First-time writer/director Cary Fukunaga’s “Sin Nombre” is a movie about devastating and emotionally draining moments. What makes it unique among films that cover similar subject matter is the restrained acting and richness of its visual sense. In that respect, it is a descendant of a less showy cinematic lineage.

You would think that a movie that profiles the brutal gang culture of Mexico—where initiation involves getting the crap kicked out of you by fellow members and being forced to kill someone—would be full of hip, quick-cut transitions and hyper-charged with swooshy sound effects and showy pans. Fukunaga and cinematographer Adriano Goldman, however, maintain a more objective and less intrusive camera style.

“Sin Nombre” (roughly translated: “the nameless”) reveals instead way of life that ensnares kids at a very early age with the promise of brotherhood, and then makes it nearly impossible to escape. Casper (played with considerable restraint and weight by Edgar Flores) is one of those teenage gang members. His 12-year-old friend Smiley (Kristyan Ferrer) looks up to Caspar as much as he is unsure that he is man enough to join the Mara Salvatrucha gang. Fukunaga captures equal measures of loyalty and fear within the literal confines of the gang’s community and the mental constraints of Caspar, who has a secret he’s hiding from them with good reason.

Casper feels trapped, as does a Honduran teen named Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) who, ironically, is traveling North with her uncle and a father she barely knows to cross the U.S.-Mexican border. She’s trapped because the trip is actually her father’s ambition. He is only seeing her now because he was recently deported from the U.S., and now he wants to make his way back to New Jersey again to be with his new established family—strangers to Sayra. She is not convinced she wants to accompany him and is definitely not prepared for the horrors that await her as they sit atop trains with hundreds of other migrants, constantly exposed to the elements.

There is a twist of fate and the two meet quite unexpectedly. Sayra becomes more embittered and makes a rebellious choice, while Casper is forced to imagine a life that exists outside of the gang.

“Sin Nombre” exposes a culture that, despite its widespread nature, is probably not widely known about outside its home country. The mechanics of the plot start to become a little familiar, but the care for which realism in character and especially setting are portrayed make it a very powerful movie. Fukunaga and Goldman won the director and cinematographer prizes at Sundance in January. It’s not hard to imagine why.

“Sin Nombre” was shot in old-fashioned 35mm, and its images are both gorgeous and unsettling at the same time. Rain-soaked people huddled together on train cars and covered in tarps look like sinking lily pads in a river. A mass of humanity—humbled and weakened—hides beneath those flimsy coverings just like the debilitated souls of the gang members, long ago swallowed up by the oppressive group mentality.

Fukunaga is able to draw stirring and naturalistic performances out of a virtually unknown cast. He also takes time to show the little details of everyday existence in Central America—even taking time to cast a wider net and portray residents not directly involved with, but certainly affected by, the gang culture. Once the story reaches its climax, a feeling of inevitability takes nothing away from the deep feeling it produces.

Tags: 2009, Cary, film, Fukunaga, Joji, mexico, movie review, Sin Nombre, Sundance

Millimeter and Digital Content Producer magazines have provided me with the opportunity to interview prominent directors and profile 10 short films that are appearing this week at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Just in case you missed it, here are all five podcast interviews from the BlogLive@Sundance Film Festival ‘09 that I conducted:

My first interview was with “Superbad” director Greg Mottola. Hear about his new movie “Adventureland” (starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Bill Hader, and Kristen Wiig) and get an exclusive preview of the challenge of creating a CGI character on the new Simon Pegg/Nick Frost movie he’s currently working on called “Paul.” Click here to hear my interview with Greg Mottola.

Robert Siegel (who was recently nominated for a Writer’s Guild Award and used to be the editor-in-chief of The Onion) arrives at this year’s Sundance Film Festival with his directorial debut, “Big Fan,” starring Patton Oswalt, and the movie is in the dramatic film competition. Listen to my interview with Siegel in this exclusive audio podcast and find out why casting was so important on both movies and what he learned about directing from Aronofsky!

If you’ve seen “Northfork” or “Twin Falls Idaho,” then you are familiar with the kind of “heightend reality” that the writing/directing/producing team of Mark and Michael Polish can produce. “Manure” is the third trip to Sundance for the twin brothers, and it stars Billy Bob Thornton, Tea Leoni, Kyle MacLachlan, and Ed Helms. The film was shot completely on soundstages and the production design did their best to keep the entire film in different shades of brown. Listen to my audio interview with “Manure” director Michael Polish.

Former standup comedian John Hindman is heavily influenced by Woody Allen, James L. Brooks, and Sydney Pollack. When it came time to direct his own script for “Arlen Faber,” he turned to a Hollywood veteran who is well-known for tackling tricky roles in independent films. Jeff Daniels joined on as the title character in Hindman’s film early on and that helped the filmmaker gett funding to make the movie, which is competing in the dramatic competetion at Sundance this year. It also co-stars Lauren Graham, Olivia Thirlby, and Kat Dennings. Find out what happens when you quit feeding the crew in my audio podcast with John Hindman.

“Peter and Vandy” was adapted from a 2002 play written by and starring the film’s director, Jay DiPietro. For the movie, DiPietro cast Jason Ritter and Jess Weixler as the title couple and had to expand way beyond the production limitations of a two-character play that took place in one living room. Learn about the challenges of adapting your own play into a feature film in my interview with writer/director Jay DiPietro.

Tags: 2009, adventureland, arlen faber, big fan, director, greg mottola interview, jay di pietro interview, john hindman interview, manure, michael polish interview, peter and vandy, robert siegel interview, Sundance, superbad, the wrestler

This weekend, I’ll be blogging for Digital Content Producer’s Sundance 2009 BlogLive. I’ll have audio podcast interviews with directors who have movies premiering at this year’s festival, and I’ll be posting profiles/reviews of films appearing in the festival’s Short Film Program. This year features a record 96 short films from 5,632 submissions, from U.S. and international filmmakers. Submissions grew by 10 percent over last year. The 2009 Sundance Film Festival runs January 15-25 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance, Utah.

Here’s a little background on one of the artists whose films I’ll be writing about. Don Hertzfeldt is back at Sundance for the fourth time with his newest film I Am So Proud of You. He’s been making award-winning shorts since 1995, and his 2000 animated short, Rejected, was nominated for an Oscar. Hertzfeld proves that animation doesn’t have to be done by computers or even have ornately rendered characters or backgrounds to be effective. This is bizarre, hilarious stuff, all hand-drawn, mostly black-on-white, and animated against a simple white background. At least until things get weird. If you haven’t ever seen his work, you need to. Check out Don Hertzfeldt’s short film Rejected below:

Rejected may be complete fiction (I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as the Family Learning Channel), but the movie is a clear reaction to the requests for television commercials that were actually thrown at the filmmaker after the success of his 1998 short, Billy’s Balloon. A DVD collection of his shorts from 1995-2005 that includes both of the short films presented here is available at his Bitter Films website, along with lots of other cool merch you can buy to support the filmmaker. Here’s Billy’s Balloon, enjoy:

Tags: 2009, Animator, billy's balloon, Don Hertzfeldt, Everything Will Be OK, I Am So Proud of You, rejected, returns, Sundance, to, video