El Vigilante, Diego Ros, 2016
Friday, April 7th, 2017, 13:30
This was one of the three Mexican films in the festival. I loved it, but several other people I spoke to (including Cor, my partner) found it a bit confusing. I hadn't realized it until they mentioned it: this film is uniquely Mexican in the sense that it portrays our idiosyncracy beautifully—our weird sense of loyalty, our mistrust of authority, our ties to family, our deference to employers—to the point where the plot hinges on it. So, if you're not Mexican, you'll probably walk away scratching your head a bit. But why didn't he just tell the truth from the beginning? Would've solved everything.
That said, as a thriller it has some very powerful moments. The cinematography is masterful, Buñuel-esque, using the construction site, the setting of the story, to full advantage. The acting, even from minor or incidental characters, is natural and fully believable. The film, director Diego Ros's debut, won Best Film in the Los Angeles Film Festival last year, as well as Best Film and Best Actor in the Morelia festival in 2016, so I'm evidently not alone in praising it.
If you like thrillers, especially of the psychological kind, you may want to give this one a try.
(Sorry about the trailer; couldn't find one with English subtitles. But you can perhaps gain a bit of insight of what I meant about the cinematography.)
Hi Guilie - thanks for the notations re the film ... I'd like to see it - I think I might get more foreign language films from the library ... even if there's no subtitles - I've watched two French ones so far ... one with sub-titles one without ... so even though I may not understand - if I've done my homework re reading up on them - I could get an appreciation of the film ... thanks for this - the festival sounds great - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea, Hilary—plus it's the best way to pick up other languages! Though, if I'm honest, I have a hard time watching things in languages I don't understand without subtitles... It's so hard (for me) to let go of the need to grasp every word instead of just the gist. But at the festival here it's happened a couple of times that a film advertised as having English subtitles actually plays with Dutch subs... And my Dutch really isn't great, so I miss a lot—and it always annoys me no-end, haha.
DeleteThanks so much for coming by! Glad this one piqued your interest. If you do get to see it, I hope you'll let me know what you thought.
Interesting. I read a good review of this film in The Hollywood Reporter after checking in with IMDB. Black comedy meets urban horror, they say (http://bit.ly/2u3Yzcn). You've piqued my curiosity and I'll will add it to my To Watch List. Thanks!
ReplyDelete"Black comedy"—now there's an interesting take. From my perspective there is zero comedy here, but maybe that goes back to the idiosyncratic issues... For plenty of people, I'm sure the plot points on which a lot of the story hinges would translate into comedic confusion. I'd be super interested to hear what you think if/when you see it, especially because of your insight into Latin culture.
DeleteThanks for the visit, Sarah!
Hmmm... Sounds interesting...
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you think so! Thanks for coming by, Andrew :)
DeleteI’d love to see this film because I love psychological thrillers. It sounds excellent and another one I marked down now
ReplyDelete