TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

gavin6942 Rodrigo and his friends are bored teenagers living in Medellin. Rodrigo wants to start a punk band. The youths mainly loaf around the hillside shanty towns and, for kicks, steal a bike or car, or shoot someone.This film really grabbed me. Not necessarily for any specific reason, but more for the overall concept. One, you have the setting in Medellin. For me, that is synonymous with the drug cartel. And at the time this film was released (1990), I am sure that is exactly what it was going for.Also, the punk rock scene. This is probably naive on my part, but I don't generally think of punk music as being so international. I know there are punk bands everywhere, but it seems odd to have one as the focus of a South American movie. Maybe that's normal. But this surprise is what really made this a great film for me.

Falconeer There is no linear story to be found in this documentary style film from director Victor Gaviria, so fans of typical mainstream style films probably will not like this, very important film. "Rodrigo D. No Futuro" is basically a glimpse into the lives of a group of Medellin teenagers, living a pointless existence. With no opportunity for work, or escape, they spend their days hanging out in the streets, drinking, and sometimes robbing people who they see as being in a better position than themselves. Never having money unless they rob someone or sell some stolen goods, they have nothing, and nothing to lose. Rodrigo, according to his sister, is a bum, with no ambition, and no purpose in life. This is not really true, as he does have one dream, and that is to start a punk band. To do this, he needs a set of drums. Rodrigo is a likable character, and we want this guy to somehow realize his dream, to get his drums, to form the band, and to possibly find the way out of a bleak situation. But as the film goes on, we see that this will not be, for any of the young people in this place. As far as a story goes, that is pretty much it. The director, rather than casting professional actors, instead used real teenagers, from the barrio in which this is filmed. Of all the kids featured here, only the main actor, Ramiro Meneses continued to make films after this one. Four of the others died shortly after completion, murdered some say, because of their involvement with this film. I believe that fact makes this movie all the more important, as these guys should not be forgotten, and their stories and lives should reach the attention of as many people as possible. Everyone turns in great and powerful performances. There are scenes of the kids interacting with their families and friends, and although they have so little in the way of material things, they do seem to have some feeling of family in their community, as everyone lives so close to each other. The landscape of the environment is that of a brutal, treeless urban desert, with the hot Colombian sun forever beating down, adding to the general feeling of hopelessness that this film has. There are no artistic camera angles, no scenes of typical artistic merit, and I believe this to be intentional. The tone and style simply reflects the lives of these teenagers. Some complain that it is unfocused, and that nothing happens in the course of it's 90 minute running time. But that is the point, to show lives with no focus or direction, or future. Rodrigo D. has a small cult following among punk rockers, and for good reason. There is some good street punk music throughout the movie, and the main characters are punks, listening to and wearing t-shirts of bands like Sex Pistols and Exploited. And there are so many great scenes, like the band rehearsal in the hills, and 'Little John's' funeral, and the scenes of Rodrigo arguing with his sister, or his dad, who is forever trying to talk some sense into his rebellious son. And Rodrigo is forever banging his drumsticks on walls, and everywhere else, always trying to get those drums. But he never does, there is no happy ending. I recommend this film to people who are interested in looking beyond their own lives and worlds, to see other cultures, and to understand their struggles and dreams. Unfortunately this is a hard title to find, but if you get the chance, see this special film.

micolta I f you are into a nice and safe Hollywood style of film like ¨City of God¨were poverty is cool, with cosmopolitan bourgeois actors like Seu Jorge, and there is in the end a happy ending (not to mention social commentary 25 plus years after the said incident...pretty cowardly), then please do not watch Rodrigo D: No Futuro. Mature ten, perhaps twenty years and see it then. The title of the film precedes what one should expect of the structure in the film....¨no future¨. There is no concept of time in this film which is why it is filmed in an aimless manner. ¨Pulp Fiction¨came out in 1994 and it was championed because it disturbed a traditional notion of time, BUT ¨Rodrigo D¨came out in 1990 (1988, in fact but released in 1990) and the conception of time or better said timelessness in the film is by far much more important than that of ¨Pulp Fiction¨. What is of key importance in the film is the final scenes when one is led to believe that the protagonist Rodrigo has committed suicide and then time is cut back, so we think or are made to question, to a scene that we think already happened: the murder of a punk by three bored street kids. The murder of the punk is presented in this ¨cut-back¨from the point of view of the victim where, after being shot what he (we) see is a body dangling in the trees, going no-where. We do not know if it is alive or dead, we can only assume that it is Rodrigo D's body just there, as if without a past and stagnant and, therefore, with no future. This movie is not glamorous, which is what makes it what it is. There are no John Travoltas. All of the actors were real street kids; Gaviria erases here the line between documentary and fiction and throws out the window the notion of the script, literally (rodigo jumps, remember). And this film as i mentioned above is not cowardly like¨City of God¨. It was filmed in the actual neighborhood where it is supposed to take place and not in some studio made to look like a beautiful Brazilian favela. The kids in the movie lived in this neighborhood and unfortunately due too their screen exposure four, to my knowledge, were singled out for execution for participating in social commentary of the present time. They were killed before reaching the age of 20 for being in this film. This movie really anticipates the acclaimed American film ¨Kids¨by Larry Clark except, again, the film ¨kids¨used actors who wanted to be mainstream actors, probably of the middle classes. ¨City of God¨ takes place 30 some years prior to the film's release, typical of the Hollywood political rule. Lastly, if it should be compared then at least in attitude it should be compared to ¨repo man¨, not because ¨repo man¨is as important but because both contain a certain aspects of Punk (when punk had just died) which is practically impossible to depict to-day. As for Punks who were swastikas, try Sid Vicious, New Order, and Joy Division. The taking of a fascist symbol and twisting its meaning by wearing it in degrading form just too annoy the REAL Fascist AT HEART was a punk specialty. do your homework.

Verbal-17 This is a brilliant movie about Rodrigo and his friends, a group of punks who wander the streets of Medellin, getting high, stealing cars, listening to Punk and Heavy Metal music. They're stuck in lives of poverty, with no opportunities and no motivation to try to improve their lives. Their routine is interrupted only when the cops catch up with one of them (which is really an inevitability for all of them, sooner or later), or they get into a fight. Rodrigo dreams of starting a rock band, something that might give his life some meaning (he has no education beyond the 1st grade, has no job, and basically sits around the house all day listening to his family complain about how lazy he is). The movie depicts the world of Rodrigo and his friends with harsh realism, accompanied by striking cinematography, pulsing rock music, and a script with an ear for how these people communicate. While this movie is clearly influenced by "Los Olvidados," it also bears a resemblance to Alex Cox's great "Sid and Nancy" - we are invited to see the world in which these young rebels live, and to understand the ways in which it can destroy them.