FLABmag is an Arts & Culture Magazine for Discriminating Smart Asses.
Director Jorge Hernandez Aldana
Starring: Diego Luna and some other actors nobody cares about.
Synopsis Courtesy imdb.com: A schizophrenic man commits suicide after his girlfriend cheats on him with his best friend.
This film premiered at Sundance in 2007. It features a soundtrack by The Mars Volta, basically using snippets of songs from their ill-fated 2006 release, Amputechture. I attended Sundance that year, but arrived the evening the premiere took place, and missed it. Since I had a press pass I could have attended another screening, but frankly, it didn’t look all that interesting, at the time, anyway.
Fast forward to the Red Box Revolution. I ran into the local grocery store to pick up some ice cream and noticed they had not one, but two, Red Box vending machines! I sauntered over to see what they had on offer and lo there it was: El Bufalo de la Noche. For just a buck I couldn’t do worse. Well, unless you like hyper-drama, childish displays of emotional arrest, and bad acting you could do worse, but you’d be hard pressed.
Bufalo opens with our anti-hero, Manuel (Diego Luna), who pays a fateful visit to his ‘recently released from the loony-bin’ best friend. They chat ominously for a few minutes, promise to hang soon, and the next thing you know Crazypants kills himself – ostensibly because Manuel fucked the love of his life, the equally crazy pants, Tania. His suicide causes the secret lovers to careen into guilt trips that inspire fits of self-indulgent sex with each other, and anyone else who will have them, namely the sister of the deceased who not only aids Manuel in his stalking of Tania but also allows him to sexually and mentally abuse her. I was half expecting her to commit suicide as well. Sadly, she didn’t.
The film is based on a novel by Guillermo Arriaga who wrote it as a treatise on the twenty-something alienation he has witnessed as a professor in Mexico City. The author explained the apparent stupidity of his characters like this, “It’s a novel I wrote after teaching at the university for some time. After some years I realized young people are getting more emotionally damaged, their capacity as human beings of being introspective and relating to each other is everytime more deteriorated, this is precisely what the movie tries to reflect… Since the novel came out its natural audience has been people under thirty, who understand it better because they are going through the same confusion stages as the characters.”
After some years he realized young people are getting more and more emotionally damaged? By what? Boredom? The internet? Lack of employment in Mexico? Northern influence on their feeble psyches? Or are they merely just as stupid, selfish, and bourgeois as the ‘characters’ on The Hills? Seriously. I did not empathize with anyone in this film – not even the schizophrenic kid. But then again I’m over 30 making me not part of the ‘natural audience’ Arriaga speaks of.
The sole positive aspect of this film was it’s use of color and natural light which added to the desired feelings of isolation and alienation. However, the histrionic performances by every one involved ruined what was already a familiar storyline. In fact, there is nothing new about “alienation” and “isolated youth” presented in this film. What is new is the numerous full frontal shots of Diego Luna’s flaccid penis. I’ll say this for the diminutive Mexican: Su pinga es fina!
Rent this film if you are under 25 and into “heavy drama” (by that I mean you are stupid and immature) or just want to brush up on your colloquial Spanish and get a gander at Diego’s Luna.
{Vag Hampton blah blahs un poquito espanish}
You must be logged in to post a comment.
WordPress Themes by Graph Paper Press
Subscribe to entries
Subscribe to comments
All content © 2012 by FLABmag
