Pelo malo

'Pelo Malo' means 'Bad Hair' and Junior is a nine year old growing up in a slum project with his single parent mother. He finds it hard to fit in and is constantly mistreated by his mother; this same mother dotes on his baby brother – who happens to have straight hair. Junior has curly hair – but apparently the absent father is the same for both of them.

His mother works for poverty wages and is not averse to doing anything to get her old job back as a security guard. Meanwhile poverty sticks to everything around Junior like a bad smell in towering estates that are all concrete and hopelessness – he still manages to dream and see some beauty with the help of his little girl friend. He also wants to be a singer with straight hair and will try any old wives tale to make his curls go straight.

This is an unusual film that was said to be a Venezuelan 'Precious' and I can see some parallels but little more than that. It is not a film that will have you 'skyping home' but it will make you think. The cinematography is actually quite good too, but the story did feel a bit padded at times – still it is good to see South America tackling issues of mixed race families, poverty and crime.

I had high hopes for this movie, believing that it would address the issue of finding one's identity and coming of age as a hispanic person, no matter what complexion you are. This movie is the Spanish language version of the movie Precious. The intended audience is mostly likely middle to upper class whites, to invoke empathy and disgust for the plight this boy faces and the abuse he endures from the people closest to him.

This movie has very little to do with "Pelo Malo" or bad hair, and is mostly about a boy who grows up with very little parental supervision or guidance, and always ends up in situations where older adults are trying to take advantage of him sexually and force him into certain abnormal gender roles (aka being tricked into becoming homosexual). I'm probably going to catch a lot of flak here for saying this, but this is a movie about underage sexual child abuse and neglect. If you're into that sort of thing, then this movie is for you(imho, this movie should be banned or come with a stern warning at best). If you're looking for an intellectually stimulating movie that touches on issues of race and coming to terms with one's identity, steer clear of this movie. It will leave you shaking your head. It is a bewildering roller coaster ride of sexual innuendo involving children, and ultimately, very depressing and anti-climatic.

Captivating and tells a lot about the lives of the people living there. How politics remains on the background, how dominant ideas shape the reaction of the mother and the immense poverty they live under is grasped perfectly.

Nothing uplifting about this movie. Long, depressing (and cruel) ...with a disappointing ending. Should have been called "Bad Movie."

I think that in this movie Pelo Malo by Mariana Rondón shows the problematic of the identity search of the Junior child. At the same time, it touches on topics such as family, childhood, racism, popular culture, and also the social, political and economic situation of Venezuelan society. Junior appears in the film as a poor child of low resources but he wants to look different from what he is, that's why he wants to lace his hair to pretend to be another but. But this brings with it the idea of racism in that society, her mother thinks she sees herself as a woman, not as a man. I think this happens because of the problem that exists in those Latin American countries that have a very old culture rooted in their society, like machismo. Racism is another problem in these countries, people can be treated and judged by just how they look physically. You can also see the desperation of the junior mother to be able to work and that without her work, her children could not eat, a sad reality in these poor countries. In his in this story shows the social reality of Venezuela, and the discrimination that is seen and felt in the streets of this country.