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Movies & TV

X QUINIENTOS

X QUINIENTOS

CWC D: Juan Andrés Arango. Canada/Colombia/Mexico. 108 min. Sep 10, 9:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3 Sep 17, 9:15 pm, Scotiabank 4. Rating: N


Hopeful teen with a hard-knocks life gets caught up with violent street gangs. We’ve seen the story often, and this film has little to add.

Instead, it multiplies that narrative by three. In Mexico City, an Indigenous boy gets bullied into thug life by his cousin’s hombres. In Buenaventura, an Afro-Colombian helps the local gang dispose of decapitated bodies to make ends meet. In Montreal, a young Filipina immigrant acts out when she meets some terrible actors playing Filipino troublemakers.

Yes, these things happen everywhere, though perhaps in more realistic terms than the oppressively narrow and cynical path Arango sets out for his characters. Few things are more frustrating than seeing people who can’t exercise free will because they exist in a nihilistic film fascinated with violence.

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