Posted by paulrivas on: Wed 1st Feb, 2012

 

The only way I’m not going to enjoy a movie in Spanish is if there’s no talking in it. Unfortunately, that’s exactly the case with Los últimos cristeros, the sparse dialogue and repetitive landscapes of which make seeing it entirely unnecessary.

Initially, I was excited to see a feature film based on the events of the forgotten Mexican holy war of 1926-1935. When I got to the theater, I was honored to be third on the press list behind local Mexican Radio Bronco personalities Sandra Mendívil and Norma Mendoza, whose work I listen to while driving my car with a Mexican name, El Vocho.

I would have loved to have loved this movie, but I could have learned more about these post-revolutionary religious fighters by looking at a postcard with one eye and reading Wikipedia with the other.

The 27^th Santa Barbara International Film Festival audience is an intelligent one though, and everyone in attendance Monday night realized that the joke was on them. When the movie ended with the last five members of the Mexican God squad bathing in a spring before going off to die, everybody just laughed.

Go see Los últimos cristeros tomorrow, February 2, at 8:10am at the Metro IV. Or don’t. Da lo mismo.

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Tags: los últimos cristeros, da lo mismo, casi no hablan, la cristiada, mexican film, conaculta, Radio Bronco, santa barbara international film festival, sbiff

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