Rudo y Cursi

Longtime friends and Y Tu Mamá También costars Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna suit up for this much-anticipated Mexican soccer comedy from the Cha Cha Cha Films producing dream-team of Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth; Hellboy), Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros; Babel) and Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También). Bernal and Luna are two unruly hick stepbrothers in rural Mexico, united by a mother with questionable taste in men and their shared love for beer, fútbol and outdoing one another. When a fast-talking agent discovers their talents on the soccer field, but insists he can only make one of them a star, a new path for their rivalry suddenly emerges, taking them from their dusty banana plantation to the big stadiums—and bigger temptations—of Mexico City. Surprisingly, it’s the quieter, more artistic Tato (Bernal) who’s chosen to be the star, but that won’t stop the aggressive, hot-tempered Beto (Luna) from succeeding too (even if he has to become a goalie to do it). Soon it’s not life on the field that’s the problem, but the nights off it: If they survive the gambling, floozies, drugs and gangsters, they’ve still got to survive one another. Assisted by a sly script from director Carlos Cuarón (who wrote Y Tu Mamá También and is Alfonso’s brother) and by the polished Hollywood/Mexico talents of the Cha Cha Cha group, the charismatic Bernal and Luna turn this made-in-Mexico concoction of love, brotherhood and fútbol into a rousing comedy of truly universal appeal. —SFIFF website, http://fest09.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=77