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rirwin
Reviews
Bad hombres (2020)
cinema verite character study of homeless deported migrants
This film follows several denizens of a homeless camp located along the Mexico side of the border in an isolated canyon within the city limits of Tijuana. Most or all of them were deported from the US, most are men, some are drug addicts. But to me this is not about "bad hombres" or deportation, but rather about the day to day lives of people who for whatever reason have chosen to be homeless, in a small homeless community. The shadow of the border wall and US immigration policy are there in the background, but they are not the focus of the camera. It is quite unusual to obtain such frank footage of people living off the grid, some of whom clearly suffer from grave psychological traumas. The film offers interesting insights into how people can live without income, electricity, water, etc. within the city limits of a large modern city, and at the very edge its wealthy but often hostile neighboring nation. Especially impressive is the cinematography, both the landscapes and the human shots.
Santa (1932)
This is the best of several Mexican versions of Gamboa's best-selling novel.
While this version makes several noticeable changes from Federico Gamboa's 1902 novel (most notably, it eliminates the lesbian prostitute, la Gaditana, and transforms the role of Marcelino in a way that significantly affects the degree to which Santa's vicious nature is to blame for her betrayal of her lover, el Jarameño), the script is well written, the film is well acted and it remains a joy to watch. While the silent version is still fun as well, the later version with Ricardo Montalbán is quite awful.