong Here is the trailer for his new sci-fi / horror / whatever movie. I wanna see it!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjUmsWukFj0 Also can someone please change the thread tag, I forgot to SpiritOfSanDimas fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Mar 5, 2017 |
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Mar 5, 2017 14:44
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