What I've discovered in Sangre de mi Sangre, a recent thriller about two Mexican boys who go to New York, is the movie I thought Slumdog Millionaire would be. This is a genuine film about living in poverty and maybe surviving it. Slumdog is an unjust combination of positive thinking and Hollywood clichés that results in a severe lack of authenticity. It may have been an effort to depict India's economic landscape, yet its sanitized, unrealistic story undermines the effort to present poverty holistically. Sangre avoids this simple mistake by showing us potentially real people in a situation entirely conceivable. It also takes place in a wealthy country and forces us to focus our attention squarely on the poor characters.
Pedro and Juan are two older teenagers who pay off a good ol' boy to enter the United States. They may be of similar age, but Pedro is much less experienced at being an adult. He's idealistic that he will meet his father in New York City and live the American dream. His father is said to own a restaurant. Juan is less calculated and more opportunistic. He is going to New York because that's where a lot of immigrants go. The two meet on the bus ride up there, and Juan slips away with Pedro's documentation and, thus, his identity.
In New York, a distraught Pedro wanders around until he meets another impoverished Spanish speaker in Magda. She has the distinction of being a U.S. citizen that can speak both languages. She originally attempts to have him arrested since it would invigorate her droll life of selling trinkets and sex. The two of them fall into an awkward, survivalist love. As nice as it is to have another person around, you still have to think about yourself on occasion. Pedro is scarcely able to do this and rescues Magda from a pervert who pays him for use of her body. He would've gained fifty bucks too.
Juan has no qualms with living ruthlessly in New York. He meets the father character and convinces him he is Pedro. The old man is just an employee at a restaurant and has been emotionally hardened due to years of lonely labor. He doesn't respond the way Juan wants him to at first. Juan preserves and partially fulfills the sueño americano by earning some money and the old man's trust. He now has the money to get laid. Who do you think he consults? Pedro sees him and attacks him, and the fitter boy wins.
It is hard not to see the biological influence in this film. It takes place in 21st century New York and Darwin's wisdom still applies. The circumstances have changed, but the more dominant male triumphs over the lesser one. Juan is the narrative's antagonist despite his being the natural hero. It's rare for a domestic movie to be so blunt.
The filmmakers do not make a stance as to which side they support. The film is almost a documentary in its unbiased focus on each of its main characters. Pedro's part is more memorable because it provides the human focus needed in this fictional film. Everything in Juan's life is based on his imperative to survive. His parts are rather boring with forced humor about his out of touch views regarding women. We didn't want to see a movie about Juan, but as this film is a dissertation on poverty, he had to be the winner.
Pedro and Juan are two older teenagers who pay off a good ol' boy to enter the United States. They may be of similar age, but Pedro is much less experienced at being an adult. He's idealistic that he will meet his father in New York City and live the American dream. His father is said to own a restaurant. Juan is less calculated and more opportunistic. He is going to New York because that's where a lot of immigrants go. The two meet on the bus ride up there, and Juan slips away with Pedro's documentation and, thus, his identity.
In New York, a distraught Pedro wanders around until he meets another impoverished Spanish speaker in Magda. She has the distinction of being a U.S. citizen that can speak both languages. She originally attempts to have him arrested since it would invigorate her droll life of selling trinkets and sex. The two of them fall into an awkward, survivalist love. As nice as it is to have another person around, you still have to think about yourself on occasion. Pedro is scarcely able to do this and rescues Magda from a pervert who pays him for use of her body. He would've gained fifty bucks too.
Juan has no qualms with living ruthlessly in New York. He meets the father character and convinces him he is Pedro. The old man is just an employee at a restaurant and has been emotionally hardened due to years of lonely labor. He doesn't respond the way Juan wants him to at first. Juan preserves and partially fulfills the sueño americano by earning some money and the old man's trust. He now has the money to get laid. Who do you think he consults? Pedro sees him and attacks him, and the fitter boy wins.
It is hard not to see the biological influence in this film. It takes place in 21st century New York and Darwin's wisdom still applies. The circumstances have changed, but the more dominant male triumphs over the lesser one. Juan is the narrative's antagonist despite his being the natural hero. It's rare for a domestic movie to be so blunt.
The filmmakers do not make a stance as to which side they support. The film is almost a documentary in its unbiased focus on each of its main characters. Pedro's part is more memorable because it provides the human focus needed in this fictional film. Everything in Juan's life is based on his imperative to survive. His parts are rather boring with forced humor about his out of touch views regarding women. We didn't want to see a movie about Juan, but as this film is a dissertation on poverty, he had to be the winner.