Rudo y Cursi is an artful story of hick half-brothers from banana plantations in the Cihuatlán Valley between Jalisco and Colima. An agent discovers them and signs them to opposing First Division teams in Mexico City, where they succumb to the trappings of success.
Rudo y Cursi is one of the top-grossing Mexican movies ($13M). It is a reunion of the makers and stars of the even more successful 2001 Y Tu Mamá También.
Many contiguous themes are woven into this dramedy of sibling rivalry, brotherhood, drug lords, gambling, vitamin supplement sales programs, and how pro soccer diminishes the players’ love of the game. That’s a lot of themes, but they are well integrated.
Additionally, I didn’t realize that single moms are so prevalent throughout Mexico despite its Catholicism, because men abandon their families or women push them out. That plays a significant part of the story.
Soccer as a metaphor, but it’s pretty good soccer
First-time director Carlos Cuaron put very little soccer into this movie, because he did not want it to be a soccer movie; the soccer is meant to be a metaphor for life. But the soccer that is included is authentic, as both stars are weekend players.
This movie is rated R. It has swearing, drugs, sex and nudity. There are a couple of hazing scenes where the new player falls for the trick of dropped soap bar in the shower. The ending was a bit of a downer for me.
The DVD has a good making-of featurette plus a director commentary (which I didn’t listen to). Note that Director Carlos is the brother of Academy Award-winner Alfonso Cuarón.
5 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 5
Resources:
- Release Date: 2008-12-19 (Mexico)
- In Spanish with English sub-titles
- IMDB
- WIKI
- Director: Carlos Cuarón
- Stars: Diego Luna (GK Rudo) , Gael García Bernal (Cursi)
- Watch the Trailer
