Ratas, Ratones, Rateros

Rating:
Summary: Difficult Slice of Ecuadorian Life
Review: A difficult film to watch, Rateros is a rewarding, harrowing, emotional roller coaster of a movie. Marcos Bustos is Salvador, a poor teenager in-and-out of minor trouble at military school, but overall likeable. Enter his inappropriately named cousin, Angel, a man who can fall in a bed of roses and come out smelling like crap. Angel is a junky and immediately proceeds to ruin the lives of Salvador and anyone else he comes into contact with.

As Angel Carlos Valencia gives a once-in-a-lifetime performance that is so believable and anger-inducing I nearly wanted to reach into my television and strangle him myself. This is a slice of life from an impoverished and almost hopeless world. Though extremely poor, Salvador is straddling a place between two worlds as he teeters dangerously towards the wrong one. Although it's evident early on he would like to rid himself, tough guy Angel's cries to Salvador for help work in a revolting passive aggressive way that threatens violence at all times.

Inspiration and hope come from Salvador's understanding girlfriend, Mayra and another cousin the wealthy, sympathetic and beautifully bored, Carolina.

Silent witness to all and symbol of the film's grim realities sits the boy's shared grandma, wheelchair bound and comatose, more dead than alive and helpless to do more than just sit there.

A powerful, sad and thought provoking tale.


Rating:
Summary: insight on life in that kind of Ecuador
Review: I agree, it's an interesting perspective on a situation that many are aware about in Ecuador. The movie was a bit too long for the plot. Then it ends abrubtly! I think the whole point to this film is to show that the situation has no easy or quick solution. This is proved by the many trials and situations Angel and Salvador get themselves into. It seems that Salvador still young, at the end has grown and has become smarter from the beginning of the film, but Angel simply has a long way to go before he learns.

The violence is not gory or graphic, it is smartly and subtley displayed.

It seemed like the action just kept going on and on, it was at sometimes annoying, because the plot was not going anywhere. It is an interesting take on the situation in Ecuador and is not a bad film at all, just seems like the point of the film could have been summed up quicker.

This movie is like Y Tu Mama tambien, but without the ending that brings it all together.

Rating:
Summary: A haunting glimpse of the underbelly of Ecuador.
Review: Since books were written and traveler's tales recorded, highland Ecuador has had the reputation of being the safe haven of the Andes, a gentle law abiding country that has always been bordered by the thug societies of Colombia to the north, and the oppressive military stronghold of Peru to the south. Times have changed. The roads that once barely made it from Guayaquil to Quito or from Tulcán ,on the Colombian border, to the heart of Quito are now highways that have brought world culture and chaos to this formerly placid country. My memories of innocence and lack of crime in the Quito of the early 70's became so tarnished and changed with my last few recent trips to the capital. This movie embellished my fears and distrust of the seething underbelly of the new Quito. In the movie, the scene that aroused so many memories was the glimpse of the Cumandá bus station, where one of the "rateros" slowly walks up to the sleeping gringo and steals, with a knife, his waist pack. I heard so many times on my last trip to Quito from everyone from taxi drivers to relatives of my fiancée, who was born and raised in Quito, "Times have changed..Be careful". The summer of 2001, we boarded a bus in Quito at the Cumandá Terminal and were met after a short time by a "gentleman" who explained to us on the bus that he had been recently released from prison for robbing a man. He then said that he needed money to stop stealing. His recitation included the remorse that he didn't want to go back to prison but didn't know what he could do to prevent it if no one gave him money. Frightened old ladies gave him coins immediately in the hopes that he would leave and go back to his family in Guayaquil. My fiancée immediately, said "look at him, the "desgraciado" is obviously from Guayaquil". Shortly thereafter we encountered a young "ratero" who entered the bus and pleaded for money because he "was dying". He pulled up his shirt and showed us all his wounds, protruding intestines, and smattering of blood. He apparently had been stabbed and was as pallid as a ghost. This movie, which has scenes more graphic, is true cinema verité and shows the sordid side of the big city that fortunately is uncommon in the smaller towns. There was not an instant of slow time or a moment of boredom in this simple but masterful production. The director said all that I've feared of the underside of Ecuador and did it with haunting but suble scenes. I highly recommend the movie for all that it evokes.
James Fortier

Rating:
Summary: An inmense step for Latin cinema
Review: This film DOES NOT represent Ecuadorian culture to its best simply becasue this film is not about Ecuadorian culture. It is, with out a doubt, a crude and well done representation of violence and crime in a third world country - the story could very well take place in New York for all we know, and it will still keep its punchline. I liked the film and enjoyed it from the start to the right end. I inmensily enjoyed to see the way the characters were portrayed and the great use of the Ecuadorian slang - something that'll be hard to get from someone who is not from this country and the subtitles do not make any justice to the impacable work that was put to the screenplay either. A great film to see for those who like good independent movies.

Rating:
Summary: Great film for art house fans.
Review: This is a clever gen-x film. With a twisted ending. Lots of Latin punk and ska bands on the sound track. Check it out!

Rating:
Summary: ECUADORIAN CINEMA HAS ARRIVED!
Review: This is a wonderful movie about teenagers growing up in what could be any poor area of any South American country.
I love the use of the Ecuadorian slang, and the differences you encounter between Quito (Highlands) slang and Guayaquil (Coast) slang. The differences between their people as well is made evident through their facial and corporal expressions (Sierra people being more introverted and Coast people being more extroverted.) In reference to the reviewer who wrote that he/she was affraid of going to Ecuador, don't worry. Ecuadorian people are generous, gentle, and kind. I live here in NY now but I was born and raised in Quito, and as I tell all my "Gringo" friends when I show them the movie, that if it is true that there are places or people like the ones depicted on the film, this is not the norm. I showed Ratas Ratones, Rateros to one of my best friends who had never been down to Ecuador and he was scared after seeing the movie, but I told him there was nothing to fear. We went there and he can now confirm that this was probably the best trip he ever took. There is another Ecuadorian film I want to get my hands on, because I heard it was great. The name of this movie is "Sueno en/de la Mitad del Mundo" But if you want to experience a little bit of the beauty of the most peaceful and tranquil country in South America (Ecuador,) rent the movie Proof of Life and enjoy some of the most amazing landscapes you've ever seen. Of course the director of the movie doesn't call my country Ecuador, he calls it the ficticious name of "Tecala" but he decided to shoot there because of the safety for the crew and actors that he probably would have had a hard time finding in any other tumultuous South American country. At the end of the movie check out the amazing aerial view that starts from the Virgin of Quito and spans the length of this amazing city (Quito) located twice as high as Denver! the camera takes you through rainforest, paramo, and it ends at the peak of one of the majestic Andes mountains. As for Ratas, Great job Sebastian!!! Bravo

Rating:
Summary: Calidad
Review: This is one of the best movies I have seen. It portrays ecuadorian culture to its best.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Rendition of Urban Hell - Unrateable
Review: This is the blackist film noir I've ever seen - makes Trainspotting seem like Disney's Fantasia by comparison - outdoes Backstreet Jane. Acting, setting, art direction, script, depth of character, universal resonances of youth, etc., all consistently true to a hellish world of fallen angels. I couldn't possibly see it again. The skill of its creators deserves a 5, but... if the goal of art is "elevare et delectare" (sp?) this is art gone insane - or, sadly, horrifyingly, a naturalist view of life gone insane.

I love Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia... but you couldn't drag me to Equador now. I liked hearing Julio Jaramillo, with perhaps Olimpo Cárdenas in the background, too...

But, I would strongly recommend a book, "Rio Fugitivo", by Bolivian, Edmundo Paz Soldan. Rio Fugitivo presents some of the same, but with a gentler injection of innocence, introspection and atmosphere of Cochabamba - though not without heartbreak.