Museo

The movie had a really cool/interesting story to pull from and I thought they did a pretty good job at keeping the story going, though there is one part where the plot drags a little. There were some really great and interesting cinematography. The movie over all is okay, would give it a 7.5 if I could. I think the film is worth the watch but make sure to read the actual story afterwards.

Museo (screenplay by Manuel Alcalá and Alonso Ruizpalacios; direction by Ruizpalacios) is the most cinematically stimulating movie I have seen so far this year. The film dramatizes an actual 1985 theft at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City but then shifts to focus on the emotional impact of the theft on the two perpetrators. About ten minutes into the film I found myself thinking, "They don't make movies like this anymore." Why did I feel that way? Both the subject matter -- the anomie of the middle-class in a nation with profound social divisions -- and Ruizpalacios's wide-screen composition recall Fellini and Antonioni films of sixty years ago. So do the dramatic Saul Bass-like titles, the symphonic score and sound design. Seek this movie out!

I looked forward to watching this movie for taking on a fascinating story. Having such an incredible base to work on gave this film so much potential. Gael's involvement usually entails quality. Not in this case. Other than some good performances (including Gael's), the rest is mediocre. The script, the flow, the adaptation. They did not even stick to the story! That was the easy part and it was such a good story. All in all, a missed opportunity.

This is Alonso Ruízpalacios' second masterpiece, after the gorgeous Güeros (2014). As a disclaimer, this is more of a road movie and character study, than a robbery movie, it doesn't glamorize neither the crime nor the criminals, and at the same time makes a commentary on Mexican society as a whole. Instead of the usual narrative of "the robbery of the century", the screenplay focuses more on asking the question "What kind of character would do something like that?" and creates the complex, troubled, and idealistic Juan, who, tired of his family that makes him feel like he doesn't belong, decides to find himself by doing something nobody else would do, he drags his best friend Wilson who is more of a victim of his friend's ideals than a criminal. They get on the road, and it will test the friendship of both. The cinematography is always top notch, camera acts as the thing that reflects Juan's unreliable point of view. Most of the time lacking depth of field, and distracting from the main film and contemplating parts of a world bigger than the plot, along with editing which is mostly slow, and other times experimental, it lets you see that the setting of the story is greater than the story itself. The acting is also amazing, this is one of those movies enhanced by how much an actor tells you about the character without the need to say anything. But where the movie shines the most is in the sound design, there are entire sequences in the film told only by sound, and other scenes that get a new context because of how the sounds are managed. And everything comes together by Ruízpalacios' directing. Many times through the film it reminds you, you are watching a movie by braking continuity, cutting in the middle of a conversation, or with actual directing orders in the middle of a scene, but it actually works to make it more magical.

As a side note This is a movie where setting matters, México is not only the place this movie happens, it is the only place it could happen. Not only because of the poorly managed security in the museum, the way road military operates, or the erratic way news travel, but because of the lack of identity in the characters, feeling as if the pieces were their right to steal because those too were taken. Something I've always find lackluster in most Mexican films is how little they resemble Mexico, most of them usually work as a parody of the people and culture. But in both, Güeros and Museo, it is a celebration of the things that makes México an unique country, In neither a negative or positive view, but in one full of awareness. It is the first time in a long time that I've seen a film and actually said "this is a movie set in the same Mexico I live".

Nihilism in the film captivated me from beginning to end. While there are implications of cultural imperialism, the culture poisoning of the individual has also been shown. The institution of 'family' has been included in the dilemma as the institution to which the individual both wants to move away and which he remains attached. Many people have criticized the lacuna in the script, but I think this was left on purpose because the movie rejected the causality principle from the beginning. Sound editing tooks part in the movie as an actor/actress. The black woman with a bleeding nose at the party, the rubik's cube, and the people jumping into the water... Each symbol is skillfully placed.