gradyharp
Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna struck fireworks with their 2001 'Y tu mamá también' directed be their close associate Carlos Cuarón. Now once again the three men, along with important input from some of the finest talent in Mexico, join in a low key, warmly humorous, well acted and directed and produced RUDO y CURSI. There has been considerable publicity about the movement to raise the importance of Mexican films to the high standards of International films, largely due to the passion of García Bernal, Luna, Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro. The success of this movement is obvious in this very fine film - a tightly conceived story about the poor families in Mexico who long for the ability to climb the ladder to success in business, fame and comfort, and the Cinderella story recasting brothers played by García Bernal and Luna whose struggle for opportunity leads them into the bumpy relationship with a 'talent scout' (Batuta played with aplomb by the Argentinean actor Guillermo Francella) and to tenuous triumph because of their soccer talent and the inevitable temptations of success in the great Mexico City world. García Bernal is Tato (to be nicknamed 'Cursi' by his teammates), a wannabe singer whose goal is to make it big in the world of entertainment, using Batuta as his means to get there. Luna is his brother Beto (to be nicknamed 'Rudo' - the alternate title of the film is 'ROUGH AND VULGAR' instead of 'RUDO y CURSI'!) who is married but longs to follow his brother into the fame of the Big League soccer. Each lad lands in Mexico City, each takes advantage of his given soccer talent and each succumbs to personal goals - Rudo to gambling and Cursi to women and singing in silly music videos. Batuto is always on the sidelines (and in the voice over narration) to follow each of brother's successes and failures. The manner in which the two brothers compete and come together creates a moving and tender story ending. What makes this little film so special is the genuine qualities and ensemble acting that come from García Bernal and Luna but also form the actors portraying the impoverished but proud family of the two boys and the 'big town characters' they encounter in Mexico City. The film feels real and committed, mixing just the right amount of humor, fantasy, and tenderness - thanks to the excellent script by writer/director Carlos Cuarón. It is a pleasure to watch and a very fine statement about the quality of films coming from Mexico. Grady Harp
martys-7
The history of the peasant or working class young man who rises to the top in the world of sports or entertainment only to fall due to betrayal and/or addiction has been told many times before, but this movie from the team of "Y Tu Mama Tambien" feels new and dynamic. Compelling, funny, insightful, fast-paced, philosophical, moving, this tale of two brothers who are able to leave their banana-picker job to become major league football stars in Mexico City is fresh and exciting.With a vibrant cinematography, an unflinching look at the Mexican realities of the marginally-living rural laborer class and the world of professional football with its egos, deals, and fame, we are presented with a large incisive, ironic slice of Mexican life. Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna as usual disappear into their roles this time as the competing brothers who are not prepared to hit the big time. Poverty, machismo, football fanaticism, gambling, sex, cocaine, family problems, shady people are shown as colorful and obscene as the language used by characters. The scenes are fluid and entertaining; it may be a drama but it is also a fun comedy and totally life-affirming. To top it all, there is a great music video with Garcia Bernal doing Van Halen's "I Want you to Want me" as a ranchera in Spanish. In the end, the movie even at 103 minutes feels perhaps too brief leaving one wishing for more."Rudo y Cursi" reaffirms the talents of director Carlos Cuaron, Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna.
Chris Knipp
This is a story about poor banana workers from central Mexico whose sudden success is illusory and whose lives go down hill, and it's played as a comedy. Carlos, in his directorial debut, is the brother of Alfonso Cuarón and the author of 'Y tu mamá también,' which Alfonso directed. This brings back together childhood friends and 'Y tu mamá' stars Diego Luna (who's Tato, nicknamed Rudo, or "rough") and Gael García Bernal (who's Beto, nicknamed Cursi, or "mushy," as in sentimental).'Rudo y Cursi' takes some care in the reading. Look at that often-reproduced snapshot of Gael, Carlos, and Diego lighting up. Gael with his head in a bandanna, Carlos in the funny hat, tousled-haired Diego with the sly grin. These are cool guys. And the actors, in the Latino world, are hotties. That is a lens through which to view what is a decidedly unglamorous film, that sometimes seems to be making fun of poor Mexicans, and often looks like a B-picture. The country world is mostly shot darkly, through blue filters, and the actors aren't highlighted but made boys nearly lost in a crowd scene, Breugel-style. They are also buffoonish, and pathetic.Tato and Beto are doing their thing in hicksville, Provincia Guerrero, when along comes Batuta (Guillermo Francella), a talent scout. For music or sport? He claims to both, but he's a double-talker. He's only there because the tire on his red convertible goes flat and he lacks a spare. So he watches a game of "futbol" and sees the two brothers, for they are brothers, though Beto is short and pretty and Tato is tall and thin with a little mustache and a sneer.Though they're not young (in real life the actors are now 30 and 31) they're good players and Batuta picks one, only one, to take back to Mexico City. He stages a goal shot, since Tato is an 'arquero,' a goalie, to decide who gets to go, and they cheat, but the cheating goes wrong, a sequence that will be repeated later. This movie, like 'Amores perros,' which also starred Garcia Bernal, swarms with spicy obscenities whose picante flavor a gringo can only guess at, and with cheating, and stupidity, which also a gringo may misconstrue as pathetic when they're meant to be droll. Beto gets picked first but later Batuta comes back and brings Tato to Mexico City too, repeating all the same clichés. Batuta also speaks intentionally trite, mock-philosophical voice-over lines, pretending to know all about the world, about sport, and about women, none of which he's all that good at, because he's basically a loser too, eventually reduced to a VW bug. But everybody survives, and though Rudo and Cursi return to the provinces in disgrace, loaded with debts after a brief round of national fame, thanks to a local drug lord's marrying into the family their mother gets the nice house by the beach she dreamed of and the debts, presumably, get paid off.Everybody admits they're essentially losers, and of humble origin. Batuta got called that, (conductor's) baton, because when he was attempting to be a soccer player himself his teammates on the street thought he was so bad maybe he could have done better as an orchestra leader. Likewise the fancy, sexy TV lady, Maya (Jessica Mas), seemingly inaccessible for Beto, till he becomes a soccer star and she suddenly notices him. He wastes money on her and then finds out she's dumped him when he sees her on a TV show cuddling with another soccer player. Tato is a jealous husband with serious anger management problems and a gambling habit exponentially worsened by a discovered weakness for cocaine. He has only lost the electric blender when he sneaks off and leaves his wife and kid in the country, but he manages to gamble away a mountain of cash he doesn't have in Mexico City.Beto's particular idiocy is that he thinks he must be a singer. He warbles out of tune and pumps an accordion but despite a small contract and a video arranged by Batuta of him singing Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" in Spanish, all he can get is an appearance at a small circus.This movie might make a whole lot more sense if you are Mexican. It was a little bit lost on me, though I can't say I minded the fact there's a minimum of "futbol" depicted on screen. This is a film about Mexico's national delusions and its contradictions, beautifully exemplified by the two thugs who threaten to kill Beto if he doesn't turn around his losing streak, and then ask him for autographs for their daughters. One revelation is that while Garcia Bernal is charismatic and the New Yorker once called him "impossibly handsome," Diego Luna is more convincing and more embedded in his role and seems the truer actor. As the "rough" Rudo, he's utterly different from the soft, aristocratic Tenoch of 'Y tu mamá también.' He's hard, abrupt, almost scary here. Carlos Cuarón seems to know what he's doing even if I don't; we should give him a chance to do more. 'Y tu mamá' was the more conventionally artistic film, more successfully designed to play to the global audience. But these three hip Mexican guys deserve credit for turning inward and doing something for the home audience. It sounds to my untutored ear as though despite their exploits in Hollywood and beyond, Gael and Diego can still spout the spicy Mexican vernacular as fluently as ever. I wish I were a little more in on the joke.
