#3 We just watched this on Netflix streaming. You should too!

Sin Nombre

In this new series of articles we’ll be recommending random or popular films that are available right now on Netflix streaming. Join in and watch. Comment and email.

The Film: Sin Nombre

This is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It ranks with some of my favorite films of all time and in terms of the “crime genre” ranks only with City of God and Mean Streets. It makes the characters in Goodfellas look civilized and in considering its director, Cary Joji Fukunaga, I’m dazed at how a thirty year old could make such a mature film.

The film follows a gangster, El Casper, as he tries desperately to separate from his gang in Mexico. In a parallel story a young women Sayra is trying to get through Mexico to New Jersey. They both end up on a train together headed to America.

Why to watch it: Not only is it fantastic social commentary, it is fantastic entertainment

Few people can walk the line of social commentary with sex, violence, and action in it. Not many people can pull it off – almost no one can do it well. Oliver Stone, the master, is the only one that comes to mind who is consistent with this.

Fukunaga walks the line of action thriller and devastating social commentary. Not all illegal immigrants deal with anything even close to this film, but all of them risk a great deal to get to the United States and many other countries where they believe they can lead a better life. The immigrant situation is a complicated one…

Pay attention to this: The visceral experience.

Nothing in this film seems to be contrived. It is not “documentary-style”. A term that is used WAY too much these days. The original Office is documentary style. The compositions in this film are deliberate, but organic.

I choose to call it an observant style more than anything. Fukunaga observes the inner workings of Mexican gangs as if he’d been there so many times himself. He observes the intricacies of riding the trains through Mexico as if he’d rode them himself (maybe he has). This is not a movie that masturbates the gangster lifestyle or illegal immigration, but observes it with sympathy and understainding.

Watch this right now when you get home from work or school or whatever it is you’re doing….you should be watching this instead.

And if you don’t have Netflix streaming….buy it. It costs the same as a shot and a beer at your local bar.