In the debut film from Cary Fukunaga, we see Mexico as a place that is not completely hopeless but, really, the people who want to get out and migrate to America have good reason. The film, nor the filmmaker, doesn't really pass judgment on the situation currently happening with immigration of Mexicans to America. It just tells its story as is, that people do go by train (well, some of them) across Mexico, and under different circumstances. Some need the work, some are even coming from Guatemala. Others are actually escaping something. And here Fukunaga takes inspiration from two sources (at least it's my impression he does): El Norte, the 1980's drama about immigrants crossing Mexico to LA, and Amores Perros, in part about the grungy and hard-violence life of gang members.
Both stories are told with fascination, though if one is more compelling I might go with the story about the gangster who is in a group that is completely ruthless, inked and tattooed in specific markings (sometimes, as with the gang leader, all over their face), and have a really strict code in order to let in new people, like a young kid who wants in just because he has no place else to go. We see how this character eventually crosses paths with a young Guatemalan woman who plans to somehow get to New Jersey to see her family again. She goes with a couple of family members by a free transport- on top of a train going north along with a hundred others on top of the boxcar. The gang member comes across her, and joins her, in an unlikely set-up, but one that spells doom for him after he kills a fellow member (the leader actually).
Fukunaga features a nice balance between the very rough streets of Mexico with the inviting views of the mountains and plains and other visual sights to take in. He has a documentary eye for the locations without pushing it: we're just there with these people, and it looks and sounds and feels as ugly but also as beautiful as it can get. While towards the end the drama about whether or not this guy will get captured gains momentum perhaps predictably (you'll see what I mean when you see it, it's a tragic but all-too-necessary end), there are many memorable moments. I loved the scene where the train stops at the town, and all of a sudden the gang member along for the train-ride is spotted by his fellow ex-members looking to gun him down. But before they can get to him they get into a street war with a rival gang. It's unforced irony and it's wonderfully shot and exciting and unpredictable. If only for a few moments, Sin Nombre is alive in ways few films were in 2009.
Both stories are told with fascination, though if one is more compelling I might go with the story about the gangster who is in a group that is completely ruthless, inked and tattooed in specific markings (sometimes, as with the gang leader, all over their face), and have a really strict code in order to let in new people, like a young kid who wants in just because he has no place else to go. We see how this character eventually crosses paths with a young Guatemalan woman who plans to somehow get to New Jersey to see her family again. She goes with a couple of family members by a free transport- on top of a train going north along with a hundred others on top of the boxcar. The gang member comes across her, and joins her, in an unlikely set-up, but one that spells doom for him after he kills a fellow member (the leader actually).
Fukunaga features a nice balance between the very rough streets of Mexico with the inviting views of the mountains and plains and other visual sights to take in. He has a documentary eye for the locations without pushing it: we're just there with these people, and it looks and sounds and feels as ugly but also as beautiful as it can get. While towards the end the drama about whether or not this guy will get captured gains momentum perhaps predictably (you'll see what I mean when you see it, it's a tragic but all-too-necessary end), there are many memorable moments. I loved the scene where the train stops at the town, and all of a sudden the gang member along for the train-ride is spotted by his fellow ex-members looking to gun him down. But before they can get to him they get into a street war with a rival gang. It's unforced irony and it's wonderfully shot and exciting and unpredictable. If only for a few moments, Sin Nombre is alive in ways few films were in 2009.