Hostile Border | Review

Confessions of a Pocha Hustler: Dwyer Tackles Topicality with Listless Thriller

Michael Dwyer makes his directorial debut with Hostile Border, an adequate examination of contemporary immigration issues from a rather unique perspective, based on a script from first time screenwriter Kaitlin McLaughlin. An anxious and engaging set-up ends up stagnating once it follows its unlucky protagonist across the border, unable to convey, at least in compelling terms, the underlying self-loathing which may be partially responsible for the striking juxtaposition between cultural and economic clashes formulating the scenario’s (or, rather, lack of) dramatic tensions. Likewise, an increasingly lethargic lead performance deadens what could have a phenomenally tense dramatic thriller considering the film’s carefully situated moments of baleful violence.

With her mother and step-father about to lose their home, Claudia (Veronica Sixtos), a twenty-two year old undocumented Mexican-American engages in illicit activities to help rake in some fast cash. But when she’s arrested for credit card fraud, she’s deported to Mexico, unable to ever re-enter the United States. The problem is, Claudia is a ‘pocha,’ a disparaging label for Mexican-Americans who don’t speak Spanish, and is forced to seek out her estranged father (Julio Cesar Cedillo), who lives with her kind but strictly Spanish speaking grandmother (Maria del Carmen Frias). It’s obvious her father wants little do with her, but offers her a job fixing fences on his farm, where she befriends Arturo (Jorge A. Jimenez), a man with severe problems of his own. Introduced to drug dealer and smuggler Ricky (Roberto Urbina), Claudia unwisely becomes intertwined with the young man in hopes of crossing the border, but finds her association with him has severe consequences on her family.

Hostile Border nabbed the Audience Award for Best Fiction Feature at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival, and it certainly constructs a promising reversal of the usual immigration narratives, arriving during an increasingly heated climate concerning pressing issues and looming election year dilemmas. The film’s best moments examine the predicament of a young woman such as Claudia, an undocumented immigrant turning to criminal activity to assist her economically floundering parents and unduly banned by a legal system unable and unequipped to examine extenuating circumstances.

Originally titled Pocha, a term defined for the audience in the opening credits (derived from terminology meaning rotten fruit), there’s the promise of a compelling idea here, and the idea of banishing a human being without the tools to fend for herself in a culture she’s been alienated from is cruel and unusual punishment. But a lackluster energy takes hold of Hostile Border in its second half, which can be blamed on several angles, including Dwyer’s direction, Veronica Sixtos’ monotonous performance, and McLaughlin’s screenplay, which does little to dramatically engage the conflict and miscommunication between Claudia and an exaggeratedly wary father.

By the time we realize Claudia has chosen an irreversible track of self-destruction, one realizes Hostile Border is not well equipped enough as a dramatic narrative or a character study. Despite its significant pacing problems, however, it’s much easier to recommend this film than the ambitious yet stilted immigration drama Soy Nero from director Rafi Pitts, which premiered in competition at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival.

★★/☆☆☆☆☆