Streamed on Netflix
Theatre Service: N/A
Projection: N/A
2hr 39 mins
A surrealist interpretation of memory, dreams, and self reflection. This film boldly uses cinematography, sound, editing, and story to tell the tale of a documentary filmmaker as he comes to terms with where he is in life.
With a wild colour pallet, the film pays tribute to the flavours of Mexican culture and immerses you in the imagery often mixing in aerial and point of view shots.
Similar to the style of his previous films, there is a love for fish-eyed close up centred shots as well as an almost continuously moving camera. It reminds me of the endlessly flowing camerawork of Bollywood cinema. The camera work flows seamlessly from scene to scene often disguising cuts to create the never ending feeling often experienced in a dream.
In that same vane, the editing creates atmosphere and helps to build the peculiar world that Silverio finds himself in. The way that the audio and visuals play together within the edit are both confusing and mesmerizing as the film continues.
The pace of the film is extremely slow, yet because of the wild and varying subject matter it continues to pull you in and keep you questioning how everything will come together in the end. The length of the film is definitely felt as you pass the halfway point, and at moments you feel like the film could end during any of the scenes in the last 40 minutes yet the payoff in the finale is well worth the slow burn.
Sound is atypical and immersive oftentimes chaotic or stopping abruptly to complement the visuals. The soundtrack is memorable and also pays tribute to classic Mexican culture at times.
The plot is extremely visual and it is obvious why this story is best told in the film medium. It is an audio-visual experience that cannot be easily described any other way. I would be very curious to read the screenplay to see exactly how some of these sequences were translated from word to screen because at times there are moments that feel indescribable, other moments that feel far too absurd to be taken seriously on the page. It’s interesting that this film is classified as a comedy, as it plays a lot with grief, loss, drama, action, and romance. This isn’t a “coming of age” film more as it is a “coming to terms with age” film.
It touches a lot of themes of self reflection and those thoughts that stick with you as your life goes on. The recurring thoughts that haunt you; the self-image and regret you hold for yourself, the hard truths that you’ve come to understand, the relationships that shape who you are. It’s a very emotional and extremely personal watch being a filmmaker myself - this made the film relatable on multiple levels and definitely gave extra food for thought during certain scenes. There were a lot of moments comparing order and chaos, especially in the scenes with ensemble casts - the war reenactment, the bodies falling in the street, the airport. There were also a lot of visuals involving the elements - water, sand, sky, desert, rain, etc. some of which interestingly bled into scenes where they normally wouldn’t belong.
All the performances were authentic, captivating, and fitting of the story. Silverio’s family had a very comfortable dynamic with great chemistry. The talk show host was very charismatic and a great contrast to the softer characters in the film like his wife and daughter. The fully Mexican cast added an authenticity to the story that would not have been achieved otherwise, making the film thoroughly enjoyable.
Due to its length I can’t say that this film is extremely re-watchable, but it definitely deserves a handful of watches because of the ending and the multiple interpretations you could pull from the scenes having the full context of the story in mind. Definitely worth watching until the very end.
>> 8.2/10 <<
Pacing: 6/10
Editing: 10/10
Plot: 10/10
Acting: 8/10
Cinematography: 10/10
Re-watch-ability: 6/10
Soundtrack: 7.5/10