Film Reviews

Rudo and Cursi

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Diego Luna
• Details: US/Mexico / 103mins (16).

"Does he have to do that every time he scores?" Rudo & Cursi is the best football movie ever made - fact - and there are numerous reasons for this bold statement. Cuarón spends as little time as possible on the pitch because he's watched football movies and knows matches look artificial and staged on screen. But that's not the real reason Rudo & Cursi works: the movie works because it's so damn funny.
Tato (Bernal) and Beto (Luna) are two competitive Mexican half-brothers from the sticks, with a talent for football. Spotted by the forever-smirking talent scout Batuta (Francella), they are whisked off to the capital where Batuta uses his prowess for persuasion (bribes) to get them signed to teams in the corruption-riddled lower divisions. Although it's a career as a Mexican Country singer he really wants, the accordion-playing Tato is an immediate success on the pitch; banging in goals at a phenomenal rate, he becomes the nation's darling with his enthusiastic celebrations and the press nickname him 'Cursi' (corny). The moustachioed Beto, a goalkeeper, finds success harder to come by but when he goes on a world-breaking record for shutouts, he is nicknamed 'Rudo' (tough). However, stardom brings out the worst in the half-brothers...
The credits inform us that this is written and directed by Cuarón, but the plot has such a freewheeling nuttiness about it, it's as if the director had a basic idea and let Luna and Bernal loose. The two leads both starred in Alfonso Cuarón's brilliant road movie Y Tu Mama Tambien, and exhibited a talent for off the cuff, natural-sounding dialogue. It's the same here but both the performances are honed, tighter, better and have an ability to get the laughs without looking for them. The film could have veered wildly out of control on several occasions but - to ensure that this didn't happen - Cuarón smartly allows Francella's Batuta to narrate, and it's through his eyes we see the events unfold. It might be Luna and Bernal front-and-centre, but Francella is just as good as the slimy, pimp-like Batuta - think Del Boy meets Boycie with Latino flair. Far and away the best football movie around, Rudo & Cursi will pass at least some of the time until August.

Review by Gavin Burke