If you know the films Great Expectations, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or Children of Men then you know Alfonso Cuarón. This film is his first feature and I learned of it when Criterion came out with an edition of it. It is a Mexican social satire that is very entertaining. The lead character is a playboy who jumps from one sexual encounter to another until he messes with the wrong girl– the nurse at his doctor’s office. Taking revenge, she changes his HIV test from negative to positive. He falls in love for the first time with his next door neighbor but then gets the letter with his results in the mail. The movie continues hilariously with him dealing with that and his former lifestyle. The movie is wonderfully stylized (as in Great Expectations, you’ll notice a lot of green) and the cinematography is top shelf. A good movie.
Grade: 90% A-
