Gueros

I think the humanity shown in this film is amazing, because it doesn't have a presemptuous character is able to deliver, in a natural way, a very powerful message. I completely recommend it and I think it speaks about important topics in Mexico.

...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 movie is black and white and it has a different frame ratio. At first, i thought they were going to do it because they wanted it to look like an art film but if you ask me, from what i watched, i am certain that this was done because of artistic and also satiric reasons. This movie is a great drama and also is a great comedy. Directing is really unique. Movie doesn't treat it's audience like they are stupid people. Movie respects the audience. For example, instead of a broken elevator sign, you see the inside of the elevator and you see that it doesn't come. When the character goes in a dark room, actor isn't pretending to be in a dark room, it is not a low lighted room that you can see but actor can't, you also can't see anything and it feels real. When a character closes other's eyes, before you see that, also your view is blocked by hands on the camera, which is your eyes. You feel like you are inside the film and it is amazingly done. When they listen to the song that should be amazing you hear nothing at all because they want you to imagine it since it will be different for everyone. And there is a scene in the school that it is really really funny and intelligently done. I won't spoil but i was laughing way too much at it. Movie tells a few different stories, panic attack, love, friendship, revolution and a whole other themes that are followed by their own scenes. Every thing in the movie leads somewhere and in every ending, it remind us that the world is cruel.Movie is funny, dramatic and exciting and overall it is very good. It makes fun of the Mexican so called art movies and also that maybe the cause of the black and white colour of the film. And it succeeds to be satiric in a good way. I am giving this 8/10 because i felt like it dragged a little on the last act. But, nonetheless i found it to be very intelligent.

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.

"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.