Heli

A newly married couple struggles to make a living in an arid landscape and cinder block home with barred windows. A violent culture of drugs and illicit sex simmers beneath the surface of their surroundings and lives. As do hidden psychological wounds, meddlesome bureaucrats and unfeeling, brutal thugs for cops. They are at pains to see it, yet the couple's meager existence is belied by other family members, chirping cactus wrens and Gambel's quail, friendly little dogs, and love. The forces of light and darkness lock in a vicious battle for supremacy in this family's life. Before the film began a woman from the area of Mexico where this story is set, testified that the film is true to the way things really are. Non-professional actors carry the weight of portraying the story and do so in a compelling way. Certainly this is one of the reasons why this film won the "best director" prize at Cannes. Other reasons include beautiful cinematography and an enthralling story. This is not a film for the squeamish. The story moves slowly yet, as with the setting sun, this does not detract from its beauty.

A dark and twisted tale set in Mexico with beautiful cinematography. It might be very hard to watch for its long takes and some incredibly disturbing scenes.

"Heli" tells the tragic story of main character (Heli), a teenager, and his sister's boyfriend, a soldier, who gets Heli's family in trouble when he tries to steal some cocaine.

The movie was pretty slow for the first two acts, its up until the third act that the action starts. I did admire the technical aspects of it (the cinematography), but it wasn't really anything special as the critics are saying. It felt like they were trying to emulate what Carlos Reygadas does in his films, but I did get what they meant when they called it unflinching.

It was really heartbreaking to watch, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone for the brutal violence and animal cruelty it contains. I would've liked it a lot better if they would've hurried up with the story by editing a couple of scenes out, had the actors showed a little more emotion, or had the film made a more satiric approach like "El Infierno".

As I said, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, at least not to watch it in a movie theater, but if you're looking for an artsy, realistic crime story you might like it if you enjoyed movies similar to "Irreversible", "Traffic", "Despues de Lucia", "The Hunt", or "Amour".

HELI is a Mexican crime film marketed as a dark and disturbing thriller that reveals the terrible fall-out that follows on from an ordinary family falling foul of drug dealing gang members. What reviews also failed to mention is that it's rather dull and stodgy, for the most part.

The problem with HELI is the attempted worthiness; this was conceived as Oscar bait, so there's a level of stillness and artiness throughout. I don't mind arty films per se, but they have to be interesting enough to keep my attention, such as Andrzej Zulawski's POSSESSION. While HELI certainly has plenty of redeeming qualities, such as some quite stunning landscape cinematography, there just isn't enough story to sustain the running time.

The set-up of the film, introducing a poor family in rural Mexico, is okay as things go. Then things get very dark and harrowing with the crime story, including some unflinching torture sequences which offer the sort of stuff we've never seen before. It's truly shocking and easily the best part of the film.

And yet it seems to fizz out after that. The last act goes back to the sedate feel of the early scenes and it proves a real anticlimax compared to what's gone before. I understand the writer/director's intention is to depict the effect of trauma upon ordinary lives, but the characters just aren't interesting or likable enough that you care. HELI had plenty of potential, but that's the issue I had with it: I just didn't care a jot for any of those involved.

Amat Escalante won the Best Director prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and it's easy to see why. "Heli" is an absolutely brilliant and utterly uncompromising study of crime and poverty filmed with a documentary-like precision that makes its scenes of violence virtually unwatchable, (including a scene where a boy's genitals are set on fire). At its core are several extraordinary performances by a young cast who inhabit their roles so completely it's impossible to tell where the actor ends and the character begins. Heli is an 'outlaw' not in any criminal sense, (he is totally innocent), but in the sense that he exists outside the fringes of society and is sucked into a criminal underworld by circumstances totally outside his control, (his young sister's boyfriend has hidden drugs stolen from a drugs cartel inside Heli's home). This is humanist cinema but set in a place almost devoid of humanity. It's frightening, bleak and deeply disturbing but also essential viewing. A masterpiece

This is a brutal Mexican film from director Amat Escalante. I took a shot at it based on his movie, The Untamed. I thought it was a creative entry into the horror genre. Heli is a reality based on the real life drug wars in Mexico. A twelve year-old girl, Estela, has chosen a seventeen year-old as her boyfriend; a really bad choice in her young life. Her brother gets caught in the middle of a battle over some stolen cocaine with horrific consequences. A torture scene is beyond the one in Reservoir Dogs. I found it to move slowly throughout the second half and the ending is not exactly uplifting.