Neon Flesh (2010)

I was not quite sure what to expect of the movie, but I was positively surprised.The technical side of things looks like this: art, style and overall theme are nicely done, the director did a fine job here. Considering he did (prior to Carne de Neon) only some minor work. So it's rather astonishing what he pulled off. Editing, lighting and sound are en par with each other and support the entire setting rather well.However, what really gives the movie its unique charm are the characters. Especially Infantita is such a vibrant and lovable character- he is a transvestite who thinks he's the illegitimate son of Juan-Carlos of Spain. At the same time he struggles to become the woman he always wanted to be. Similar to this all characters are lovable, somewhat skewed, yet still very much human with normal emotions. IMO none of the characters is really unlikable, they have so much "normality" in them, it's almost uncanny. And from this, and their interactions, this movie draws its strength. The story is (in parts) slightly crazy, bordering on the absurd. When your Mom gets out of prison, what do you do? Mind you, she was in prison for prostitution. Of course, you open up a brothel for her! What else, right? Joining this main arc we have some sub-plots that tie into the main arc: human trafficking, turf wars, corrupt police, personal problems and maladies, love and friendship. The sub-plots are woven into the main story in an orderly manner, mostly. Here and there is a tiny glitch, or a little bit of a "forced connection", if I may call it that. But apart from slight and tiny misses the story is spot on.In general the movie looks and feels like a bit of Guy Ritchie, sprinkled with some Tarantino and a whole lot of Spanish zest. You can tell it's an Euroflick and that it was not made to please the masses. But this is exactly what really makes this one stand out. Slight deductions in score result from the dialogues. Unfortunately I speak no Spanish, so I watched the dubbed version. Maybe something got lost in translation, who knows. I probably did not get all the cultural references either, so I can only blame myself.If you are looking for some light-hearted entertainment, that still manages to touch a few touch subjects without being goofy or pathetic, you should give this one a go.

There are somethings i like about this movie...It is very well filmed. the story its located in Europe but is filmed in south America and I think successfully...I suppose this decision was taken for questions of budget. I really like this part, i think its smart and works very well. On the other side I had the sensation of someone putting together a collection of well produced images but without a basic idea of how to build a narrative. Some kind of Guy Ritchie film without bones...without a script.At the end a sensation of pretentious chaos, weak characters in a labyrinth without solution . I appreciate ambition but only in the consciousness of its creative limitations. Good effort and good technical skills on the way to nowhere.

First things first: The cinematography in this is really amazing. Great lighting, great framing, very well done. Someone has studied their thrillers very thoroughly and made good notes on how to be inspired by them. I also have to point out, that the story is trying to be socially relevant. Not with too much weight on the morality though. Or not in the way most viewers are used to.The movie does not have (m)any likable character in it. Starting with our "hero", his best friend and the rest of the bunch. But even within that group it tries to create diversity. Give characters more than one facet. I use the word try, because I don't think it fully succeeds in most of its attempts. You can still get excited by it (as one reviewer here has shown and good for him/her), but you have seen far better movies than that. Or at least I hope you have.Talk about misogyny can easily be brought up with this movie. While it is not afraid to touch hot topics (human trafficking being another one amongst many), the characters never seem to do the right thing. If that offends you, you most definitely won't like the movie. The twists are predictable and you have to decide on your own, if that's the way you'd say thanks to your mom. In the end, the movie tried to put too many things together and might even fail many with its attempt to solve things with its (bad?) humor

The first time that I saw that this movie only had a 5.something in IMDb I thought "maybe is not a good idea" but I gave it a chance and... WOW! Its funny (Sometimes dark, violently funny)thrilling, its been long, maybe since "Fargo" that a movie amazed me this much, the mix of genres is outstanding, it starts with comedy, shifts to thriller and finally to a drama. The characters are so funny and fragile (Even though sometimes they do terrible things) but thats one of the things that I liked the most, the movie is challenging, you never know where the director is gonna take you and is always surprising. The actors are great, specially Vicente Romero and Angela Molina, they steal the movie.By the way the ending is one of the best endings I've ever seen, so moving... A great film about bad guys with a huge heart, a must see!