Sunday, May 17, 2009

A Frank Review of "Rudo y Cursi" (2008/9)

The Short Version? Hick half-brothers struggle through sudden soccer fame.
What Is It? Mexican Sports Comedy.
Who Is In It? Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna.
Should I See It? Maybe.



A dirt poor Mexican family is filled with half-siblings who don't share a father. Beto (Luna) is a low level supervisor at a banana plant. Tato (Bernal)is his younger brother and underling. Both kick a football in their spare time, and have a talent for it discovered by roaming scout Batuta (Guillermo Francella.) The hicks find themselves on competing major league soccer teams, with nicknames alluding to the toughness of Tato/Rudo and the corniness of Cursi/Beto. Both end up proving you can take the boy out of the farm, but not the farm out of the boy, and the inevitability of their delusions shattering lends a bitter fatalism to the otherwise fairly broad comedy.

Bernal and Luna, childhood friends who broke in the States with the erotic drama Y Tu Mamá También translate their natural chemistry well in this amiable little piece. However, the set-up and most of the beats are right out of the generic comedy playbook. While slightly darker and more pointed than the average mainstream domestic fare, it's only just so, and I can see a fairly simple Hollywood rewrite if it came to that. It's an enjoyable diversion, and should have probably been cut to a more general audience friendly PG-rating. There's lot of small chuckles, but the best gag is the music video by tone-deaf Cursi, available free online.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The idea of creating a movie, that in a way, crosses the borders of a country that holds one of the most influential cinematography industries (even thou, as to my opinion, many other countries have more QUALITY movies and not just mass production movies as I consider many Hollywood movies) and at the same time, the fact that is showing at most movie theaters and not just at independent movie places are a little hint that yes, as you say, it can be reproduce up to a certain extent into a Hollywood movie. In a way, the movie shows a universal comical aspect to it that it will make you to have “chuckles” during the movie. On the other hand, it has to be taken into consideration that the sense of humor presented in the movie is a sense of humor inside many cultures that not all Americans can understand. A passion of a sport that is consider for many as the same love for your team and the sport as the love for a mother. That is what makes the movie enjoyable and funny to many, a reflection of many countries and people that their only escape from reality is to kick a ball or watch soccer games (or whatever sport is the country preferences) and a dream that one day they will get out from their “dirt poor” lives and become a soccer super start. As you might argue, the same process or the same phenomena is experience in the united states as to many other countries; my answer is yes, maybe, the maybe comes from the fact that in the united state a person will never reach the level of poverty that many other countries experience and therefore, making the movie reach a fiber of sensibility and personal view as the movie is presented. I had in mind to write more, but my favorite soccer team is about to start playing right now!

...nurghophiles...

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