Desierto (2015) Reviews

• Not quite there

  mariellealien2017-05-23

  The movie isn't bad - but it isn't great either. I wish the characters had more flesh and backgrounds to be honest. Racist white man shoots people trying to cross the border. Why does he do it? That would be interesting to know. Why is he so hateful? And what are the people who are trying to cross hoping for, what are their dreams - what do they leave behind? I felt little sympathy for them, other than the obvious - because they were so one-dimensional - and the murderer isn't really any better - which leaves for a movie you only watch to the end because your favourite actor is in it.

• What is the directors intention?

  shmittyfro2017-04-16

  Desierto is a movie that tries to tackle a very serious topic with a handful of caricatures and two very good actors which are lazily directed. From a purely technical stance it tries to offer up some captivating shots during its first couple of minutes but it becomes quite clear as the movie progresses that Quaron does not know how to shoot a chase sequence, which this movie basically is. It's one big horror movie chase sequence that leaves a lot to desire in terms of dialog and pacing. The most concerning thing is that one leaves the movie without knowing what the directors intentions were. Was it to shine a light on the topic? to make a polarizing movie? to get some sort of radical reaction from the viewer? to serve as a cautionary tale? In any case, it ends up being a pretty tasteless and irresponsible treatment of a serious topic and it doesn't offer up anything else as a possible saving grace.

• Not Subtle, But Interesting

  stevendbeard2016-10-15

  I saw "Desierto", starring Gael Garcia Bernal-Mozart in the Jungle_tv, Letters to Juliet; Alondra Hidalgo-This is her first movie; Lew Temple- The Walking Dead_tv, The Devil's Rejects and Jeffrey Dean Morgan-Negan on The Walking Dead_tv, The Losers. This is a movie about illegal immigrants from Mexico crossing the border into the United States. Hey, just in time for the election season-I bet Trump has already seen this one more than once. Gael and Alondra are just two of the approximately twelve to fifteen immigrants making the journey in the back of a packed truck when it breaks down in the middle of the desert. They are forced to make the rest of the trip on foot. That is when they cross paths with Jeffrey, a good old boy, driving around in his pick-up truck-with a Rebel flag, of course, so you will know he is a racist-drinking his whiskey, with his rifle and hunting dog named Tracker, in case you had any doubts about what kind of dog he was. Yep, Jeffrey takes his border patrol part time job very seriously. Lew plays a real Border Patrol policeman that runs into Jeffrey but can not seem to catch him doing anything wrong. As you can probably guess, Jeffrey starts to take out the immigrants, one by one, until only a small group is left on the run-Oh yeah, Tracker does his share of making the group of runners just a little smaller, too. The movie is in Spanish with English sub-titles, so you have to do some reading. And, in case you are not up on your Spanish, Deseirto means desert. It's rated "R" for violence and language and has a running time of 1 hour & 34 minutes. It is an interesting movie, not real subtle, but interesting. I don't know if I would buy it on DVD but it would be a good rental.

• Desierto: Mexicans chased by a maniac with a rifle, over, and over, and over again

  12_Monkeys2016-04-20

  Although there are some good (technical) elements in this film, such as the camera work, the music score, and the production design; the screenplay is so bland and apathetic that it makes the film feel like a tragic waste of a nice concept. First of all, if you've seen the trailer to Desierto, then you've pretty much seen the film. Nothing much happens aside of what you see in the trailer: a psychotic madman spots some illegal Mexicans attempting to cross the border into the U.S. and he decides to take matters into his own hands, by killing them all with his rifle. This pretty much happens within the first 15 minutes of the film, so no spoilers there. What might feel like somewhat of an anti-climactic spoiler is that THAT IS IT -- Nothing more happens in the film. If you expect some kind of explanation to the villain's motivation to kill the Mexicans, there is none. If you think that at least there is an interesting story behind some of the illegals that are trying to reach U.S. soil, nope, sorry, you won't get an interesting story there either. Instead, what the script does is basically repeat itself: once the first shootout takes place, we're left with 5 characters the villain still has to chase after. Then, the villain's dog takes care of murdering one of the 5 left (quite easily and without much struggle from the poor Mexican fellow, I might add), which leaves 4. Some more hunting goes on and the 4th guy dies, victim of another gunshot by the merciless, yet unexplained murderer. And then there were three... And guess what happens next? More story? A nice chunk of juicy background to shed some light on who our characters are? -- Nope. The villain's dog takes his second victim. And just when we have two victims left (Gael Garcia is one of them, of course), the killer mastermind and his evil pet decide to call it a day: "Come on Tracker, we'll get them tomorrow..." (sorry but: WHAAAT?!?!?) Anyway, moving on: our two victims exchange some words before nightfall in the middle of nowhere (in the desert, of course). That's when I thought to myself: "Yes, finally, some interesting facts about our characters so that I can actually care if they live or die... right?" -- Wrong... Unfortunately this conversation reveals just about as much information as a "small talk encounter at a super-market" would reveal about them. And suddenly, hey, IT'S DAYTIME AGAIN! But wait, where did they sleep? What did they use for shelter? Isn't it supposed to be like super cold at night in the desert? -- Huh... guess that doesn't matter... Morning arrives and our only two unharmed victims wander around the desert attempting desperately to find help, and... you guessed it, story starts all over again, and the maniac with the rifle and his demonic dog start tracking them, AGAIN, even though they had already tracked them the day before, but got too tired to finish the job, which (if they had finished it) would have also made the film a short film. And so, the suspense moments of the piece have its highs and lows, some feel so ridiculously low that people at the theater started laughing (can't blame them). There is one sequence in particular in which Gael is attempting to get away from the killer by going round and round a gigantic rock. Both characters chase one another around this rock for what feels like an eternity, until Gael finally remembers his childhood (I'm venturing a guess here) and he stops, and climbs the rock so the killer can get past him, and Gael can now become the chaser... Can't even begin to express what a waste of time that sequence was. All in all, a lazy script which has a promising and gripping high concept idea, but which fails to engage, and therefore ends up being nothing more than that: a concept. It would have made a nice 20 or 30-minute short film, but because it doesn't go deeper, the narrative has to repeat over and over until we get tired of it and it becomes numbingly boring. And yet, the film has made its way through Toronto, London, and now Cannes -- Huh... I wonder why that is... probably has nothing to do with the fact that it was written, produced, directed, and edited by Alfonso Cuaron's son...

• Under rated

  monindy2016-03-14

  Saw this film at the Toronto Film Festival. Surprised at the average ratings this film has received. An edge of the seat film, that tackles illegal immigration across the U.S Mexican border. A simple, yet powerful story that made me re think illegal immigration, long after I had finished watching the movie. The actors and dogs did a great job playing their part and the setting of the movie was ideal. Watching this movie in surround sound, made the suspense more intense. This movie could not have been released at a better time, due to its subtle message on illegal Mexican immigration. I would thoroughly recommend watching this movie and look forward to its release on DVD.