Where's Marianne?

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Films of 2021 

#38 : Nuevo Orden (New Order)

Director Michel Franco leaves no room for sympathy or redemption in this violent, cynical thriller, a brutally unforgiving attack on Mexico’s super-rich that delivers a vivid warning against the consequences of inequality.

Never heard of it, but I'm not going to complain about being asked to watch a violent, cynical thriller - in fact, I'm positively looking forward to it...

And so, it obviously starts with a totally naked woman standing in the rain with a stripe of green paint down her body.  And then some more stuff with green paint being thrown about the place.  And then we're in hospital with a load of bodies, some of which are green in places - hmmm, odd.  But then we're at a posh wedding in a very nice house and everything looks to be back to normal - but, hold on a goddam minute, what colour is that water coming out of the taps?

Anyways, we're back to the wedding and it's obvious we're setting up a class divide and the rich people are being very unsubtly set up as a bunch of assholes.  I wonder what the chances of them getting their comeuppance is?  Oh - there we go...

And well, if the set-up wasn't exactly subtle then the execution is blunt beyond belief.  I'm all for driving the message home as required, but slightly more nuance wouldn't have hurt.  Some of the scenes were impressively set-up (and for very little screen time as well), but it was all a bit "let's bludgeon the message home - that'll make our point nicely".

It does get slightly more balance towards the end of the film in suggesting that actually plenty of people on both sides of the class divide can be assholes, but it also gets very confused in trying to broaden the story out from the people we've met to (I think) make a broader point about society as a whole - to be honest, it somewhat lost me.  I think there was also a message about how good intentions get misappropriated on all sides, but that got a bit confused as well.  

However, with 10 minutes to go there was a major plot point yet to be resolved (which bizarrely, I still cared slightly about) and no clear way there were going to achieve it - so I did stay until the end.  I was actually surprised by the resolution - it didn't go where I was expecting it to (whilst still managing, as expected, to disappoint me).  And the spoilt rich kid got one final opportunity to prove how much of an asshole he was - hoorah!

Wikipedia mentions something that did occur to me whilst watching the film without being in a position to comment further - the darker your skin is in this film, the more likely you are to be rioting.  However, (from my position of ignorance) I think the film as a whole manages to avoid being overtly racist - mainly because everyone comes out of it pretty badly.  However, Wikipedia states that the trailer caused a lot of comment in Mexico and the director very helpfully fuelled the fire by suggesting he was a victim of "reverse racism" - that's always gonna calm down an angry mob on social media, isn't it?  Interestingly, Wikipedia also tells me that Michel Franco's films are often poorly received in Mexico but well received by critics and film festivals - I can imagine if I was Mexican I'd be pretty annoyed by this film (even more so than I already am).

The film does feature some impressive scenes and is generally pretty well shot, but the whole thing was one godawful mess - quite how The Guardian thought this was one of the best 50 films of last year is beyond me.  One thing I would agree with them on is that it was extremely cynical - way beyond the point by which it could possibly achieve anything.  I mean, I can be cynical with the best of them, but all this tells you is there no point in doing anything because it won't achieve anything and you'll end up getting the blame for it all anyway.

Whilst watching this film, I was under the impression that it was reasonably well acted.  However, having thought about it afterwards then it actually feels that only one person is really given more than one emotion to display - Naian Gonzalez Norvind as Marianne which fortunately she manages to do well (and was the reason I stayed to the end of the film).  Everyone is perfectly fine with what they're given to do, but it doesn't feel like they were overly stretched.

I think it's fair to say that the reviews out there for this film are pretty polarised and, obviously, I'm going to quote a couple of the more damning ones because they amused me.  The LA Times mentions a prison scene "where inmates are greeted with a friendly “Welcome to hell, assholes!” Rarely have I heard a director speak more directly to his audience" whilst Rolling Stone says "If you’ve found yourself having just too good a time lately and need that to come to an end, then hot foot it to New Order".

So, basically this film features one good performance and some nice looking scenes and, apart from that, has absolutely no redeeming features for me.  It's either as subtle as a sledgehammer or just a confusing mess - I can't for the life of me understand what it's doing on this list.

If, after all that, you still want to watch this film then it's available on Amazon or Apple TV - but why would you want to do that to yourself? 

#39 - Interesting but not great
#37 - An odd film and no mistake!