Amores Perros (2000)

Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Starring Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Emilio Echevarría, Vanessa Bauche, Álvaro Guerrero, Marco Pérez, Jorge Salinas, Humberto Busto, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Gerardo Campbell, Adriana Barrazza, José Sefami, Rodrigo Murray. [R]

Iñárritu’s dynamite feature debut put him on the international map in a big way, tells interlinked stories with dogs and despair as a common attribute. Bernal tries to raise money through dog-fighting to run away with his criminal brother’s young wife (Bauche); disabled supermodel Toledo can’t get her frightened (and possibly injured) little pooch to come out of the crawl space of the home her married lover (Guerrero) bought for her; and despondent vagrant Echevarría “inherits” a gunshot rottweiler while keeping tabs on the daughter who thinks he’s dead. A visceral and vivacious film, but not merely an exercise in adrenaline or filmmaking gimmicks, willing to pause for character grace notes that make them feel real and lived-in, not just cardboard cut-out heroes and villains at the mercy of a melodrama. The stories are set in Mexico City and they vibrate with an intense connection to the specific time and place, but the desperate emotions and issues of class inequality ring universal. Though never for a moment does it feel like Iñárritu is exploiting or sensationalizing the deplorable and grisly practice, the dog-fighting scenes are punishing to watch and may repel those with weaker stomachs—the disclaimer about no animals being harmed in the making of the film comes at the beginning of the movie instead of the end, and prudently so. Echevarría’s real-life daughter, Lourdes, makes a few brief appearances as his onscreen daughter.

92/100