Battle In Heaven
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Movie Reviews of Battle In Heaven
Movie Review: a crude, sobering and disturbing look at present day Mexico City......
Summary: 2 Stars
In BATALLA EN EL CIELO, we are presented with an unflinchingly gritty glimpse into the lives of three individuals struggling with double lives, sexual and social identity in a world that is alternately cruel and nihilistic. Marco (Marcos Hernandez) drives Ana (Anapola Mushkadiz), the wealthy daughter of an influential family. They also confide in one another their deepest and most disturbing secrets. Marco and his wife have kidnapped a young child they are holding for ransom. Ana moonlights as a prostitute, as an escape from her mundane and pampered existence. The two of them have also engaged in trysts kept in secret from their families and the rest of the world. (Which are graphically depicted in the film in a style that can be described as anything but dignified.)
For me, the title of this film, alone, is a great paradox that is left to us audience members to ponder. Is this reference intended to be biblical or cautionary? Just what is it that the characters are battling in heaven? Is it a crisis of consciousness? Are they questioning their own morality (or lack thereof) in the face of relentless alienation? Particularly, for me, the character of the (at times) catatonic Marco is at once pathetic, as he blankly gazes into the distance, as well as poignant. You can hardly call him the "hero" of this story. He is more like the hapless anti-hero. It wasn't so much that I hated him, but, throughout the course of the movie, it was a rare occasion that I felt any connection with him at all, much less the acts that he commits. They are presented as incidental episodes (be they sexual or violent acts). It was very hard for me to form any connection with him or with Ana, nor with any of the other characters in the film.
BATTLE IN HEAVEN has been criticized and earned censorship as well as praise. This is due to the graphic nature of the sex scenes, as well as what has been perceived as an exploitative look at Mexico City and the nature of its people. We see scenes of soccer matches juxtaposed with soldiers doing their militaristic marches, as well as people engaging in detached sexual activity (maybe the better word for this is soul-less).
This is not a film I can easily recommend as a good introduction to Mexican cinema because it unfortunately left me cold and without a sense of any really deep emotion at all nor any deeper insight into the culture that is depicted in it.
Movie Review: gives "art films" a bad name
Summary: 2 Stars
Apparently people just aren't much into "faking it" anymore, even when it comes to sex in the movies. The Mexican film, "Battle in Heaven," opens with a graphic scene of a young woman performing oral sex on the main character - and we can clearly see that this is not a simulation (it's also not much of a stimulation given the man involved). I don't know if the various hardcore scenes were actually included in the movie when it played theatrically in the United States in 2006. But they are certainly in the video, and those easily offended by such activity had best be forewarned.
For me, the sex scenes themselves are not the problem. It is the movie as a whole that I object to. For "Battle in Heaven" is a pretentious, arty contrivance that seems to be operating under the assumption - quite rightly perhaps, since the movie ended up on quite a large number of ten best lists last year - that it can earn points with the critical intelligentsia if it can just manage to bore its audience into a state of complete catatonia.
It tells the desultory and languid tale of an overweight, middle-aged chauffeur who wanders in a zombie-like daze around Mexico City wracked with guilt over the fact that he and his wife recently kidnapped a child who ended up dying under their care. During the course of the film, Marcos (Marcos Hernandez) is able to shake himself out of his stupor long enough to have sex with his wife, sex with his boss' daughter and sex with himself while watching a soccer game. The movie is all about the struggle that is being perpetually waged within the Mexican soul between sex and temptation on the one hand and piety, guilt and the obsessive need for redemption on the other. And while this theme is certainly a valid one and is actually developed to some extent in the closing scenes of the drama, the movie itself is far too inert, far too easily sidetracked, and far too underdeveloped to capture our interest.
Movie Review: Characters lacked viewer sympathy.
Summary: 2 Stars
I was interested in viewing the movie because of a newspaper review. I could not find a place to rent the movie in my area of
Whittier, California so I finally decided to buy the DVD.
For the price I paid I was disappointed with the movie. I was hoping for more depth in the development of the characters and their relationship in the time prior to the baby kidnapping.
I may need a second viewing to fully appreciate the story line and some empathy for the characters. Sometimes seeing a movie more than once creates a better appreciation of it.
The good news is after several months of trying to find the movie to rent my quest is no over.
Movie Review: QUE ES?
Summary: 2 Stars
This is one of those movies that tries too hard to be artsy and substitues content, with close ups of the lead actors face. I was bored to tears in about five minutes. Plus it didnt help that the movie was in spanish without subtitles. I speak enough spanish to find the nearest bathroom in tiajuana but beyond that it's not easy to follow a plot.Movie Review: Depressing ...
Summary: 1 Stars
Extreme close-ups, long stills, brutality and subtle story-telling aren't always the necessary ingredients of an art movie. The ordinary need not be ugly and bizarre. I might be sounding too critical, but I think the director's plot was way out of line. If the cardinal idea was to portray Mexico's society (as some reviewers have written), then this isn't the right way to do it.
Marcos & his wife have kidnapped a child for ransom (not shown) and the child dies (not shown again). Marcos is seemingly (horrible acting by the actor) devastated and is supposed to be full of remorse. But, he snuggles up to his boss's daughter Ana and confides in her. Ana & Marcos get close for a while and she asks Marcos to turn himself in. Marcos (the silly) suddenly finds a redemption path. And just when you think he has been shown the right way, he lands up fatally stabbing Ana and then giving her a bizarre tearful hug. As if this weren't enough, he then walks on his knees to a sacred basilica. The movie ends in heaven with Ana & Marcos in a promiscuous position. He has fatally stabbed a young girl and still has the audacity to say that he loves her.
I pity the star cast as well. They didn't have any avenues to show their talent and landed up showing (just) skin.