Heli

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.

'Heli' begins as a touch portrait of the life of a Mexican family; but turns into something darker when they fall into the path of a murderous gang of drug dealers. The film's third section charts what happens afterwards, and is arguably the least satisfactory portion of the movie: it's not that the film is unconvincing, but it's unclear what is added beyond what one might have expected. The ambiguous mood of the ending is arguably a sign of failure rather than success: of a film uncertain of its own point. What is good, on the other hand, is the warm and naturalistic acting, and a believable portrait of everyday dreams and their ending.

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

I think most of us have seen the brutal violence of cartels on the internet for years. Some of the worse atrocities you can commit against a human being are floating around online. Knowing that the violence in this movie is tame as the movie gives a voice to the families effected by drug related violence in their towns.

Without saying to much on the story shows a loving family torn apart in an instance over drug traffickers. The story is not far removed from reality. There's plenty of these types of tales taking place on Mexico and plenty of video footage and news reports about it over the internet for the curious. I'd say real life is worse.

This movie gives but a small taste into that. It's told beautifully with a certain type of dry poetry to it. It's not the Rambo vengeance story you want but it's just an ordinary man trying to cope with keeping himself and his family together after being victims of drug traffickers.

Well...you wouldn't want to be poor and living in South America after watching this... that's for sure ! A not so jolly tale of drug barons , suppressed working class no-hopers , and victims . Bleak it may be...but gripping nonetheless . We are told the tale of Heli , and his family...who suffer major mis-fortune in a violent drug torn world. Your heart goes out to them all as you watch the suffering grow .

The film contains some graphic scenes (one of which will have all men squirming). However , the biggest audience gasp was heard when the little doggy had its brief moment on centre stage !

A feel good film it isn't .