Drama/Mex

2006 "Your misery is my joy"
5.9| 1h45m| en| More Info
Released: 11 July 2007 Released
Producted By: Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Two stories unfold over the same long, hot day in Acapulco. The first involves Fernanda, who is forced to deal with the emergence of her ex-lover. Her boyfriend must compete with the sexual tension they share. The second concerns Jamie, a worker attempting suicide, until a girl disrupts his plan.

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Reviews

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
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.
owlcat-1 Fairly early on in this film I had this dreaded thought: the central characters lack any real heart or integrity. Then I sat through it hoping the plot would develop these "rats" into people I could possibly care about. The five main characters largely remained rodents right to the bitter end. So the characterizations lacked depth (primarily not the actors fault). This isn't a gritty story about hardship. It almost feels random, without real voice, what happens just happens. The title indicates this is a (lightweight) drama. It just didn't lift off the runway. Technically the camera work was a bit rough, and the subtitles were poor. Great or even just good festival/independent films can percolate in your head for days afterwards. This film left me as soon as I left the film.
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.
sayedsaber Definitely the best film I saw at Cannes. Mexican cinema is really coming a long way right now, and this film was even better than Tu Mama Tambien. The director filmed the whole thing with a hand-held video camera and amateur actors (who were his friends). His approach gives the film a real gritty feeling, keeping clean of that "hollywood smell". His shots are beautiful and graceful, as is the story. It was filled with emotion, drama (obviously), and strong characters. It compels you to continue watching, without even being really sure what the plot/point is. It is a film that inspires hope in life (and life's little unexpected and unwanted surprises) and encourages us all to view beauty and innocence where we can find it, because it is so often lacking. For a film that was created essentially without a budget, it rivals and often surpasses those Hollywood blowouts that lose the essence of film making in a drive for commercial success. I strongly recommend Drama/Mex to anyone who also enjoys independent cinema and beautiful films, and pray that it comes out on DVD in the states sometime soon.