Our Time

Carlos Reygadas movies are a bit of a hit or miss with me. He's also an acquired taste as all of his movies are very different from mainstream movies and I understand if they rub people the wrong way. The deliberate pacing, the graphic sex scenes, the rural setting are enough reasons to discourage some people but, if it has an interesting story behind all this I usually like his movies. And I'm glad to say that this one is a winner for me. Again, most of his trademarks are there, and it is a three hour movie but I found this marriage story to be very engaging. It even gains an extra layer when you realize that the actors playing the couple are real life husband and wife and he is also the director. Who needs therapy when you can lay it all bare in a movie... Anyway, it is a very well directed movie and I found the cinematography breathtaking but I think it all rests on the shoulders of both actors to carry the movie and make you care for their relationship and they completely nail it. So, if you're a bit tired of all the Hollywood same old same old you might want to give this movie a chance.

As an Australian watching this narrative unfold in a Mexican life unknown to me was both refreshing and original. Especially the cinematography and slow yet precise direction. Kudos.

The theme and its treatment are a bit 1966 age: free love and open couples, with the underlying condition that everybody can "experience" others sexually, since real and deep love is between man and wife.

But... When arrives a Phil, that can actually push off former "love", problems arise, and hausband get jealous.

But he's not fihgting with physical strenght, like the bulls he breeds; he accuses instead his friend of being unloyal... but actually Carlos at the beginning was not angry of his wife having sex with Phil.

So the story is pretty confused, while dialogues have parts of cold logic, to unfold and manage the situation.

In substance, the bottom line could be that Carlos wants to be sure that he is loved, and for that, he pushes his wife in bed with other men, checking out if she still loves him... It has to said that images are very intriguing, camera, mouvements and all visual aspects are very fine.

All been said before, right, especially as regards adultery in the cultured classes?

Not with Reygadas. Here's a man who's really prepared to give the genres a nudge, really has the chops to pull it off.

Starting with no intro, and seemingly innocent scenes of kids playing at a lake, Reygadas carries 170 stylish minutes better than most directors carry 90.

There is a narrative arc, but Our Time deliberately operates at its edges. Characters argue off screen. Husband writes to wife. Does same, to wife's lover. Daughter comes on, for a couple of voice-overs. There's horse- and cow-play aplenty, often bearing a jagged relation to what's going down with the humans.

Reygadas still needs his get-out-of-jail card, to take the movie to the next level. This arrives with a late detonation, when the husband visits a dying friend.

As a full on movie addict, it's a surprise to feel sudden tears, in real time. This did it for me. One to remember.

Carlos Reygadas has become one of the greatest film-makers of our time. All his films have been great works, but this is his first masterpiece, exploring most of the same central themes of marriage, fidelity, infidelity and ranching that his two previous films ('Silent Light' and 'Post Tenebras Lux') have, but with more coherence and focus than 'Post Tenebras Lux', and more depth than either of them.

Nothing about movies engages me as much as masterful cinematography, and I've encountered very, very few directors whose cameras have awed me with their grace, uniquity and creativity as much as Reygadas has with his more recent works. The visual texture of the Digital Cinema Package format is definitely a hindrance, but this is easily the most visually astounding film I've ever seen made with it. Over and over and over again, I found myself asking 'How in the hell does this man DO it?'