Number Rolled: 55
Movie Name/Year: Victorio
(2008)
Tagline: Only
love conquers all.
Genre: Drama,
Romance
Length: 89
minutes
Rating: NR
Production Companies:
DMM films, Fondo para la Produccion Cinematografica de Calidad (Foprocine)
Producer: Joel
Nunez, Elizabeth Romagnoli, Oscar Garcia Soberano
Director: Alex
Noppel, Armando Croda
Writer: Elizabeth
Figueroa
Actors: Roberto
Sosa, Carmen Salinas, Luis Fernando Pena, Iran Castillo, Manuel Ojeda,
Guillermo Quintanilla, Leticia Valenzuela, Francisco Rivera, Pilar Rachid
Choreographer: Jesus
Yep
Languages
Speech Available:
Spanish
Subtitles Available:
English, Spanish
Blurb from Netflix:
Each ensnared in a life of hustle and violence, gangbanger Victorio and
prostitute Gabriela find love with each other, and hope for a new life.
Selina’s Point of View:
Victorio started
with a shaky-cam awkward fight scene that looked very fake, continued with a
strangely upbeat and colorful opening credits scene that was completely out of
place, and was then filled with not much else that showed any potential.
The film was part drama part romance… but there was no
chemistry or any realism to the romance so it felt completely forced. The
violence wasn’t choreographed very well either, so it looked more like children
pretending to fight than anything real.
Victorio being bad
actually annoys me a great deal.
The plot was really good. With a better writer/director,
and stunt coordinators/choreographers that knew what they were doing, this film
would have been outstanding.
With better handling, the entire thing could have been a
tearjerker that was really elevated above everything else. Especially with the end
message.
Unfortunately, everything was just handled wrong and that
made the film almost unbearable to watch.
I can’t recommend Victorio,
which is a shame because I WANT to. I wanted the film to be able to stand up to
its plot and it just couldn’t.
Cat’s Point of View:
I’m going to try and start my review of Victorio with something positive. The subtitles weren’t horrible.
They were laggy in places but they kept up with dialogue for the most part and
were easy to read against the movie.
That is the only thing that I can say about this film that
isn’t a negative.
I pretty much hated this movie – but in some ways, I feel
guilty for it. Who am I to look down my nose at this independent film with the
raw portrayal of life on the streets, right? The film delivers a powerful
message, but it dragged me kicking and screaming to get to it.
There was shaky-cam at some points that I had to look away
from because it was so disorienting. There was a heavy backdrop of Latin
gangster music – yet none of it was translated, even when there was no dialogue
over it. We also get into the sticky wickets of the ability of child actors,
who haven’t yet grown into their craft, portraying some really dark shit that
they likely don’t fully understand.
Moving on.
This movie was so much longer than it needed to be. There
were too many slow artsy transitions that just weren’t necessary. I thought
this movie would never end at a few points, and it had already become tedious
for me within a few minutes – by the time the first episode of spastic-cam
happened.
I didn’t buy in to most of the fight scenes. For a movie
that was obviously meant to gut you and leave you bleeding with some sort of
new awareness of the world – it just didn’t have enough literal punch to it.
Ultimately instead of effectively delivering its message,
this film boiled down to a passive aggressive guilt trip. That very thing also
happens to be one of my biggest pet peeves ever. Don’t preach to me with your
movie. Frame your message better. If you want to screen a documentary, don’t call
it a drama.
I hope to never have to watch this movie again. I definitely
won’t be recommending it.
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None
Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 1.5/5
Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 1.5/5
Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 1.5/5
Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score
– 1/5
Trust-the-Dice’s
Parental Advisory Rating: R
Movie Trailer:
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