This dark comedy explores something that is very common in Latin American communities; toxic masculinity. Cabos isn’t upset at solely catching his daughter, but knowing that he no longer has ownership over her as a father and controlling her actions. Similarly, by stealing from an unconscious man, Nacho is still showing that his fragile ego is still hurt after so much time has passed.
Both Cabos and Mascarita represent an archetype of masculinity that seems founded both on patriarchal status and physical violence. …. What makes the film funny is watching these prideful caricatures of masculinity lose to [little people] and less overbearing men. Cabos cannot stop Jaque from sleeping with his daughter or Tony from sleeping with his wife. Mascarita has been humbled by his own decadence to the point where his stage name drives him to anger. The kidnapper tortures his father in an effort to avenge him. In the end, these attempts to control and dominate lead to confusion and self harm. No matter how many people he beats up, Mascarita will never be seen as anything other than a has been. Cabos’s rage never actually benefits him and the people around him lie and betray him in order to avoid it. The masculine ideas these characters represent no longer look so appealing. Part of what postmodern films try to portray is spectacle. This film was all about how men’s stupidity and anger when combined with coincidence and hard to believe scenarios leads to their own demise.
It could be interpreted that another common theme this film exhibits is entrapment. Two of the characters (Cabos and the janitor) are quite literally trapped throughout the majority of the movie. However, both Jaque, Mudo, and later, Rueben, are caught in this mess and they can’t seem to get out of it no matter how hard they try.
Each of the characters is tied to the kidnapping of Cabos one way or another, and this allows the director to use different perspectives of each character to capture the event. This is a similar style of plotline as used in the film Amores perros, where three different stories were centered and focused around a car crash.
The janitor, who was a childhood friend of Cabos, stole his clothing, which represents the vestiges of power. This scene reminded me of Icarus, how the janitor was flying close to the sun, daydreaming of a life that he dreamed of obtaining. Like Icarus flying too close to the sun and drowning, the janitor falls as he is kidnapped in an ironic case of mistaken identity.
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