I Promise You Anarchy

Blood trafficking, skateboarding and romance combine in the shadows of Mexico City. Miguel and Johnny hang out in an abandoned truck trailer tank, thread through foot and vehicle traffic on skateboards, get high on various substances and only abandon this easy-going and carefree existence when they need cash. Donating blood keeps them in the black. When offered 100 pesos ($6) for each blood donor they can find, Miguel and Johnny ask few questions and get caught in an undercurrent of greed and malevolence.

This poignant and timely film is a conglomeration of various genres including, surprisingly, cerebral and stoner. The actors, some found on Facebook, are adept at their roles and made me feel like I was watching a documentary of their lives. The film is slow-paced and the action and violence subtle. There is constant movement as if all the scenes were captured in one take. Music, ambient sound and casual conversations flow into each other almost naturally. It is intriguing to see Mexico City at night, glide beneath its highway underpasses and see its graffiti coated concrete alleyways up close. "At the heart of this film," said the director who was at this 2016 Miami International Film Festival screening, "is a love story." There is little to lament beyond a small budget.

The plot is that two skate boarding friends sell their blood for cash to live on the streets of Mexico. They also develop a taste for each other which adds a sexual element to the goings on.

Then the big deal comes along – but there is a catch it is with some gangsta boys but what they are offering is both too good to turn down and too good to be true.

To say any more runs the old plot spoiler risk. Now this has been panned in some sections for being a bit of a mess in that some ends are left very untied and that the plot jumps around a bit. Now for me that added to the authenticity and a better feeling of 'Cinema verite' about the whole thing. Some of the actors were sourced from Facebook but I did not see that as a problem but moreover added to the variety of the players as in the real World.

The main lead roles were more than competent and the filming was both realistic and almost casual as if the scenes being played out were or are an everyday occurrence. There is not much in the bedroom department but some nudity at the start. The real point here is the story itself and just because it was not neatly packaged replete with epilogue does not, in my opinion, detract from what is a very note worthy film.

I Promise You Anarchy against Frameline if you see this film. Frances Wallace, Executive Director of Frameline saw this at the Toronto Film Festival & she recommends this incoherent film? Did we see the same film? With a great soundtrack & raw sexual scenes were promising but the rest of the film is a hot mess. Nothing really makes much sense & scenes of a truckload of "cash cows" to milk left the viewers & the protagonists clueless as to what happened to them. Also a murder is left unresolved. For a film about the blood trade it's pretty much bloodless. The final scene is like one of those, "What Happened?" It was a complete waste of time.

This is one of those times where you see a film and it leaves you with nothing but a feeling of a great waste of time.

Some of the actors were found on Facebook, I'm afraid they forgot to hire someone to do the sound editing, most of the lines are barely understandable, the script is full of gaps and the end of the story you don't even what exactly happened, the soundtrack does not contribute in any way to the film.

However the whole bunch of basic mistakes above mentioned would not be even important if we focus on the main problem of the movie, the purpose or the reason for which you should see the movie is simply not existent, this is just a bunch of pictures with no soul, with nothing to tell us, with nothing relevant to say.

Hopefully I will forget this by tomorrow...