User Reviews

Juan is a normal everyday guy, but after a run in at a bookshop his trip to Barcelona is cute short and he finds himself in with the Mexican mob. There wasn't really much that I liked about this film. They first 25 minutes were dreary and not a single things happened. It picks up a little at the thirty minutes mark as we get into some crime stuff as promised but it's very little. The rest of the film to me didn't make sense. The only thing I did enjoy was valentinas character and her wacky dancing. Her character was the only one that had substance but sadly the movie could not be saved it was just not all that great.

I definitely wasn't sure where this was going at the beginning, especially giving some gratuitous porn at the films opening. But soon enough we get an idea that we are aboard a Mexican film noir train transposed to Barcelona, all the better to reflect on the continuing legacy of post colonialism. The film has a lot to say but does it by telling the story of the hapless hero sucked into a ruthless world of organised crime, an insidious aspect of modern Mexico and from which there is no escape. I liked the way the film stays small and personal to tell a bigger story. The acting is great and the direction is steadied and assured.

A surprising story, a tone that constantly oscillates between comedy and tragedy, farce and hyperrealism, narrated with great skill where each subplot and secondary character has ample reason for being,with several main plots finely interwoven, on the one hand it is the story of the search for the dreams of an apprentice writer and his academic preparation, on the other the chronicle of a strange case of manipulation and abuse of the Mexican mafia in combination with political and Spanish police. An extraordinary script, with great dialogues where Spanish-speaking characters from all latitudes alternate, of course Mexicans, Catalans, Argentines, Chileans, even Italians (based in Barcelona and speaking in Spanish). The direction and editing are simply fantastic, the narrative speed is always dizzying, the plot always advances at a dizzying pace and takes sudden and unexpected turns ending with a very tragic ending.

. Some fantastic performances such as Alexis Ayala, Juan Minuyin or Carmen Beato.