Güeros | Playful black-and-white Mexican movie with a touch of the French New Wave

Gueros Sebastián Aguirre

Gueros Sebastián Aguirre

In the midst of the 1999 Mexico City student strike, an angst-ridden slacker embarks on a haphazard quest with his kid brother and a couple of friends to track down a legendary folk singer who once made Bob Dylan cry. Shot in lustrous black and white, director Alonso Ruizpalacios's Mexican art-house movie Güeros has a playful, teasing spirit that will appeal to fans of French New Wave cinema and early Jim Jarmusch. The film’s meandering narrative and self-reflexive touches might annoy some viewers, but if it catches you in the right mood, you’ll find it utterly beguiling.

Certificate 15. Runtime 106 mins. Director Alonso Ruizpalacios

Güeros is available on DVD & Digital from New Wave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-w6MbK_eZA

 

Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.