Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 6.0 | 29/32 | Mexican director
Mario spins around his house, disheveled but joyous. He tells a portrait of his deceased wife, Patricia, that they’re getting out — that he’s sold the bingo hall. He goes to the dining room, pulls open a steaming tray, and begins gorging himself. They’re bingo balls. He keeps eating until he chokes to death.
The elder residents of Oak Springs are reeling from the changes to their neighborhood — houses for sale, businesses closing. Meanwhile, hipster coffee shops and microbreweries are opening.
Lupita (Adriana Barraza) is a regular at the bingo hall and is friends with Mario. When the place goes under new management and becomes a casino, she and fellow bingo heads, Dolores (L. Scott Caldwell) and Yolanda (Bertila Damas), look into it.
People are winning big left and right — and dying a bizarre death soon after.
The film is unsubtle in its exploration of gentrification. That shiny coffee shop is nice and may give the community a sense of progress. But its presence hikes the cost of living for the older residents, leaving many of them homeless or dead.
As businesses move in, they may offer a reasonable price for residents’ property or land, but the upheaval can be unbearable for the more precarious residents.
The movie overstates the message with Mr. Big (Richard Brake), the casino owner, who calls people losers if they don’t win big. He feeds off of their desperation — a true embodiment of evil. With satire this overt, there’s little to dig into, so we spend most of the movie watching the premise reach its logical conclusions.
Still, it’s easy to root for a movie about community solidarity and the human cost of capitalism.
Adriana Barraza and L. Scott Caldwell have so much fun with the roles. They rarely get roles that allow them the opportunity. I don’t watch any of the shows L. Scott Caldwell is on, so it’s nice to see her since Lost.
The deaths are the movie’s strong suit — they’re gross and made me cringe several times.
The movie doesn’t always hit, but I enjoyed seeing a cast full of older actors giving it their all. This is a solid debut film! I’m looking forward to more from Gigi Saul Guerrero.