Hugh Sullivan

To me it's absolutely ridiculous that one man has so much power at The New Yorker to control the content. Yes, I understand that it goes through David Remnick, but if they really want diversity, as they go through pains to show you, then that job should rotate. I also understand that this was made partly to promote Mankoff's book, but they didn't spend enough time with the other cartoonists. Of all the cartoonists, clearly the one they didn't spend enough time with was George Booth. Mr. Booth is in a special class of cartoonists. With a lot of cartoons, it's just about illustrating a punch line. They could be drawn by anyone. Like Mankoff. With Booth, George Price, Edward Steed, and quite a few others the image is funny even before they've written the caption. But George Booth also represents the history of the magazine. Which would be very interesting to hear. And then there is that hierarchy that they insist on displaying before their name. "This is Joe, and he only has 5 cartoons published. What a loser." In general that is the tone of The New Yorker. "We are the elite. If you don't get our jokes, then you're not smart enough." In the end you could see that Mankoff's wife knew that he was full of himself, and wanted to show off for the women.

Yes, it has moments of violence, but that's more a reflection of the 3 main characters lack of impulse control. The violence is more of an expression of their emotions. It's really a story about the 3-some. Many have praised Najwa Nimri's performance as Lucia, but I think they're missing the point. The heart of the piece is Chino. Gustavo Salmerón really steals the show with his sense of desperation and betrayal. It's hard to see what Lucia's motivations were, other than making a quick buck. I would have given it a higher rating if they had made the coming together of the 3-some were more realistic. Lucia says, "Things just happen." I don't think there's an actress alive who could make that line work. The relationship between the brothers was crucial to making this film work, but the mother-daughter thing seemed more like a plot device. Juan Diego Botto does a good job, but he doesn't have much to do.