MFAH Film – A Second Look: Gueros

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents the A Second Look film series. This series offers another opportunity to see acclaimed films that played briefly in Houston earlier this year.

Güeros
Directed by Alonso Ruiz Palacios
2014, in Spanish with English subtitles
Mexico
B/W
106 minutes
DCP

Alonso Ruiz Palacios’s feature debut is a youthful and mischievous explosion of refreshing energy.

With sharp black-and-white cinematography reminiscent of the 1960s, Güeros follows a trio of young men in 1999 with too much time on their hands.

Tomás (Sebastián Aguirre) is sent to Mexico City to live with his brother Federico (Tenoch Huerta), a student. Finding the university closed because of student protests, Tomás, Federico, and roommate Santos (Leonardo Ortizgris) bum around but also respond to the era’s political conscience.

Playful and imbued with a joie de vivre that evokes the French New Wave, Güeros is a refreshing and poignant time capsule.

“The title of Güeros references blond or light-skinned Mexicans. Two brothers, Tomás and Sombra (one lighter in complexion than the other) and their pal Santos, knock around Mexico City, dropping in and out of the student protest movement that’s closed down the university, and visiting one of its leaders, Ana, a gamine beauty reminiscent of Jeanne Moreau in Jules and Jim or Anna Karina in any number of Godard movies from the ‘60s. Whether quoting Rilke or Derrida or pursuing a mysterious musician ‘who made Bob Dylan cry,’ this foursome’s droll, absurd adventures don’t revisit the ‘60s so much as reinvent them for a new generation of Latino hipsters. Unsurprisingly, actor Gael Garcia Bernal was associate producer of the film.” —Film Forum (New York)

“This bouncy and effervescent film often has the kind of timeless charms that can also be found in the early New Wave films.” —The Hollywood Reporter

“A good story—full of life and related with intelligence and a sense of humor.” —Slant

“Alive with personality and humor to spare…one of the more successful homages to the French New Wave. It’s playful in the spirit of Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player.” —Film-Forward.com