Review: Desierto

If one thought exploitation films were just a thing of the past, then look no further than Jonás Cuarón's Desierto. This is a film that uses border and immigration issues as fodder for thrills. The only issue is when the film wants to be more than a pulpy thriller. Political musing has no place in this film and yet we get plenty.

The film opens on a pickup truck traveling across the desert. 12 passengers are squatting in the back, being guided by three "coyotes." The engine dies and soon the travelers are on foot. The film quickly focuses on Moises, a not as charismatic as usual Gael Garcia Bernal, who is trying to reconnect with his child in the States. He is a mechanic who has made this trip before. One of the guides joins the 12 travelers on foot and soon they are in the middle of the desert. Soon the film introduces an American serial killer who seems to hunt migrants for fun with a rifle and dog. He is played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan who is becoming the go to guy for unlikeable psychos. 

The use of the barren landscape adds a certain mythic quality to the proceedings. Cuarón's framing throughout suggest how harsh this land is. Where the screenplay gets a little heavy handed is with the villain. For one, he is named Sam and the meaning there is impossible to miss. He drives a lifted truck with a Confederate flag on it. He speaks in racial slurs and seems to only have love for one thing in this world, his dog. He is even flippant to border patrol officers, apparently thinking their methods are too soft. He is cartoonish and the degree to which he is made to represent all bigotry and hatred towards migrants is too much. The screenplay never complicates his character and instead makes him pure hate, a missed opportunity to make the film more interesting.

Much of Desierto is a cat and mouse chase, and a pretty effective one at that. Jonás has his father Alfonso's knack for intense thrills. The thrills feel a little cheap due to the way the politics of the film are handled but if you look past all that, the film is zippy and intense. The film often feels torn between wanting to be a hard-hitting film about migrants coming to America and the hatred towards then and being a straight-forward suspense film. In the end, these two aspects work against each other rather than together. 

3/5