Chicuarotes

It could have been good, but the execution was rather poor. Nothing about the characters made me believe that they would act the way they did, it kind of just concluded that poor people are stupid, rather than that poverty/in search of better life led them to take desperate measures and make silly mistakes.

There are plenty of other films where the idea of poverty followed by tragic events were constructed in a better and more realistic way, this one doesn't even fall in the mediocre category.

What a nice surprise was this movie. Chicuarotes is the raw story of a couple of characters born in misery, and to whom the future does not bring more than more misery.

Loaded with urbanity, sleaze language, black humor and helplessness, CHICUAROTES manages to portray with realism the difficult life of those who have very little, sometimes nothing ... and their attempt to leave a vicious circle in seemingly infinite. Bravo!

Skimming through the reviews, I noticed that a common critic consists on portraying the characters as "too dumb". Unfortunately, the representation is accurate and many people in CDMX (as in any city in which ignorance and poverty prevail) do think in such primary ways. The movie is built on a metaphor: axolotls ("water monster" in nahuatl, prehispanic tongue) which are salamanders endemic to CDMX that never fully develop and remain tadpoles, even as adults, for the rest of their lives. Axolotls are often seen throughout the movie: (a) inside the fishbowl of the main character's (Cagalera) girlfriend, and (b) outside the canteen, as graphity, before Cagalera enters the canteen and is beaten by his "dad". Some say we Mexicans are like axolotls: we have the potential to develop and finally mature as a nation, but never achieve to do so. Just like axolotls, we perpetually stay behind our true potential. We are no more than perpetual tadpoles. The movie tries to address this issue. As long as ignorance, violence, retaliation, machismo, homophobia, and similar problems portrayed in the movie prevail, no progress will be ever achieved.

If someone imagined it could happen, the story of chicuarotes is one of many unfortunate stories that surround the most poor in Mexico and developing countries, it portrays in an immersive manner the struggles and the ignorance of people that are just born, raised and mourned in misery. It is not a movie that generates guilt in the viewer rather than it awakens appreciation of what you have and confronts you to the terrible reality that some people live, from your comfortable couch. Characters are poorly developed but not stupid as some say, it is really a series of bad decisions.

A lot to process.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about this movie in this review section. Once a person understands the culiture of CDMX and the life of a chilango en México then that person will be able to understand this movie. Great delivery and full of emotional drama. I would not expect anything less from a Mexican director. Great cast, great characters and this movie portrayed the real struggle in cdmx. This movie is a heavy movie. Full of emotion and was delivered very well. I am just adding extra characters to this post to meet the minimum.

Para mis mexicanos, somos más fuertes juntos. Vive México.