Post by StevePulaski on Oct 18, 2017 16:08:09 GMT -5
Lowriders (2017)
Directed by: Ricardo de Montreuil
Directed by: Ricardo de Montreuil
Gabriel Chavarria and Theo Rossi.
Rating: ★★½
At first glance, Lowriders suggests to an unassuming viewer that it is a low-grade Fast and the Furious clone with half of the budget. Thankfully, the titular vehicles - muscled cars that ride low to the ground and have legion of enthusiasts on the west coast - take a backseat to the turbulent drama of the central family that has operated on and by the strength of these flashy beasts.
But like the Fast and the Furious franchise, Lowriders is so obsessively concerned with family that it forgets to give us anything new or meaningful other than its prolific use of a tired buzzword. The film is colored by worn archetypes masquerading as developed characters, whose problems are as frequently one-dimensional as they are. The acting isn't the issue, nor are there too many characters with too many motivations clouding the picture. In fact, the problem would be the picture painted is both incomplete and far too predictable in an era that inundates us with family dramas.
In fact, the lowrider culture that's so prominent in eastern L.A. would've been an apt focal point, as the film's title suggests. Instead, we get the story of Danny (Gabriel Chavarria), a graffiti artist content on the world being his canvas rather than selling out to a local art gallery. His concern for his craft gets him ensnared with the law a few too many times, resulting in his father Miguel (Demián Bichir) bailing him out. Miguel can't be too mad at his determined, if angsty, son. A once problem drinker now (mostly) reformed lowrider enthusiast, Miguel hones his craft and walks a fine line especially after alienating his eldest son Francisco (Sons of Anarchy's Theo Rossi). Francisco, who is known as "Ghost" in the streets, is eventually released from prison after a lengthy stint, reentering the lives of his worn father and conflicted brother in order to jostle them into frustrations as an intense lowrider competition gets closer.
Secondary character include Chuy (The Grand Budapest Hotel's Tony Revolori), Danny's two-faced pal who gets incarcerated with him in the beginning of the film for vandalism and subsequent indecency, and Eva Longoria as Gloria, Miguel's long-suffering wife. The two are secondary in every sense of the word as they are merely background players to the dreams and progress (or lack thereof) of the larger forces in their life that come in the form of a convicted felon, a budding artist, and a recovering alcoholic with a temper.
Lowriders spends a lot of time illustrating this brooding family drama as if it's something we haven't seen before, the whole time undermining the legitimacy and significance of the titular vehicles. The hot-rods are hardly a factor for a good portion of the film, and while we don't need to burdened with tiresome, rapidly edited racing scenes, we could at least dig deeper to learn the motives of Miguel and his family. However, most of that remains buried. There's a good scene involving Miguel's relapse back into lifting his elbow, as well as Danny confronting possible career-paths with his friend, played by Melissa Benoist, but the inevitable conclusion is too obvious and the car-culture amidst it all is misleadingly conveyed as a center-piece when it's barely a dashboard accessory.
The grace is the earnestness captured in the trifecta of performances. Bichir has been on my radar for years now ever since he wowed me with his performance in A Better Life (a much better drama centered on the hardships and dynamics of a Latino family), while Chavarria and Rossi hold their own as capable performers in a film that only adequately shows their talents. The film was co-written by Elgin James with Cheo Hodari Coker (screenwriter for Notorious). James, a former gang-member, clearly has personal relevance invested in this film; what he needed more of was a method to show what he learned and what he experienced in a gritty and honest way. As it stands, Lowriders harbors a plethora of cliches while acknowledging a gearhead culture exists simply because it can.
Starring: Gabriel Chavarria, Demián Bichir, Theo Rossi, Tony Revolori, Eva Longoria, and Melissa Benoist. Directed by: Ricardo de Montreuil.