Mexican cinema is edgy. It is unafraid and almost always cinematically beautiful. I have seen many masterpieces in the genre, but never have I seen Mexico City portrayed quite like this before. Julio Hernandez Cordon shows us the underbelly of a buzzing cosmopolitan through the eyes of listless teenagers on skateboards in this gritty feature.
Class and race are subtly examined in “I Promise You Anarchy”. Miguel comes from a wealthy family. He and the son of his family’s housekeeper, Johnny, are in a passionate yet secretive relationship. They cruise the streets of the city together and perform shady scams to make some cash. The boys keep their homosexuality under wraps. Johnny has a great coverup in his “girlfriend” who Miguel cannot stand for obvious reasons. Miguel gets involved with a cartel that pays him handsomely to round up people who are willing to sell their blood. Miguel finds himself tested in many ways as he fears the loss of his relationship with Johnny, and gets embroiled in criminal activities that are out of his innocent league.
The film is so many things. It is a youth culture story. It is a story about crime. It is erotic. It is cool. It is gorgeously angst-ridden. The teenagers show us firsthand the skateboarding culture in Mexico City with their weys and their cabrons. They talk that cool Mexican slang like the boys in “Y Tu Mama Tambien”, which I have watched with fervent love many, many times. Stylistically, the two films are very similar. They both delve into the urban darkness and sadness that emanates from concrete city streets and unfinished graffiti under highway bridges. The attraction between the two male characters in “Y Tu Mama Tambien” is fleshed out in “I Promise You Anarchy”. Miguel and Johnny’s relationship is developed beautifully. The scenes of their lovemaking convey with accuracy the struggle they have with exercising restraint in public. Yet their chemistry is as opaque when hidden in public as it is in the dark-red lighting of the tank-like vehicle where they openly unleash it.
Cordon tackles issues of sexuality, class and race in Mexican society by alluding to them in the background of the film. He always prefers to show rather than tell. The blood-donors are fragile. Their desperation is crushingly believable. Techno, one of the younger donors, faints on the subway and has to be carried to the skatepark by Miguel. You can feel the exhaustion of all the donors. Their anaemia is mirrored in the pallid and faded colours of the city that the camera focuses on with awareness. We see the teens skateboarding on the way to the blood donation and later leaving the donation station. The pre-donation ride is lively, fun and exciting, while the post-donation ride is shaky, a bit slower and a little blurry. Details such as these make the film substantial and strong.
The music. Oh yes, the music! It is fan-fucking-tastic. Indie-Mexican rock and electronic tunes support all the important moments of the film. They build the atmosphere up so well. That cool, urban-chic vibe, as a result, engulfs you like a fog. All the performances in the film are incredibly authentic too. Cordon found his principal actors through Facebook. He has tried his best to stop the actors from “acting”. It works like a dream.
The plot leaves things a bit unresolved at the end, where a whole truckload of blood-donors rounded up by Miguel, gets kidnapped by the drug cartel. I found this lack of resolution a plausible fit for the lack of belonging felt by the characters in the film. Their sense of wandering, homelessness and emptiness manifests itself in this mass kidnapping. “I Promise You Anarchy” is sexy and skater cool. It is sad without being emotional. Cordon paints a hauntingly vivid portrait of Mexico City that will stay with me for a long time. The alienation that comes from living in a big city is recreated so well by the filmmaker that I felt like I was breathing it in. I will be re-watching this movie without a doubt.
-Prachi Kamble