Gueros

The story here is as clever as it is simple. Two brothers and a friend hit the road in search of a dying Mexican folk singer who, according to legend, once made Bob Dylan cry with one of his touching ballads. While there are numerous side stories and plenty of character development, the plot doesn't get a whole lot deeper than that, and it is all the better for it. In that sense, the filmmakers knew exactly what they were doing and they achieved it wonderfully.

The film has a few flaws, but overall I thought it was pretty good. It could have been shorter, but the pacing is great. I felt like a few of the scenes were added just to ensure a sufficient running time and they could have been cut. One thing I loved about the film was that we never actually hear the music of the fictional Mexican folk singer that the brothers are following. Their car's cassette player is broken so they only ever listen to him via headphones. We are left to watch their silent reactions and fill in the missing pieces for ourselves. I'm not sure if the filmmakers had intended to possibly insert music during post production and then decided against it, but either way it is very effective and well done.

Without giving anything away, the ending of the film is right in line with the rest of the film's pacing. It is slow and anticlimactic, but we still end up feeling like everything turned out just the way it should, much like the characters are left feeling. And it is totally hilarious, but in such a dry way that you just might miss it.

Despite being a road film in essence, with characters traveling around and getting into adventures, Güeros isn't about story or characters so much as it is about a feeling. It's a feeling that most of us likely experience at some point in our lives, and for that reason most people will be able to relate to this film on some level.

...the grail may not be so important.

Set in 1999 amidst the university strike in Mexico, the film eschews the political (mostly) for the personal. The film moves with a pace that is both unpredictable, but in hindsight guided by some hand of fate. There are wonderful mirroring of events (seals, tigers and bricks/balloons), and the use of extreme sound/imaging borders on an ASMR trigger.

Memorable characters, humor and violence battle for your attention, and even if I only got the reheated meal via translation, this was maybe the most enjoyable Friday night film of the whole damn pandemic.

Two shorts and an interview accompanied the DVD I rented. Well worth watching, and not just for the sake of seeing Tenoch Huerta's acting chops. I was watching some of the deleted scenes included as well but I really did not want to alter the experience I had just completed.

One really unrelated tip, while I heard Ruizpalacios mention Truffaut, Jarmusch and Wender...not so long ago I watched the excellent multi-part documentary "Rompan Todo" which helped to set up the quest in a way.

That said, the film stands (strongly) by itself. Look forward to more from the film palace of Ruizpalacios!

This starts with the story of Tomas who is sent to stay with his older brother in Mexico City after a water filled balloon incident goes awry. On arrival he finds his bro, Sombra living with his friend Santos in a flat where they steal electricity from a neighbour and are on strike from being on strike at the local University.

Essentially what follows are scenes that are linked together by dint of the fact they are linked together. The subtle stories and plots are full of satire and swipes at society but without ever unpacking what that means. It is filmed in black and white in a narrow ratio aspect so at once looks out of place in line with the characters themselves. It is also art house but without trying to be – there is even a breaking of the fourth wall in places – which took me by surprise and that is what this film is about – surprising you by the ordinary. Part love story, part coming of age, part road trip and part search for a lost rock genius, this is a film that refuses to be type cast and is better for it.

The actors all play this straight in that it just looks unrehearsed and they are adlibbing but you know that is far from the truth. This will not be to everybody's taste – if you like a start a middle and an end then probably best to avoid this but if you like to see things differently and are prepared for a journey that is as aimless as it is vital then you are probably going to really enjoy this really charming Mexican film.

"Gueros," is a really fine artsy-farsty coming of age story. It's a quiet Spanish film with English subtitles about a troubled teenage boy in the Mexican countryside, sent to live with his slacker college age brother in Mexico City. The film takes place while the nearby urban university is occupied by student protesters, who often spill into the streets where their anger over economic issues meshes with the poverty of daily life. The older boy is politically apathetic, but his love interest is a leader of the protests, so the energy of the occupation looms large. Along the way the films four main characters travel through the city searching for an elusive almost-rock star whose music played an outsized role in the lives of the boys and their deceased father. The film captures the chaos on the streets as the young boy begins to see the world through new eyes, and as his older brother embraces the cultural upheaval.

"Gueros" is set squarely in Mexico, but it could as easily have been adapted to an American city, and structured around the Black Lives Matter protests. While it's uniquely a Mexican film, the portability of the story gives it wider appeal, and the characters feel like neighbors. It's a rich story told beautifully, and well shot on black and white film. If you are in the mood for a quiet coming of age film set in another culture, "Gueros" will make you smile.

This film stands out among the majority of contemporary Mexican films, this film is very interpretive and it may be that you do not understand what it means at first, but analyzing it in depth you can see an effort to do something of quality. Although the main story is not very attractive, the situations that the characters go through become a message and a portrait of the reality of Mexico City. I don't want to go deeper because I think that everyone should have their point of view on what is portrayed in this film.

On the technical side, the performances are very good, the photography is good, the production design is good, the direction is very good, in general it is a different film from the rest, deep and realistic.