Rogue Diplomat reviews "We Are What We Are"

Our regular film reviewer, Kate McCarthy of the Irish Film Institute in Dublin reviews the controversial Mexican Film "We are what we are" (Somos lo que hay).

At the beginning of Jorge Michel Grau’s horror film a man stumbles through a modern, sterile-looking shopping mall, stopping momentarily to dwell obsessively on his reflection in a window. Eventually falling to his knees, he perishes after a fit of bloody retching, and his body, and spilled fluids, are almost immediately removed by a mysterious cleaning crew. The promise of such an intriguing opening sequence is, however, never met during the remainder of Grau’s underwritten story.

The UK trailer for "We Are What We Are"

It emerges very soon after this man’s death that his family - a mother and three teenage children - have been left to fend for themselves, a task made more complicated than usual by the fact that they are cannibals. Their diet had been sustained by a string of prostitutes and homeless children, provided by the patriarch, and murdered and eaten in a domestic ritual. What ensues is really a drama of family politics, with a mother, bruised by her husband’s fondness for prostitutes, reluctant to hand over responsibility to her emotionally-unstable teenage sons, Alfredo and Julian.

In the middle is the teenage daughter Sabina, who pushes Alfredo to take over his father’s role, while appearing to be involved in an incestuous relationship with her other brother.  In a sub-plot, two bumbling detectives engage in a hunt for the family after an autopsy of their father reveals a number of human body parts. However like other vague aspects of the story (including Alfredo’s suggested homosexuality) many questions are left unanswered, in a way that goes beyond an acceptable level of ambiguity.       

We Are What We Are has been called a metaphorical interpretation of contemporary Mexican society, a depiction of how a leaderless people have been left to devour each other. It is difficult to say just how successfully this concept is carried by the film, although there is certainly a strong visual emphasis on reflections, from the opening sequence to Alfredo’s miserable contemplation of his own image in a subway window, through to Sabina’s solitary gaze into the bathroom mirror. And the level of societal violence is certainly just as affecting as that of the cannibal-related killings. At one point Alfredo batters a bus driver’s head against his wheel just so he will stop the bus. And given the shocking number of violent crimes that have occurred in recent months in Mexico, the most compelling images of the film, for me, involve the mother’s encounter with a group of vengeful prostitutes.     

To leave aside the metaphorical context, however, it can really be said that the film is a disappointing addition to what has been a highly successful genre of Mexican Cinema, most recently through the work of Guillermo del Toro. His 1993 offering, Cronos, and 2001 feature, The Devil’s Backbone, would be a much better place to start for those interested in exploring Mexican horror films. Despite high production values and solid acting, We Are What We Are is simply far too entangled in its own web of under-developed plot threads to truly satisfy.