Identifying Features

Slow burners don't suit me. I'm really not interested in slow-mos, long shots of scenery, seeing people walking, running, dancing, etc. that doesn't add anything to the story. This was a short terribly dragged to 90+ minutes. Not that it's the first of its kind or the last either as there's an audience for the types.

"Todos nos parecemos de espaldas", cuando se van, todos aspiran a lo mismo y todos esperan lograrlo. Sin Señas Particulares, ganadora del Ariel a mejor largometraje y galardonada en el Festival de Sundance llega para quedarse como una de las mejores películas mexicanas hasta el momento. Hermosamente dirigida, actuada, escrita y fotografiada con un trasfondo totalmente desolador, melancólico e inhumano. Incluso haciendo referencia al Purgatorio, al infierno y al Diablo mismo, estas de maneras sutiles y justificadas para el desarrollo de la trama, las cuales le agregan un valor narrativo muy interesante a la película. Está llena de elementos, personajes secundarios y lugares donde ocurre la historia, y todo se siente realmente orgánico, natural y son momentos que uno como mexicano reconoce y debe tener cuidado, aspecto que yo lo definiría como tener una paranoia sana. Pero la situación por la cual pasan estas personas es llevada al extremo hasta el punto de sentirse que estas en el Infierno en la Tierra, aun así, mostrándonos que, bajo esas circunstancias, las personas aún pueden mostrar bondad y empatía unas con las otras. Lamentablemente esta película no puede estar más lejos de la realidad y refleja realmente lo peligroso y desamparado que es la migración.

A little too slow and too boring, but good effort.

One of the crudest and most real stories i have ever seen, great performances, widly dinamic pacing and flawless photography

Slow-burning, yes, but at the end of it you'll find yourself on fire. Gorgeous scenes.

A fascinating, well-acted, gut-wrenching masterpiece.

There isn't anything wrong with 'Identifying Features'. Highlighted by its score and cinematography, there are moments that may haunt my dreams, but it's well worth the journey. Understated, yet tense, this feels like a fly on the wall documentary. Very dense, it is the kind of film that may get better on a second viewing. Final Score: 8/10

A story well shot and told, but far too long and slow. Newb filmmaker and writer Astrid Rondero, along with newb writer and director Fernanda Valadez - with two prior short films and this being her first full length feature film, present us with a uniquely told story, that feels as real as it gets. The cinematography is excellent, and Valadez's direction and choice of close-ups, angles, blurs, etc, make it feel like your are walking in the mother's shoes. This is by no means anything close to a Hollywood-style production, but instead uses tons of scenery and some flashbacks to tell an eerie story, as you travel throughout the film, in the mother's shoes. The casting and performances were plain with nothing exceptional, albeit feeling that much more authentic. The score was subtle and fitting. My biggest issue was that a normally comfortable 95 min runtime, felt like 3+ hours with the forever-long and dragged out (and in most cases unnecessary) scenes. The pacing couldn't be any slower. I get that the filmmakers were trying to get you invested in the feel for the story, but there just wasn't enough substance to fill 95 mins, even if the pacing was fast. I'm sure many can handle slowly paced films, but I'm not one of those people. I feel at least 40 mins could/should have been trimmed off - bits here and there from pretty much every scene, and the pacing sped up, and it would've been an outstanding short film, told in the same manner, just faster without making the viewer (me) impatient. You can pretty much fast forward 70% of the "traveling" portions, and end up with the same results. Nevertheless, and outstanding production from newb international filmmakers, and it's a story that needs to be seen, told in its unique way. If you're patient, you will love this film, but it wont be a "must see again" film. It's a 7/10 from me.

Deeply powerful and emotional. A closer look at the horrors thousands of families have to go through while living in a corrupt, violent, and unsafe country, through the eyes of a desperate mother trying to find her missing son. A living proof of how far a mother's love for her child can go, representing hundreds of thousands of other mothers out there. Fernanda Valadez just made one of 2020's best films. I'm pretty excited to see what she'll do next.

When the teenage son of a middle-aged Mexican mother goes missing while en route to the US to find work, she's determined to find out what happened to him, despite official reports that he was killed by gangs roaming the country's rural highways. Her perilous odyssey proves to be quite an experience, more incredible than she ever could have imagined. Such are the makings of this chilling, sinister road trip mystery through the wilds of rural Mexico, one that literally and symbolically portrays the evil inherent in the nation's crime crisis. Although the film drags a bit in the middle and occasionally has inadequate subtitling, the picture's closing act provides quite a payoff, one that, like much of the production, is depicted with exquisite, if unsettling, cinematography. Director Fernanda Valadez's debut feature is a meticulously crafted offering that provides viewers with an inside look into a deeply worrisome problem, one that should give pause to anyone watching it -- or considering a trip through the Mexican countryside.