This film I watched while attending the Nightmares Film Festival. It was showing at 2 am on the third day and I wasn't entirely sure what I was witnessing. The official synopsis is portrait of Mexico City through grotesque, sordid and violent characters. Nocturnal, insane and absurd.
The synopsis is spot on for this film. At the time of watching it, it was pretty late and I had been there all day. I was exhausted, but it was a perfect time for this film. Talking with someone else who had watched the film had the same reaction to what I had. It was unnerving, but we aren't entirely sure what we saw.
Best way to give a review of this would be just to touch on the things I saw and what stuck with me. There is a blind woman in a school girl outfit. I could be wrong, but it does look like they just have her wearing contacts that make her eyes look like they have that glassy look that blind people tend to have. We get introduced to her as a man comes to attack her and she kills him in the alleyway. She walks away like nothing happened.
We do end up seeing that she is prostitute. She is getting herself prepared for someone to try to take her home. That's not what happens though. She goes to an apartment where some nefarious things are happening. She is taken in by an older woman who is dressed pretty similar to her. They go about making food, but the older woman is adding ingredients that don't necessarily go in it. She seems to have plans for this blind woman.
Upstairs is a dominatrix and a little person. They are cleaning a person up, but it looks as if they are dead. We do see this is the case as they are skinning the body so the little person can put the skin on a mannequin. There is also an odd milk man that keeps coming back and he isn't really on the straight and narrow either.
If you think I am spoiling this film, I just want you to know that none of this makes sense and it really is more about seeing how things play out. All of these stories finally converge into a weird climax of sorts. I do like the final image of this film as well.
Now while watching this film, I thought the pacing was a little slow. Having time to reflect on it, I think really what it was is that I was exhausted and couldn't figure out what was going on. This film doesn't have a coherent narrative, so that is something to keep in mind. I think it is more to show the true nature of all of theses. They do seem to meet their fate by the end as well.
Acting for this film I thought was fine for what the film was going for. We don't need great performances. The characters just really need to be unique, which I think they all are. Part of that is how they are written and the other is that they just act quirky. There are some disgusting things that happen in this film that involve eating and drinking. I will say that did kind of get to me.
Something that is important for a film like this is how it is shot and the effects. This film is taking place in the less savory part of the city so it has a grainy feel to it. With some of things going on like the outdate television and VCR, I think this makes the film feel even more surreal. There are some interesting shots and sequences, so I will give director Omar Jacobo credit. The effects in the film were also pretty good as well. We don't need a lot of them, but the blood we get looks good. Having the picture quality less definitely helps as well.
The score of the film is something that is almost important for a film like this. I know the selections were quite eerie as well, adding to the surreal feel. I don't really know what else to say about it aside from it made me feel quite uncomfortable, which is a win for the film.
Now with that said, this film isn't for everyone. I would put this more like an arthouse film that doesn't entirely make too much sense. There isn't a coherent story, but there are enough weird images that are coupled with how the film is shot and the score to give it a surreal feel. The actors make their characters unique so I do give them credit. I will admit that I am coming in a little bit lower on my rating. I think this effort is above average, but I would like to see this one again to see if I can make more sense of it.
