[ ARCHIVES: April 2010 ]

Sin Nombre

by Jess on April 4th, 2010 in Foreign Language

Directed by Cary Fukunaga, Sin Nombre is a film about running away from a life of nothing to start afresh and anew. It is a movie about gangs, migrant workers, and unlikely friendships. It begins with a close-up of El Casper. As his tattoos are slowly revealed, we discover that Casper is part of the Mexican gang, Mara Salvatrucha. In Honduras, Sayra is attempting to reach America with her father and uncle. Through a series of events, the two meet on a train headed to the USA, both trying to leave their past behind.

The focus of the film revolves around Casper’s connections with the gang but ties in the immigrant ideals and pursuits as well. It is impossible not to feel sympathetic for Casper, Sayra and what they both represent.

8.9 / 10

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District 9

by Jess on April 3rd, 2010 in Science Fiction

The first movie I’ve watched since starting Half of Jess is Neill Blomkamp’s District 9. The film is an allegory of South Africa’s apartheid era where xenophobia and racism ran the country.

The film starts of like an episode of The Office, with a series of characters being interviewed, beginning with the main protagonist, Wikus Van De Merwe. He works with Multi-National United (MNU) in communicating with aliens whose mother ship had broken down above Johannesburg. South Africa had agreed to accept these aliens by building living quarters, essentially slums, for them in an area known as District 9. Due to tensions between the aliens and the humans, Van De Merwe gets sent on a mission to evict the aliens from District 9 .

District 9 recreates the racial tensions that South Africa endured in the past but adds a technologically-advanced twist to it. The alien weaponry is fantastic, with laser beams blasting through everything and a robot that seems to never run out of ammo. The messages regarding corporate greed, intolerance and exploitation are meshed well with the exceptional CGI.

You can’t help but root for the aliens.

8.5 / 10

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