Desierto (2016) Review!!!

Synopsis – A group of people trying to cross the border from Mexico into the United States encounter a man who has taken border patrol duties into his own racist hands.

My Take – It seems that this is the year of horror/thriller in which predators hunt down their preys with as few dialogue as possible, we had ‘Don’t Breathe’ which got us on the edge of our seats, and now, director Jonas Cuaron’s film is almost as relentless. Despite the film’s lack of big names, the film gaining attention due its at the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) for Special Presentations, and was selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards. Cuaron, who with his father Alfonso wrote the screenplay of the masterful 2013 science fiction Gravity, had directed a couple of short films before marking his debut feature-length film in the form of this film; and in taking on the subject matter here, he steps into a topic that has both human and political dimensions. If you are into global news, you must have heard of tales that happen at the US border. The border between the United States and Mexico is approximately 1,700 miles in length, stretching from the mouth of the Rio Grande at Brownsville, Texas, all the way to the Pacific shoreline at Imperial Beach, California. And much of it goes through some of the harshest and most forbidding land in the entire world, the Colorado and Sonoran deserts in California and Arizona. Each year, thousands of Mexicans cross that border into the U.S., oftentimes illegally but for very legitimate reasons: a better life, and to escape from the violence being caused by the drug cartels in their country. The journey they make is excruciatingly dangerous; and in the last couple of decades, the danger has been upped immeasurably, not by the drug cartels, nor even the U.S. Border Patrol, but by vigilantes who tend to pass themselves off as patriots. Regardless of the skew of these stories, or if you think illegal immigrants are coming to take jobs of the countries legal residents, the lack of humanity behind them should affect you. With all that demented election-campaign talk about building a wall around Mexico to shut out illegal immigrants, this film, a vital gasp-a-minute cat-and-mouse thriller from Jonás Cuarón, couldn’t be more timely or relevant. This is just another tale of survival, but with none of the visual splendor of Gravity. It’s a nail-biter that exposes the hazards of immigration from the side of the victims.

The story follows Moises (Gael García Bernal), one of a group of desperate Mexican immigrants seeking a better life in the land of plenty (he only wants to be reunited with his only son), but when their van breaks down and leaves them vulnerable and unprotected in a blistering wasteland this side of the border, Moises lags behind to help an injured female straggler like a Good Samaritan. They expect danger, but nothing could have prepared the ragtag band of immigrants from being stalked by a Confederate flag-waving lunatic Sam (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) hell-bent on wiping out anyone who invades the U.S. uninvited, or the bloody carnage that follows. The physical challenges that confront this naive band of stranded Mexicans are catalogued vigorously, from the punishing heat and dehydration with a dwindling water supply or any means of escape to the vigilante’s killer Belgian Malinois dog Tracker. The dog is a major player in the hunt, as well as the loyal companion of the deranged “patriot” with perverted values who has taught him to destroy human life on command. Leaping from boulders, jumping across gulches and racing through desert sands like a long-distance runner at high speed, Stephen King’s rabid Cujo couldn’t have played it better. Director and co-writer Jonás Cuarón sets up a simple chase scenario and generates riveting tension amid the desert’s harsh beauty. There’s no doubt about the Mexican-born Cuarón‘s sensibilities, as he elicits empathy for Garcia Bernal‘s Moisés and his fellow migrants and depicts Morgan‘s Sam as a self-loathing racist with all the symbols to fit in at a Donald Trump rally. This is not exactly a great, but it’s an interesting pop-cultural footnote, especially given its release in the final weeks leading up to a U.S. presidential election in which Donald Trump seized the Republican nomination partly on the back of his extreme anti-immigrant rhetoric. It’s a horror first and foremost, although not a particularly original one. Cuarón’s father, Alfonso (who produced the film), is a master stylist who excels at layering deeper meaning into his work, and while any comparison between the two might feel unfair, it’s also inevitable. The film’s message is always clear, and while Cuarón extracts some genuinely visceral shocks from this take on The Most Dangerous Game, the film is more of an angry, well-intentioned idea than a significant piece of art. The previously mentioned signifiers become less important as the hard-edged kill-or-be-killed story plays out to its gripping conclusion.

Jonas’ first feature length film, is an impressive display of technical filmmaking and acting, but exhibits none of the subtle or powerful messages that underlie his father’s vision. Cuaron is an outstanding technical director. He makes Sam’s pursuit thrilling, the efforts to escape excruciating. It would be exciting to see him tackle a full-on horror film, because he’s got the technique to make it work. However, the real truth of this film is that we have seen it before, often done much better. We learn near nothing about the characters, so when they are slaughtered, the emotional impact is minimal. It is brutal and savage, but it doesn’t pack the gut-punch it could. What the film lacks in establishing empathy outside of the main character, it makes up for in creating a tense environment of survival. The main reason Cuarón doesn’t spend time giving us the backstory of every character is because they would all come off as the same. They all are risking their lives to reach America in hopes of providing a better life for their families. Another reason could be that in that moment where you are fighting for your life, none of that matters outside of your need to survive, possibly motivated by your reason for fighting to live. Plus if you have seen the trailer of this film, then you’ve pretty much seen the film. Nothing much happens aside of what you see in the trailer. Gael García Bernal, who had previously collaborated with Alfonso Cuarón on Y Tu Mamá También, plays his part well. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, in a sort of audition for The Walking Dead (this was shot in 2014), is brilliant. There is simply no one working today that can convey evil and terror in the way he does. His meticulous and methodical picking off of the immigrants—either by bullet or bite—is heartlessly strong. Mexican actress, Alondra Hidalgo is effective. On the whole, ‘Desierto’ is a well-put together suspenseful film that despite its themes delivers some unforgettable thrills at a feverish pace.