Scanialara
You won't be disappointed!
Greenes
Please don't spend money on this.
Protraph
Lack of good storyline.
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Roland E. Zwick
"Drama/Mex" tells of three everyday people in Acapulco whose lives intersect over the course of a two-day period. The characters include an attractive young woman named Fernanda (Diana Garcia), who's having trouble deciding whether to stay with her current beau (Juan Pablo Castaneda) or to return to her thieving cad of an ex-boyfriend (Emilio Valdes); a middle-aged business man named Jaime (Fernando Becerril), who's contemplating suicide as a way out of his unhappiness (there's a hint that he might be having an incestuous relationship with either his daughter or stepdaughter); and a half naïve/half streetwise girl named Tigrillo (Miriana Moro), who's in the process of learning how to rip off rich, male tourists for fun and profit. The last two characters meet when Tigrillo slips into Jaime's beachside motel room to steal his wallet right at the moment that he has a loaded gun to his head. Together, these two people with relatively little in common beyond their happening to be at the same place at the same time, manage to forge an unlikely relationship that defies easy labeling."Drama/Mex" is a homespun, slice-of-life drama that isn't obsessed with making big dramatic gestures or revealing grand universal truths about human nature. Instead, it simply introduces us to its characters and lets their stories play out naturally, with very little manipulation or fanfare. Though the narrative is clearly contrived to some extent, the film still manages to capture the random nature of life as we live it. The characters don't necessarily "learn" anything from their experiences - but they do emerge from those experiences, to some degree or another, "changed" people, willing to look at their lives from a decidedly different vantage.Superb performances (especially by Becerril and Moro) and direction (by Gerardo Naranjo, who also wrote the screenplay), and a refusal to tie everything up into a neat little bow at the end add to the movie's overall quality and appeal.
Andres Zambrano
Gerardo Naranjo's sophomore feature, "Drama/Mex", is as unhinged as its protagonists. Essentially, the film plays out as an Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu hybrid, dubiously trying to forcefully connect three stories uncoiling in Acapulco. The first is of Fernanda (Diana Garcia) who runs into Chano (Emilio Valdes), her ex boyfriend at a café; the next thing you know, they're already in bed. In this case, the drama here is that, as familiar as it may seem, she already has a boyfriend named Gonzalo (Juan Pablo Castaneda). At the same time, another tedious narrative thread follows Mariana, who, after just being hired by fellow prostitutes, spots Jaime (Fernando Becerril)—a pretty damn old man who has such meaningless life that he essentially goes to the city to kill himself—and gets him to feed her, entertain her, and shelter her. Despite its grand, promising opening sequence filled with ambition and audacity, the main problem with "Drama/Mex", of course, is its callously exasperating narrative; jaundiced to its very core, it ends up going all over the place, as we now find Gonzalo attacking Chano, Jaime at the club, Fernanda running all over the place, and Mariana buying anything she can. Essentially, what starts out as a finely nuanced, audaciously handsome drama evolves into a frustrating imbroglio, as its familiar ending fails to unite its narrative threads, finally culminating happily yet with a profound feel—and, as odd as it may seem, such disaster can be pliantly interpreted; even appealingly. Indeed, "Drama/Mex" is not entirely with out its merit: Naranjo's mesmerizing camera work fits its milieu perfectly, and the fact that he first studies his characters before sending them to ruin is proof of its boundless self-confidence—all of which are perpetuated by the miraculous cast that, indeed, beautifully portray their dubious situations.
alvarito
The best Mexican FILM for the last 8 years. A lesson to Reygadas and other ART filmmakers, it shows that you can go to Cannes as a consequence of your talent, not to your skills as a provocation seller.A lesson to commercial directors and producers, I dare them to touch and entertain the audience like this film does.Mexican cinema needs to encourage this kind of artists, we have to stop spending millions of dollars making trash, Lets do 10 of this beautiful human experiences instead of one big meaningless bullshit.Naranjo and guys like Iván Avila, Julian Hernandez, Fernando Eimbcke and other newcomers deserve to shoot something every yearThanks for the effort...Looking forward the next films of Naranjo.
jackharmond
Interesting. I saw it last week in Tokio. It's very clear why the french like it. Despite the director's false modesty during the Q&A; (Repeating endlessly how much he suffers while shooting) the film left me with the sense of having seeing a great work of art.The use of music is a great nod-homage? to Godard. The acting is definitely Cassavetian. The directing of actors is unbelievable great. Still too chaotic for my taste. (The director kept saying that chaos was his only goal) Not for everybody. Machist, misogynistic, excessive use of foul language. Some characters behave like animals. I really dislike the provocation of mixing a rape scene within a romance plot. Why? Overall, I think the film is unique, it's not fashionable although it addresses important subjects. The director is a strange person but knows how to direct actors, after I watched the film I found myself thinking about the film for many days. The subject is the impossibility of being in love, I have followed many new Mexican films of what is called the Mexican new wave, this one is different, the characters morality is without a doubt a provocation. Loud and chaotic the film qualifies as interesting contemporary cinema.