Short Takes
SIN NOMBRE Before setting pen to paper, Sin Nombre writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga purportedly rode the rails in the company of real illegal immigrants traveling from Mexico to the U.S. But from the looks of it, he spent even more time studying Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' slicked-up slum porn City of God: diminutive kids with guns—check; carefully lit and art-directed shantytowns—check; doomed teen romance—yep, that too. In fairness, Fukunaga's film isn't quite as ostentatiously vulgar as Meirelles': Its loftier aspirations are obvious from the opening shot of El Casper (Edgar Flores), a young initiate in the fact-based Mara Salvatrucha gang, staring fixedly at a photo enlargement of a leafy wooded landscape—a signal flare (along with his teardrop tattoo) that he's really a soulful poet-dreamer trapped in a violent existence. After his girlfriend is raped and murdered by the gang's more elaborately tattooed leader, Casper makes a break for it, hopping the same U.S.-bound freight train on which Honduran teen Sayra (Paulina Gaitan) and her father are heading to the promised land. Meanwhile, Casper's best friend, Smiley (pint-sized Kristian Ferrer), is dispatched to track the fugitive down—hmmm, do you think these two amigos will find their personal loyalty tested by obeisance to La Mara? Lushly photographed and meticulously sound-designed, Sin Nombre is visceral without being vital, researched without ever seeming lived-in. The best that can be said is that it's a more honest film on the subject of immigration than the recent Crossing Over—but then again, so is Beverly Hills Chihuahua. (Opens Friday at Green Hills) SCOTT FOUNDAS
BATTLE FOR TERRAA spiritual sequel to the equally hapless Delgo—which sold pacifism in animated form to an empty theater—Battle for Terra pits alien creatures against invading Earthlings in a detail-poor CGI landscape. Terra, to be fair, looks fairly clean, and the 3-D is totally passable, but watching it will be no fun for either kids or adults. The creatures of Terra resemble nothing so much as myopic earthworms, the backs of their heads ripped off from The Fifth Element's alien opera singer. Into their drab, hippy-dippy world enters a fleet of invading humans—having destroyed Earth, Mars and Venus, they need a new pad. Inevitably, the human military wants to wipe the natives out and colonize, while dissenting voices call for peaceful interaction. It's up to young alien Mala (Evan Rachel Wood) to bond with downed soldier Jim (Luke Wilson) and convince him that her species has value, etc. Battle for Terra harps on pacifism so tirelessly that it's enough to make the most die-hard U.N. supporter long for some irresponsible ass-kicking. And the alien dialogue ("Inventions that are against our teachings are not approved"; "Then maybe our teachings are wrong!") makes a good case for wiping the suckers out. (Opens Friday) VADIM RIZOV
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