The Arroyo

The Arroyo is better than most of the low budget (independent?) stuff being made today. Quite a few mistakes but compared to some of the 'basura' I have endured on Neflix and Amazon, it is a gem. Ok, some problems: the political meeting that the men attended was for a Maricopa congressman. Phoenix, the capital of AZ is in Maricopa county, but they do not have any dirt on the border. In fact, Phoenix is 150 miles north of the border. Tucson, where I am from is still 50 miles from the border. The long stretch of AZ/Mex border pretty much has only three towns of any size; Yuma, Nogales, and Douglas. Also, this land is very hot and barren and does not work out well for cattle or ranching with the exception of "porky spas" and the High Chapperal.

I've waundered astray, so back to the film. The characters were a bit redundant and the lines given them a bit cliche, but overall performed adequately. Not much depth given to the wife and the son was a little too "old west" for a modern rendering. The cartels down here in the Southwest are invasive, however not suicidal as portrayed in the flick.

Once again, a decent movie for the buck.

After seeing this twice, I was totally blown away by the completeness of the film. Being a low-budget project, it can hold its own against a wasteful Hollywood money-pit film. The major characters were natural and totally believable. A few (mind you a few) flaws, but for local talent it was an impressive display of talent in a small community. Jeremy Boring is one to be watching. I have to give David Armendariz and country crooner Kenny Maines (The Maines Brothers Band, also Natalie Maines uncle) kudos for bringing larger than life characters to the big screen in believable fashion. The cinematography is better than most big budget movies.

I wouldn't have written a review if it wasn't for someone that written a review and gave it a 1. with the title "BORING", and then started giving off points.

let's say i were to really hate the movie, and give it the worst possible scores, i still can't give it anything below 4-5 /10, because no matter the theme, the likes and dislikes, it's a well made feature film. and thus giving it that score really makes everything you write afterwards be no more than a simple rant, not a fair review. So let me give you my attempt at correcting that mistake in addressing some of the not so valid points that person had to write.

Well as someone who studied and still studies cinema and movie making i can understand that the script isn't done by classical "rules" of script making, that is that we must have characters, and conflicts to make us sympathize with the characters on screen, both good and bad. bad this movie doesn't really need it because it deals with broader issues, and it's not about just one single characters struggle. while us laymen like to watch someone rise to greatness (because it's boring to watch complete character, we always want flaws and motives and development) this movie features confident near complete good characters and complete bad characters, much closer like it is in real life and that partly because the movie creator believes in good and evil in my opinion. The movie doesn't needto empathize on character development since it's a slice of life - action western which deals with life itself in general and not just one or two characters and their struggle. this out of the box thinking isn't laziness. Again, just because it doesn't fit the Hollywood formula of making a film, doesn't make it poor.

the shooting is very good as well, thought out and accurate. the dialogues could have used some more (but not a lot) polish and trim in the script department, but they are good, the movie isn't trying to please mainstream folks who don't have any patience to hear dialogues anymore.

The sound is about 8, since i'm into film making i noticed a few minor things i'm not sure someone that didn't try would have noticed them at all.

The acting is good for the most part. any fixed here can be attributed to the dialogue in the script mostly. and i noticed only a few minor flaws in the main characters. some more noticeable ones in a few of the side ones, including the wife which lacks some emotion.

Now, regarding the themes. Overall the theme of the movie is mixed, it takes a step back from traditional mainstream cinema and gives us something much more personal in my opinion, it makes me think in most scenes "how would i react", which is great, and that's what replaces the need to sympathize with the main characters that we see mostly in scripts and mainstream movies these days. The movie deals with moral issues, with the culture itself, when it is right to act? should we act? and shows that not acting and standing up can be deadly. it's a film about lost family values we should regain, about the need for men to be man, not becoming men- children, same for wives. Politically, I think that aside from trimming some places in the dialogue and while it does criticize the government, it's legit and the theme can't and must not be considered conservative alone, the values are have to be shared between both ideologies, your government have to protect you in such cases but it doesn't, and it's a valid point.

Now I don't live in the US, but i do live in a country that is a melting pot and those issues hit a soft spot for me due to our own immigration and crime problems. I realize that although a lot of movies try to make us feel good about ourselves when we finish watching it, this movie makes me think about my life much more, how i want to act for my family, as a man, and as person in my community and country, realizing i'm too passive in todays modern society.

Moreover, it is crown funded, and a low budget movie, which we should take into account when trying to compare it to Hollywood titles. I think it stands by itself, it's a good piece of cinema, the likes of which we don't get to (more like - don't want to) notice in a world where we seek to avoid facing our troubles and be entertained alone.

For me the message is clear - Face your problems, don't sit and wait. 8/10 overall.

OK, so this is a B movie. It lacks the textural depth of a first-rate Hollywood production, but it's watchable, which is more than I can say for a lot of B movies. Whether you like this movie or not will depend largely on which side of the political divide you stand on. It's unlikely that any lefties will choose to watch this movie, but if they do, it will probably only be to give it a negative review. In fact, it's somewhat refreshing to see more conservative values featured for a change. Hollywood would never do it.

As in most B movies, some actors perform better than others. For the most part, the acting is tolerable. The bad guy is bad and in the mold of the 'No Country for Old Men' villain. Some scenes are actually quite nicely directed.

I don't live on the border so I have little idea how true this story could be, but my guess it has some truth in it. For those seriously interested in this topic, I highly recommend the Oscar nominated documentary, Cartel Land, which is a real eye-opener. But The Arroyo will do as an introduction to the topic.

Trash produced by bigots. No redeeming qualities as a movie. Only propaganda by and for stupid people. The entire crew and cast, the writer especially (who is also the director naturally, since no self-respecting director would ever agree to make a movie out of hateful unsympathetic junk writing such as this and not be immune from obvious accusations of complicity that would haunt his career forever), but the actors as well, they must all hate themselves to stoop so low to agree to take part in this crime of cinema. I can understand a valid propaganda film that professes its biased viewpoint upfront, tells you like it is, no pulled punches, but this movie masquerades as a serious drama, as if this is a valid Hollywood or Indie film about real people, made in the tradition of filmmaking, either as a documentary or a drama that cares about its characters, instead of what this really is: a sledgehammer wielded by a deranged maniac smashing your skull in with his words and pictures of oh-so-much wisdomly hate, lies, and drivel.