Running time: 79 minutes
Starring: Diego Catano, Eireann Harper, Michele Alban, Christina Orozco
Rating 8 out of 10
Jonas Cuaron (son of Alfonso, the Mexican superstar director responsible for Children of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien) has directed one of the year's most unusual pictures. Over the course of a year he took photo after photo, finally linking them together to form a narrative. In the wrong hands this might have come across as a naive piece of student experimentation, but Cuaron Jr has delivered one of the warmest films of the year. It does take a little getting used to. The photos changes every three or four seconds so in a way it is like a slideshow with voices telling the story. But after about ten minutes the viewer can settle down to what is an engaging story of mismatched affection between a young Mexican lad and an American tourist.
The Mexican lad is Diego (Diego Catano), a perpetually horny fourteen-year-old who is obsessed by masturbating. He stalks his cousin until a twenty-year-old American girl named Molly (Eireann Harper) turns up to stay at his family's house while she explores the country. Diego and Molly hit it off and spend all of their time together: for her it is harmless fun, but for him it is a serious sexual quest.
There's some excellent characterisation: Diego's teenage hormonal behaviour is thoroughly believable, as is the crush he has on Molly, while she herself is a well-rounded if somewhat annoying 'gringa'. The final sequence, shot in the United States, is both touching and well-resolved.
Anyone seeking a satisfying piece of world cinema should make a beeline for this, and Cuaron shows that he has inherited his father's ability to tell a simple story while making it always interesting. Unusual it may be, but Mexican cinema has a new talent.
Paul Hurley
