Drama/Mex (2006)
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33% of critics liked it
(21 reviews) -
53% of users liked it
(1,178 ratings)
For his sophomore effort, Drama/Mex, writer-director Gerardo Naranjo (Malachance) juxtaposes three back-to-back stories, set in the once lush and exclusive - now over-commercialized and garish - resort town of Acapulco, over the course of the same long, hot night. Naranjo mounts an experimental… More For his sophomore effort, Drama/Mex, writer-director Gerardo Naranjo (Malachance) juxtaposes three back-to-back stories, set in the once lush and exclusive - now over-commercialized and garish - resort town of Acapulco, over the course of the same long, hot night. Naranjo mounts an experimental narrative structure, with each successive tale set backward in time just prior to the end of the last story - a "relay-style" structural experimentation that mirrors and recalls Fernando Mereilles's City of God). The first tale involves a thief Chano (Emilio Valdés who crops up and threatens the sanctity of ex-girlfriend Fernanda's (Diana García) relationship with Gonzalo (Juan Pablo Castañeda), even breaking into her house to win her back. In the second story, someone tips Gonzalo off that Fernanda has been seen kissing Chano in a crowded restaurant. In desperation, Gonzalo hires a mariachi band and serenades Fernanda outside of her house. The third tale concerns Jaime (Fernando Becerril) who, after lifting the company payroll and using part of it to rent a beachfront property, contemplates suicide - until a relationship with an equally dishonest fifteen-year-old runway and scam artist, Tigrillo (Miriana Moro) grants him a new lease on life. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Directed By
- Gerardo Naranjo
- Written By
- Gerardo Neranjo
- Genres
- Art House & International, Drama
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- May 23, 2006 Wide
- Studio
- IFC First Take
Critic Reviews
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Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times
Drama/Mex has flashy style but puppetlike characters and unconvincing stories.
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Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
This relentlessly downbeat portrait of numerous troubled characters is ultimately too derivative and familiar for it to connect with art house audiences despite some effective moments and good performances by its mainly youthful cast.
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Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
Visually arresting but thematically uneven, Gerardo Naranjo's fictional snapshot of a gritty Mexican beach is simply too desperate to shock us.
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Jan Stuart, Newsday
Drama/Mex can't see past its nihilistic little nose.
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Tom Beer, Time Out New York
All the edgy style in the world canâ(TM)t camouflage a black hole. Drama/Mex turns loose these insistently shallow characters and provides no insight into their bad behavior.
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Cast
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Fernando Becerril
as Jaime
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Diana Garcia
as Fernanda
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Miriana Moro
as Tigrillo
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Juan Pablo Castaneda
as Gonzalo
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Emilio Valdés
as Chano
- Montserrat Lastra
- Mariana Perez
- Hector "Gava" Davila
- Luis Calvillo
- Jose Calvillo
- Enrique Calderón
