Arriaga's dialogue is crisp and colloquial, characters speaking fast and furious in the slang of the day, lending it an authenticity and grittiness. DP Rodrigo Prieto has rendered the film in a washed-out metallic pastel veneer that not only eschews feelings of bleakness and utter despair, but hopeful warmth as well. with an entourage of mongrels, you will have experienced such a turbulence of emotion and chaos that not much else will shock you, not even the secret life he leads a life which includes an estranged daughter and a nefarious way of making ends meet.
By the time we enter the life of El Chivo, a disheveled bum who roams the streets of M.C. Matters are complicated when Val's dog Ritchie falls through a hole in the floor and "gets devoured by rats." Or so it seems. When Val is extracted from the crash, their life (and love) begins to twist, turn, and threatens to snap. Her story is of the neo-idyllic relationship between her, the secret trophy mistress and Daniel (¿lvaro Guerrero), married editor of a fashion magazine. From Octavio's soap opera on speed we move on to that of supermodel Valeria. In a misguided attempt to snag enough cash to whisk himself and Suz away to a better life, he ends up losing more than he bargains for. As is often the case, foolish love leads to foolish acts, Octavio's being that he enters into the high-risk arena of dog fighting. Unfortunately our "hero" also loves his abusive brother's wife Susana (Vanessa Bauche), which creates a tangled triangle d'amour. On the surface this is a tale of a boy and his dog. We quickly learn why Octavio was on his collision course with destiny and who mutilated his prize pooch.
There's the aforementioned Octavio, the beautiful supermodel Valeria (Goya Toledo), and the mysterious bum El Chivo (Emilio Echevarr¿a) each with a very different existence within the confines of Mexico City. Inarritu and company take us on a wild ride that turns the lives of three principle characters inside out, upside down, and every which way but loose. The film, in a twisted and sardonic way, also shows us how love endures. All three of the tales Arriaga has woven together dwell upon love and how it not only soothes the soul, but also twists the perceptions, wrenches the guts, and warps the mind. This film has a gritty, almost dirty edge to it that few individuals North of the border could ever hope to attain. Many will cry " Pulp Fiction!" but the tapestry-like structure of the narrative is the only similarity. The film moves through space and time with a non-linear ease, going back in time, forward when appropriate, and delivering simultaneously occurring action when needed. Yet as intense as it is, the crash is merely an explosive narrative device, the defining catalyst, if you will, with which to bring us the stories of three disparate individuals, all linked by two major commonalties: their love of dogs and the unfortunate collision of metal, rubber, and flesh. But the impact of this crash goes way beyond shock value as it thrusts us headlong into an engagingly warped story of dogs and the people who love them. Things are in motion, hectic motion, thanks to the chromatized tint of the film, the jerky handheld camera vertigo, and sharp editing.Īs everyone knows, things in motion must eventually come to a halt and to this end Inarritu delivers with an abrupt bang, or in this case by capturing one of the most throttling automobile collisions ever rendered on film. To complicate matters, a crew of Mexican thugs is bearing down upon him in a flame-emblazoned pickup, guns slinging bullets left and right. From there we are launched full-bore into the front seat of a careening car where young Octavio (Gael Garc¿a Bernal) is at the helm, gripping the wheel with white knuckles while his stud Mastiff lays heaving, bloody and crumpled in the back seat. They usually reserve those for the end credits. Their film, a triptych of interlaced stories, is visceral at its core, examining all the shades – specifically the darker ones – of love as they equate to man, woman, and canine.Īlmost immediately you realize that you are in for a wild ride when a disclaimer stating that none of the animals were harmed during filming pops up on the screen. Roughly translated, the title means "Love's A Bitch." And is it ever, at least in the words of screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga and in the images of director Alejandro Gonz¿lez I¿¿rritu.