Der schwarze Engel

"El Angel" is a consistently watchable crime thriller/case study of the real-life Argentine serial killer Carlos Puch. It is set in the seventies and feels eminently authentic. Its soundtrack, of Spanish rock songs, is also fantastic.

In this film, Puch is a habitual thief who seems incapable of remorse, or even perhaps any other emotion. He has a baby face and a head of curls and seems wide eyed and innocent. He walks through other people's homes as though they are his own; if anything, he seems more at ease there than in his own home.

A friendship leads to a local criminal who provides him with guns, and soon Carlos isn't just robbing people. He kills like a true psychopath with no emotion whatsoever, nor does he hesitate or even think about what he is doing.

His shootings seem to happen out of his control, especially in one scene that seems quite unrealistic. Carlos is apparently a crack shot the first time he has to handle a gun.

The movie includes a repulsive and unexpected shot of an old man's wrinkled, hairy scrotum hanging out of his boxer shorts. Repulsive.

Other than that, "El Angel" is a good movie. I say check it out.