La Saison des ouragans

How the hell is this riding at a 5/10? This film is an easy 8 but I'm giving it a 9 to buck the trend. It's not the standard fare murder mystery, but a dark examination of the myths, lies and tragic lives that lead to a brutal killing; a portrait of the people involved in the act and the social currents that provoked them. It's one of those little arthouse gems that tends to get bypassed for trending titles. The cinematography is beautifully simple but encompassing at the same time, and the performances are so subtle you might not notice there's some serious acting going on. I'm not in the Scorsese camp of pop-culture bashing, but the fact this film is only riding at a 5 rating suggests something rotten in our aesthetics.

I might have a biased opinion since I haven't read the book so I don't know how faithful the movie is to the source material.

However, judging the movie by itself I think is above the average.

The whole cast did an incredible job, and most of them have from zero to few experience in acting.

The cinematography is visually alluring, and Elisa Miller uses all the technical resources available in order to create a wild atmosphere.

The plot is properly developed, and even though there're a lot of issues mingling between one and another (extreme poverty, ignorance, prostitution, corruption and violence) every story is told enough.