“Brado, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” Movie Review.

 

 

“Brado, 

False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths”

Movie Review.

Brado, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is a Mexican black comedy drama film written and directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu. It stars Daniel Giménez Cacho and Griselda Siciliani and follows a documentary journalist who returns to his native Mexico and faces an existential crisis in the form of dreamlike visions.

Silverio Gama is a Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker who lives in Los Angeles with his wife Lucia and teenage son Lorenzo. As he got older his work became more personal and subjective; His latest film, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truth, is a documentary with autobiographical elements. Silverio and Lucia are happy together, but the death of their first son Matteo, a day after his birth, haunts them. Unable to move on from the loss, the two keep Matteo's ashes. Silverio experiences much of his daily life in a surrealistic way through activities such as dreams, memories, and imagination.

Silverio is the first Latin American to receive a prestigious American award for journalism. He speculates that he is receiving the award only to ease tensions between the United States and Mexico, but is still trying to weather waves of media scrutiny in his home country. At the last minute, he canceled an interview on a popular talk show, reminiscing about his time as a husband and father and trying to strike a balance between attacking the problems he sees with the Mexican government and protecting its people from stereotypes. Secretly, he feels guilty for immigrating to the United States when many Mexicans were unable to leave.

Silverio and his family attend a party in his honor. He reunites with his siblings and extended family, about whom he is indifferent, and he celebrates his grown daughter Camilla with care. When the talk show host criticizes Silverio's work, the filmmaker responds by personally insulting the host. Silverio eventually escapes to the parlor, where he imagines reconciliation with his dead father and mother. Leaving his mother's apartment, he sees symbolic representations of historic atrocities in Mexico: hundreds of people kidnapped or killed by organized crime in a commercial district, Hernán Cortés sitting on a pile of corpses in the Zocalo, lecturing Silverio about the Internal genocide.

Before returning to Los Angeles, Silverio and his family vacationed in Baja California. Camila tells Silverio that she is quitting her job in America to return to Mexico, and Silverio is tentatively welcoming. The family decides to scatter Mateo's ashes at sea before leaving for America, where they are insulted by a Hispanic-American customs officer.

After Lorenzo reminds him of the time his pet axolotls died, Silverio buys some as a surprise gift. On the L.A. Metro ride from the pet store, Silverio suffered a severe heart attack and was left unattended on the train for several hours. He is in a coma, and the events of the film so far are revealed to be his brain's attempts to process his life experience. Camila accepts the award in Silverio's absence, as she and other family members and friends sit by his bedside, having conversations, playing songs, and watching television broadcasts.

In the featureless desert of his mind, Silverio reunites with his dead family members and ignores the prophecies of his living family. He looks at his copy, mimicking his movements for a moment before it walks away. The film ends with Silverio imagining himself flying through the desert. Whether he died, was resurrected, or learned to live with his baggage is unclear.

The autobiographical "epic comedy" is an occasionally brilliant work, a work of self-criticism, self-congratulation, self-justification, and ultimately self-obsession. Director Iñárritu has a lot to say about Bardo himself, the stories, and Mexico. Whenever the director switches gears, it's a thrill, every turn is quite predictable, but he has to do it often to make these moments compelling.

 

As you might expect, Bardo is a visual treat, with absolutely mind-blowing visuals and monstrously long runtimes. DOP Darius Khondji basically does an Emmanuelle Lubesky impression throughout the Bardo, but it's a good one, with sweeping vistas and endless skies drenching the action in splendor and natural light.

Undoubtedly, Bardo is a cheerful, imaginative, and annoying person who takes too long to provide emotional rewards. Still, it's full of great moments, director Iñárritu is one of our best visual artists, and there's always a value in the celebration that can keep boredom at bay in your mind.

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