Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Amat Escalante
Starring: Juan Daniel García Treviño, Ester Expósito, Bárbara Mori, Fernando
Bonilla, Mafer Osio
While Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante continues to highlight
his country's well-documented social injustices and corruption, his
latest feature, Lost in the Night, is his most mainstream work to date, the sort of socially conscious
thriller Hollywood regularly pumped out before the dawn of superhero
movies. The usual graphic sex and violence you expect from Escalante is
still present but toned down by his standards, and in casting Latina
superstar Ester Expósito (the Spanish speaking world's Sydney
Sweeney) in a key role, you might surmise the filmmaker is eager to win
over a youthful audience beyond his core base of crusty film festival
attendees.
The film takes place in a small town in rural Mexico where a Canadian
owned mine has divided the residents. In the prologue we see a small
group of protestors ambushed by cops on a late night highway. Three
years later, Emiliano (Juan Daniel García Treviño), the teenage
son of one of the "disappeared" women, receives a clue from a dying cop
wishing to confess his sins. Unable to speak due to severe burns, the
cop writes a name on a piece of paper. The name is that of Carmen (Bárbara Mori), an actress/singer who lives in a modernist mansion on the outskirts
of town with her Spanish contemporary artist boyfriend Rigo (Fernando Bonilla) and her teenage daughter Monica (Expósito).
Hoping to find answers, Emiliano and his girlfriend Jasmin (Mafer Osio) inveigle themselves into the home of Carmen and Rigo, with Emiliano
performing manual handywork while Jasmin acts as babysitter. Harassed by
a religious sect offended by Rigo's blasphemous artwork, the affluent
couple have a pair of local cops at their beck and call, one of whom we
know was involved in the disappearance of Emiliano's mother, knowledge
the audience is aware of thanks to the prologue but which Emiliano isn't
privy to. Emiliano grows suspicious of a water tank on the property,
believing it might be filled with corpses, including that of his
mother.
Much like David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Lost in the Night features the sort of naïve young
protagonists who belong in an Enid Blyton story finding themselves out
of their depth in a dangerous adult world. Despite the hardships they've
faced in their young lives, Emiliano and Jasmin still possess an
adorable innocence, and while they may live in one of the most dangerous
places in the western world they still have a capacity to be shocked by
the lengths people will go to when spurred by greed. Emiliano's naivete
sees him taken under the wing of Rigo, who seems determined to serve as
a father figure for the young man. We're left to wonder if Rigo is
motivated by guilt, if he was indeed involved in the disappearance of
the boy's mother.
Escalante contrasts the innocence and purity of an awkward but romantic
sexual fumble between Emiliano and Jasmin with Emiliano's gradual
seduction by the worldly and predatory Monica. Like the young
protagonists of Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude and Charlotte
Le Bon's recent directorial debut
Falcon Lake, Monica spends her time filming increasingly elaborate fake suicides
which she streams to a large audience of adoring fans. When she
confesses a shocking story involving an attempted rape, we're left to
wonder if she's genuine or simply trying to shock the innocent
Emiliano.
Like many filmmakers who trade in sex and violence, Escalante has been
written off by his detractors as nothing more than a shock merchant, a
provocateur who gets off on getting a rise out of his audience. Through
the characters of Rigo and Monica, Escalante seems to be interrogating
his own image. When Rigo offers to create a piece of conceptual art
around Emiliano's search for his mother, the boy reacts badly, seeing it
as a crass and distasteful gesture. Does Rigo represent filmmakers like
Escalante, who have made a living off portraying the suffering of
others?
Lost in the Night is never quite as tense or suspenseful
as its premise might suggest, and Emiliano never really seems to be in
any tangible jeopardy until very late on. Escalante seems more
interested in exploring the power dynamics of his film's characters than
in teasing out a mystery, and he doesn't seem au fait with how thrillers
are structured so as to keep the audience gripped by an unfolding plot.
Twists and turns are dealt out in sloppy fashion, mostly through
characters literally confessing their deeds to our young hero, who is
something of a passenger in the film, stumbling across the truth rather
than uncovering it through his snooping.
Those expecting an immersive mystery plot will be ill-served here, but
those familiar with and receptive to Escalante's ability to build mood
and atmosphere should be more appreciative. Escalante has always had a
knack for creating a sense of place, and that's the case here. We feel
like we know Emiliano's world better than the young man might himself.
It's a world where seemingly everyone has traded a part of themselves to
get by. In the wide-eyed Emiliano and Jasmin, touched but unsullied by
the greed and deceit that blights their land, we're offered a glimpse of
a potentially brighter future for Mexico.
Lost in the Night is on UK/ROI VOD from March 4th.
