Mike Guratza When you're dealing with a group of cannibals, and realize that cannibalism is not their craziest feature, you know you have some really deranged individuals...This film builds an amazing character background, what one would call "a social worker's nightmare". A family that the word "dysfunctional" merely starts to describe. Contrary to most films use characters that seem unreal, or "movie like", this movie acquaints us with a family that most people, at one time of their lives have actually met, in a way. Extremely poor, incapable of social interaction, violent, isolated and insane. Criminally insane, in a reality where there absolutely no heroes around (literally there is not a single moral character in this movie, at least by common standards). The film deals with what seems at first glance to be an "over the top story", in the most realistic of ways. It feels very very real, and the choice of actors with distinctly "Mexican" features in their appearance is an excellent means to bring the films reality to life.So, why only 5/10 stars? Well unfortunately, a movie has to be entertaining (and by entertaining I don't mean making you "have fun" but keeping you engaged and caring about what's going on) and this one unfortunately... isn't. The characters, settings and images are great but not much happens during the movie plot-wise. Since you can't really care or relate with any of these characters, at least there should have been a more intriguing story, but there isn't. Even though, it is really worth your time, especially if you want a reminder of how sick the institution of family in general can be.

Claudio Carvalho In Mexico, the patriarch (Humberto Yáñez) of a family of cannibals dies in a shopping mall. He is a watchmaker that supports his family and his sons Alfredo (Francisco Barreiro) and Julián (Alan Chávez) go to the street market to work in his booth. However the manager evicts them from the market since their father owes three-week rental to her. When they return home, their sister Sabina (Paulina Gaitan) informs that their father has died in the mall. While the three siblings discuss who will be the family provider for their rituals, their mother Patricia (Carmen Beato) locks herself in a room. Alfredo and Julián initially assume the responsibility but they are clumsy and soon two corrupt police detectives track them down. "Somos lo que hay" is an unpleasant Mexican low-budget movie with displeasing characters. A couple of days ago, I saw the good 2013 remake and I was curious to see the original feature. I found it very disappointing, with nasty characters and situations. Further, it is difficulty to say if the author of this horror movie wishes to show social problems in Mexico (poverty, prostitution, corrupt police etc.), drama or whatever. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): Not Available on Blu-Ray or DVD

moviexclusive Depending on how you like your horror films, Mexican writer/ director Jorge Michel Grau's filmmaking debut might either be an atmospheric genre flick or a frustratingly slow exercise in pointlessness - and we'll be upfront by saying that it was pretty much the latter for us. The tale of a family of cannibals struggling to survive after the sudden death of its patriarch, Grau's macabre tale set in Mexico City tries to be allegory on the desperation and subsequent perversity of the lower class, but that metaphor is somewhat lost in a thinly written and deliberately paced story that is likely to test the patience of many viewers.Indeed, too little happens too slowly and too seriously in the not- quite-brief-enough 89 minutes that Grau tries but ultimately fails in holding his audience's attention. What starts out somewhat riveting with a disoriented middle-aged man collapsing dead on the sidewalk turns into a ponderous family drama with a dysfunctional mother Patricia (Carmen Beato) and her three children - Alfredo (Francisco Barreiro), Julián (Alan Chávez), and Sabina (Paulina Gaitan). Now that there is no one to bring home the meat, Patricia and her sons are faced with the task of finding a human sacrifice to complete what is simply known as "The Ritual", essentially meant to identify someone among them who can take over Dad's place as head of the household.Grau's storytelling unfolds in telenovela-fashion, as brother fights with brother, sister sides with one of the brothers, and mother starts by having a nervous breakdown and then returns to reassert her authority in the family. It almost seems like yet another family, if not for the fact that their arguments revolve around whether the sacrifice should be a homeless child, a prostitute or a gay - in particular, Julián's violent and impulsive kidnapping of a street hooker stirs up a torrent of anger from his mother, given how their father was previously given to "whoring". Moody and disquieting it may be, one cannot quite shake off the feeling that it is no more than a glorified family soap, with cannibalism thrown in to disguise the laboured melodrama of sibling rivalry, maternal rejection, repressed homosexuality and incestuous desire.Those looking for the film to live up to its R21 rating for gore will have to wait till the last third, since Grau largely keeps the violence before that off-camera, leaving the bloodbath for an extended climax where a chain of events leads the police and a group of vengeful prostitutes (who are friends of the lady Julián kidnapped and killed) at their doorstep. Even so, the staging of that climactic confrontation is as muted as the rest of the movie, the gore no more than splatter that looks like it could have been left over from some 80s exploitation flick. Consider this fair warning to those looking for some sort of payoff at the end - if you're looking for a thrilling finish, you're going to be massively disappointed.And so, despite what its tantalising premise might suggest, this is firmly an art-house drama that trades in quiet long takes for a large part of its duration. The fact that the family crisis we see unfolds in a cannibalistic tribe does make it slightly more engrossing than if it were just an ordinary family, but there's no mistaking that this is still the stuff of melodramatic soap opera - and by that, we also mean not enough here is sufficiently compelling to live up to its aim of being political allegory. But like we said at the start, perhaps most significant is the undeniable feeling that this family drama of cannibals is simply pointless - after all, why bother with this aberration if they are ultimately no different from any ordinary family in their dysfunction?

kosmasp Even if you don't know what the movie is about, the opening scene will make it very clear, without any words, what is about to come. And it is shot very nicely (in a raw way). And the movie does hold onto that mood until the end of it.Unfortunately I did not like the ending that much. It's not about how a movie ends, but about how people act (or react) to the circumstances. We are used to certain behavior in movies, but it'd still be nice to see people actually having a mind of their own and not something that feels "scripted" (no pun intended). But I might be nitpicking. If you like movies to be weird and all over the place and a horror movie mixing drama and social commentary, then you found another "candidate" ...