Review of Sonora, the Devil's Highway

Alejandro Springall' s 6th feature film tells a story at the beginning of the century in northern Mexico, when the United States closed its southern border and Chinese Mexicans were victims of discrimination. Cinematography is interesting. However, the use of aerial shots is abused, so the viewer soon gets tired. The soundtrack is totally nondescript. But "Sonora"s main problem is its lack of a good script. At one point we have up to ten individuals, perhaps more, traveling through the desert in a car, but the script does not focus on any of them to tell the story from their point of view. If the script had focused, for example, on the Chinese immigrant's family, and four or five characters had been erased from the script, an interesting, even poignant, story could have been told. As it stands, the film feels like bad editing of a much longer story. However, if you like desert aerial shots, you wont be disappointed.