By Emilio Frenk
Director: Ricardo de Montreuil
Cast: Gabriel Chavarria, Demián Bichir, Theo Rossi, Tony Revolori, Eva Longoria, Montse Hernández, Noel Gugliemi, Yvette Monreal, Cress Williams and Melissa Benoist.
Rating: Very Good.
Peruvian director Ricardo de Montreuil brings “Lowriders”, his first English spoken feature filmand brings very interesting results.
The movie tells the story of Daniel Alvarez (Gabriel Chevarria), a young street artist from East Los Angeles that wants to express himself through his art while he still leaves with his father Miguel “Ghost” Alvarez (Demián Bichir) a recovered alcoholic mechanic that wants to compete in the annual lowrider event in Elysian Park.
Everything will change for Danny when his brother Francisco (Theo Rossi) is released from prison with the purpose on luring Danny into his dangerous world and will also participate in the car competition.
Now Danny´s loyalty will be tested in either to be in his father´s side or his brother´s.
One of the things that I really enjoyed of “Lowriders” was the fact that the movie goes deep into the world of Lowriders and honestly I was not aware of what it really mean until I saw the movie and indeed was a huge learning experience.
Both Cheo Hodari Coker and Elgin James wrote deep and true characters. We instantly felt an immediate connection with them. Like I mentioned before both of them were engaged in the auto world and their work really paid off.
Ricardo de Montreul´s directing was solid and knew how to get the best out of his cast with magnificent performances specially by both Gabriel Chavarria and Demián Bichir, who is one of the most talented Mexican actors today.
The way how de Montreul directing powerful and dramatic scenes speacially the ones that involved Demián Bichir and Theo Rossi were powerful and they reminded me a little bit from the movie “Warrior” directed by Gavin O´Connor since it involves a family matter and a father who was absent when his sons needed him the most.
I was very moved with this movie and has a powerful message that is related to forgiveness and second chances.
Not only the movie it´s a drama but also has very good moments of humor in it and a lot of heart.
The chemistry between all the actors was very good and that is of the direction that de Montreul gave tohis cast and knew how to get the best of them.
“Lowriders” is a movie that you don´t want to miss and I give a huge recommendation to the film for it´s story that is really original and for the strong and powerful message.