Mexican Cinema

One of the most pleasant surprises for me this weekend is "Lake Tahoe," a touching film from Mexico that is beautifully told with just enough dialogue.

An older gentleman sitting behind me was telling me after the lights went up that, "It told the story visually -- which is what a film is supposed to do." Whatever dialogue was there was well-written.

The story has little to do with Lake Tahoe. It centers on a middle-class family in a small town (or perhaps suburb) of a Mexico we don't usually see in the few films that come to the United States from that country. The teenage boy of the house is on the verge of manhood. We watch him go through the day dealing with car trouble, but it gradually becomes apparent that there is a much more serious loss.

Directed by Fernando Eimbcke -- new to me but obviously experienced based on the quality -- this could have been an early film by someone like Alejandro González Iñárritu. Maryland Film Festival programmer Eric Allen Hatch appropriately compares Eimbcke to Jim Jarmusch. This is one worth keeping an eye on.