Review of Amores Perros (2000) by Rafael T — 02 Mar 2011

I've been off a few days, but i'm back with more foreign cinema reviews...

I don't really know why, but I was always reluctant to see this movie, to make it short: I was damn wrong.

The film is the combination of three separated stories: "Octavio y susana", "Daniel y vero" y "El chivo y Maru", at principle it's almost like you have this three short films put by each other side, but with a very subtle touch they eventually blend together in a perfect way.

Octavio y susana, perhaps the most visual of the shorts is about A young man (Octavio) who has a strong desire for the wife (susana) of his brother (rodrigo). Rodrigo is a low life criminal who dedicates to rob convenience stores and abuses susana, Octavio fights his dog Coffee in local dog fights, to gain money and escape with Susana, but she is not sure about it...

Daniel y Vero Is about Daniel's midlife crisis leaving his wife for a younger women (Vero), Vero is a model, young and beautiful, but what happens when she has a car accident and everything their life is build around starts falling apart?

And last but no least is the Story of Chivo, an extrange and solitary indigent that wanders in the streets of mexico, always surrounded by his beloved dogs, at start you can't tell much about him, but many layers begin to unravel and as mystery is the beauty of this final act, that also brings with it the climax moments of the film, and the needed closure to satisfy I will no say more about it...

The movie reflects the human cruelty and portraits universal realities about love, passion, identity crisis, guilt and regrets. The cast is great all trough the movie, I specially enjoyed Chivo's character. The characters are very well developed, The music is great, featuring prominent Latin america rock bands as Cafe Tacuba, Control Machete and Bersuit.

Overall is an excellent piece of film, an outstanding first direction for Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu, who you may know for 21 Grams or Babel (those three film he refers to as the death trilogy) or this years nominated Biutiful (wich I haven't seen yet).

Won a BAFTA for best foreign film, and got an oscar nod for best foreign film also.

A visceral film that I promise will get to your groins.