Chicuarotes

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.

The movie will keep you interested from the beginning to the end, it shows the reality of many people in México and what they have to go through everyday (crime, violence, etc). It will make you laugh several times and also drop some tears.

I think it is the harsh reality of the Mexico that currently exists, the things that happen in this movie have really happened in the country, and it is a slight adaptation of it.

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.

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!