Amores Perros

[SeattleUte]

Think of some of the most despicable type of people imaginable. These might come to mind: Serial killers, contract killers, fratriciders, wife beaters, child abusers, armed robbers, breeders of viscious dogs, dog fight organizers. They're all in this movie, and people of this ilk are about all there is. How are we supposed to identify with such irredemable people?

I have a large appetite for dark themes and bloody scenes and grit, but there are no charming or complicated rogues here as in City of God (a great film, and the top movie I'm aware of about Latin American poverty and despair and violence). In this one there are two women who are somewhat sympathetic, but I never felt close enough to them; they just seemed shallow and more responsible for their own misfortune than the terrible men they encounter. The film is kind of a mess--too many stories and people, the chronology is all mixed up, and the fractured story line is not nearly as elegantly orchestrated as Pulp Fiction.

Too many really terrible people and not enough artistry in this movie. Two stars!

[SeattleUte]

So there aren't any other fans of art house films here? No one wants to argue with me about this review?

[Non Sequitur]

So there aren't any other fans of art house films here? No one wants to argue with me about this review?

I like art house films, and I really enjoyed Amores Perros. I don't have a problem with movies in which I don't identify with the characters. One of my favorite movies is Reservoir Dogs -- one of the most morally bankrupt I've ever seen. I can't even tell you why I like that movie, but I do. Amores Perros is in the same vein. It was appalling and fascinating at the same time.

I do agree with you about City of God. I saw it a couple of years ago. One of the best movies I've seen in a long time. If you want another art house selection, check out Run, Lola Run. Very good movie.

[SeattleUte]

I like art house films, and I really enjoyed Amores Perros. I don't have a problem with movies in which I don't identify with the characters. One of my favorite movies is Reservoir Dogs -- one of the most morally bankrupt I've ever seen. I can't even tell you why I like that movie, but I do. Amores Perros is in the same vein. It was appalling and fascinating at the same time.

I do agree with you about City of God. I saw it a couple of years ago. One of the best movies I've seen in a long time. If you want another art house selection, check out Run, Lola Run. Very good movie.

I hear you, I just think that when the people are this horrible, the work has to be REALLY good. See Blood Meridian. In contrast, City of God and Pulp Fiction, two films that I'd compare to this one in genre and themes, are beter art, and have characters with some redeeming virtues, and charm.

[SeattleUte]

Thanks for the Run, Lola Run referral.

[TripletDaddy]

Thanks for the Run, Lola Run referral.

I will second it. Cool movie. An oldie but a goody.

[New Mexican Disaster]

I like art house films, and I really enjoyed Amores Perros. I don't have a problem with movies in which I don't identify with the characters. One of my favorite movies is Reservoir Dogs -- one of the most morally bankrupt I've ever seen. I can't even tell you why I like that movie, but I do. Amores Perros is in the same vein. It was appalling and fascinating at the same time.

I do agree with you about City of God. I saw it a couple of years ago. One of the best movies I've seen in a long time. If you want another art house selection, check out Run, Lola Run. Very good movie.

Loved Amores Perros. I love the color and texture of the movie so much I don't really care about the content of the characters souls. However, I did think that Gael Garcia Bernal's character was at least somewhat sympathetic.

Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu is one of my favorite directors.

[SeattleUte]

Loved Amores Perros. I love the color and texture of the movie so much I don't really care about the content of the characters souls. However, I did think that Gael Garcia Bernal's character was at least somewhat sympathetic.

Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu is one of my favorite directors.

I don't care about the content of the characters' souls either. But there has to be something going on that matters on some level. I think, for example, dramatizing a serial killer weeping over years he lost with his adult daugher during her childhood as he worked for a criminal syndicate and sat in prison for 20 years is misguided. The man had been depicted shooting a man through the back as he ate in a cafe (I assume he did it for money; it was never clear to me whether the victim was the daughter's step father or someone he was hired to kill). The man breaks into his grown up daughter's house and sits and weeps over her private things. leaving a message on her answering machine. Okay, I won't judge him, but don't expect me to weep with him. It wasn't sad. It wasn't suspenseful. The whole set up was stupid.

Gael Garcia Bernal's character was at least somewhat sympathetic? You must really think Michael Vick got a raw deal. On top of breeding a viscious dog and employing him dog fights to earn a living, he fucks his brother's wife, hires hoodlums to beat his brother nearly to death, murders a man, and while fleeing the scene of the murder drives heedlessly through traffic until he broadsides a car carrying one of the female leads who winds up losing her leg as a result. His best friend dies in the accident.

There are bad people in City of God, and there are some who rise above the moral and physical wasteland of the Brazilian favela depicted in the film. The film is loaded with humor and redemption as well as foul deeds. Like Amorres Perros Blood Meridian is filled exclusively with thoroiughly evil men. But the writing is as good as Faulkner or even in places Melville or the Old Testament, and it is a clever subversion of the mythology of the American West.

Raymond Chandler, practically the inventor of hard boiled fiction, wrote, "In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption." Where is the redemption in Amores Perrros? I think it's just gratuitous dog fights and violence. I wish there was at least some humor and wit like in Pulp Fiction.