48th NYFF 2010: Jorge Michel Grau’s We Are What We Are

We Are What We Are (Somos lo que hay) is the only true genre film to grace New York Film Festival’s main slate this year. It makes some sense why this was chosen over countless other gorefests. The first half is meditative, with gaps dialogue spanning multiple scenes in a row, a real fixture of NYFF. The second half of the film gets into either fun or dumb, depending on what school you come from. Unfortunately, the film will alienate more niche markets than attract, which is a shame since it does go a little further than most standard horror movies.

The strengths of this film lie in the atmosphere and sense of place. Director Jorge Michel Grau really makes the most of his location and gives us a lush portrayal of Mexico City. The production design of the house where much of the film’s action takes place is congruent with the wear that the landscape has taken. Grau takes us from the projects where our protagonist family lives, to ghettos where prostitutes roam the corners, to a more affluent neighborhood’s mall, the city’s highways, beneath the highways where homeless children live, all over. He shows us a fact that he described later in the Q&A, that you can sometimes drive for twenty minutes, through the middle of the city, without seeing anyone walking or driving.

This last element brings a lot to this story, indicative of the conditions that allow this family to do what it does. We Are What We Are is the story of a family of cannibals. They don’t indulge out of perversion or even interest, but because of “the ritual.” “The ritual” is never really explained, but just alluded to repeatedly, and shown in small doses. It’s unimportant what it is, but only how it affects the characters. Grau even explained that he did write out what it is in great detail, but never showed anyone, not even his actors. He felt it crucial to the performances that there was an element of confusion and doubt, something that would have been present in the actual characters considering they inherited “the ritual” from their parents.

The film begins with a man dying seemingly going crazy and then dying in the middle of a shopping mall, right after vomiting up some black goo. Only deductive logic informs the man’s family that he is gone, for clearly this family lives on some kind of outskirt of society. Their home is a dark and dilapidated dungeon-like lair of sorts, filled with hundreds of ticking clocks on the walls, and just junk everywhere, specifically many, many full water bottles. It’s as if they are preparing for the apocalypse and this is their bomb shelter. Grau actually used to do the same thing with water bottles, and added that in as a personal touch.

The film follows classic horror genre structure, with a slow build leading to a crazy last twenty minutes. Grau uses restraint though even in his final act, making the wise decision to not show a particular death that would have been redundant and excessive. Genre wise, that’s what sets this film apart. He doesn’t put any ridiculous shock effects in just for the sake of shock. There is a great shot where the mother and daughter kill someone in the house together. The camera pans from the mother fighting with him on one side of the stairs, through the main room, and over to the daughter walking towards them with an axe. The camera stops on the empty door frame and everything is silent for a moment, save for the ticking clocks, we know what comes next.

The other way this film stands out is its social commentary. Grau points out that the cannibalism is a metaphor for life in Mexico City. From the homeless to poor to the gangs to the rich, they all cannibalize one another. Whether it be the hungry and needy killing each other over scraps from the garbage, or corrupt politicians stealing from one another on land grabs, nobody helps one another and they all insure mutual destruction. The family focused on in this narrative is just a microcosm of the country.

Another commentary comes with the oldest son being forced into responsibility that he is not ready for. According to the rules they live by, he must inherit the role of “the leader” after the death of their father. He finally comes into his own in the end, a scene that some in the audience misinterpret, but it seemed pretty clear. He made a major sacrifice to save someone else in his family, who then in turn lives to carry on the family tradition.

Offering much more than the standard American genre fare, the pic might not be quite good enough to stand on its own without its genre tropes and will have a tough time finding an audience because it doesn’t quite reach the artsy crowd, and it neglects those genre tropes that would have attracted the straight up horror genre fans. Either way, a nice entry that has made its way from Cannes all the way up to NYFF, switching things up some in both festivals.