Alas, not as much physical luchador action as I'd hoped. And no real team-up/crossover action, either. The individual stories are certainly remarkable—five men don the traditional masks of Lucha Libre heroes and take their progressive fights for progressive causes to the streets of Mexico City—but the storytelling doesn't do them justice. The filmmakers seem to follow some rather loose rules and guidelines for documenting their subjects. The superhero tack they take is a great idea for a unifying motif, and totally fitting with the mythos that each super-wrestler draws upon for inspiration, but I wanted more detail and history, out of it. The film seems to assume that I already know something about these heroes, and goes light on giving us a proper profile or background on most of them. Fray Tormenta, the only one who had a legit career in the ring, came off as the most developed in the course of the film. Perhaps they others needed or wanted to preserve whatever level of anonymity they had...? But that declaration itself would have been appreciated, had it been included on screen.I really would have loved some words from a Mexico City "Commissioner Gordon" type, y'know? Someone with authority and cred, on either side of the Amigos' fights, to comment on their methods and progress. More testimonials from the their supporters, too. A better defined timeline for the stories of each luchadores social would have helped with the film's intercut storytelling. Comic book "meanwhile"s fit the theme, but does Ecologista Universal (the defender of the environment) truly make his 100-plus mile hike from the Mexican wilderness into Mexico City, in costume, in the time that Super Barrio (defender of the poor tenants of the city) takes to organize a tenant march to thwart unfair evictions.
The choice of subjects is excellent. The superhero/comic-inspired framing of the film is grand, and the animations included to describe secret origins and provide some background exposition are very fun, but the overall storytelling feels incomplete, choppy and convoluted.
The short film that preceded AMIGOS, "The Fighting Cholitas," was better put together. It introduces us to the wrestling Cholitas, both "Tecnicas" and "Rudas," aka good and bad, in the upstart Cholita wrestling circuit in Bolivia. It reminded me a bit of the A&E series ROLLERGIRLS from last year sometime. We see them in the ring, training and battling, and then outside the arena, with their children and family, busy with their day jobs in the workshop or marketplace, and explaining their pride in their Bolivian Indian identity, representing in the ring, and releasing other sides of themselves when in character. And they do it all in traditional multi-layered skirts!Keep on keepin on~
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