In this pensive, plangent film, Ulises (Juan Daniel Garcia “Derek”), a cumbia-obsessed 17-year-old “Cholombiano” from the working-class outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico, flees to the U.S. and tries to make a life for himself in New York. Back home, he was the leader of a small gang/dance crew known as Los Terkos. They had elaborately gelled hairstyles, wore vibrant, baggy clothes, and whiled away the hours hanging and dancing to cumbia music and occasionally causing chaos. The film moves along the two timelines as the lonely, destitute boy makes his way (and occasionally dances) through New York while flashing back to his life in Mexico and the grisly circumstances that led to his having to leave. Director Fernando Frias de la Parra proves himself a master visual storyteller, but he’s also not one to hand-hold us through a narrative. Elements of costuming or background — Ulises’s clothes, his hair, a telltale subway platform — are often all we have to locate ourselves in the film’s somewhat intricate flashback structure. This may prove difficult for some viewers. I’m No Longer Here demands your attention, and it merits your attention. And the music and the dancing — gradually becoming more mournful, expressing a profound homesickness — are lovely to behold.
No comments:
Post a Comment