Amores Perros
Composite Score: 85.27
Starring: Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Álvaro Guerrero, Vanessa Bauche, Jorge Salinas, Marco Pérez, Rodrigo Murray, and Humberto Busto
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writer: Guillermo Arriaga
Genres: Drama, Thriller, Romance, Crime
MPAA Rating: R for violence/gore, language, and sexuality
Box Office: $20.91 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Amores Perros is Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film about three intersecting stories in Mexico City, converging around a single fateful car wreck, love, and dogs. The film stars Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Álvaro Guerrero, and Vanessa Bauche as its central figures in various states of romance and tragedy in its three coexisting narratives – Echevarría as the aging vagrant who cares for the city’s stray dogs while earning money as a criminal for hire, García Bernal and Bauche as the star-crossed lovers impacted by poverty and street-level violence, and Toledo and Guerrero as the amorous members of Mexico’s elite who are suddenly stuck in a precarious situation due to a series of unfortunate events almost entirely outside their control. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and is heralded as one of the best examples of modern Mexican cinema, while serving as an excellent theatrical feature debut for Iñárritu.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Amores Perros is a brutal film, especially in its depiction of the underground dogfighting rings in Mexico City. Like 2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, I can’t recommend this film to people sensitive to viewing violence against animals on-screen. While none of the animals were actually harmed in the making of the film, the depiction of such violent acts can be difficult for audiences to process. It serves as a brutal example of the class divides and violence inherent to the economic system of Mexico (and, more broadly, the Western world), which Iñárritu wants to capture and challenge in this film, but that doesn't necessarily make it any easier to watch. In all of its showing, though, sometimes its themes force the story to the background, with a few small moments of telling, rather than showing, that mark this film as a clear example of a filmmaker’s inaugural feature.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
While this film is a dramatic romance mixed with a crime thriller, its true strength comes in the three stories’ ability to reveal the closeness of humanity in all situations. Yes, we care about El Chivo’s backstory and his desire to reconnect with his daughter, but it’s the fact that he’s calling out for true human connection and regretting his severance of that connection that makes his story so compelling. We feel for Valeria as her world is turned upside down by injury and her dog running into a hole in the ground, but the truly compelling factor of her story with Daniel is the illicit nature of their connection and Daniel’s inability to maintain any kind of romantic connection that doesn’t hinge upon looks and status. On some level, we want Octavio to get the girl, but there’s this realization that, in doing so, he’s destroying his connection with the rest of his family. This is a film about human connection that focuses on this need for interaction, love, and resonance that we all have – highlighting the need through a violent series of events that pushes everyone, regardless of class, age, and relationship status, toward a desperate grab for interpersonal connections.
Amores Perros presents the audience with a brutal breakdown of social, economic, and relational gaps that highlights the central need of all people to be loved by and connected to other humans, resulting in a film worthy of a place among the greats. Its brutality and violence might be more than some audiences can handle, so check yourself and the film’s warnings before you commit, but the story at its heart leaves plenty to reward you for watching it. It can currently be streamed via Freevee on Amazon Prime with ads or rented on most streaming services if you’d prefer to catch it ad-free.
