“I didn’t want ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien Two’”: Carlos Cuaron Talks “Cursi” and Cha Cha Cha
by Erica Abeel (May 7, 2009)
A scene from Carlos Cuaron's "Rudo y Cursi." Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
The making of “Rudo y Cursi” was like a big fat family reunion. This clan, though, is linked by creative affinities as well as blood ties. And unlike many families that spring to mind, the “Rudo” collective is about mutual supportiveness and the celebration of brotherhood. Hard to sort out all the team’s affiliations, but here goes: “Rudo”‘s director/writer Carlos Cuaron is the younger brother of Alfonso Cuaron, director of “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” for which Carlos wrote the script. The film’s producers - bro Alfonso, Gullermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - are long-time collaborators working on their new production company, Cha Cha Cha with “Rudo.” If you’re still with me: the film’s two stars, Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal - reunited on screen for the first time since “Mama” - have been buddies since childhood and run their own film company. Says Luna, “we’re in it together for the journey.” Fittingly, “Rudo,” Cuaron’s first feature, explores the dynamics of brotherhood - an “emotional autobiography,” he calls it. Luna and Garcia Bernal play Rudo and Cursi, squabbling siblings who work on a banana plantation. Rudo (Spanish slang for tough) dreams of becoming a soccer star, while Cursi (or corny/cheesy), wants to be a pop singer; and both long to build their beleaguered mom a grand house on the beach. After soccer scout Batuta (Argentine comedian Guillermo Francella) spots their moves in a local game, the brothers head off to Mexico City to play the big leagues. But success proves fickle and eventually the pair faces off in a climactic penalty kick, shot like a Sergio Leone Western. Though soccer is the context, “Rudo” uses the sport as a filter through which to tell a story of rivaly, aborted dreams, and the primacy of family. And the film’s comic elan is infused with dark social commentary. The rough-and-tumble rapport of Garcia Bernal and Luna bounces off the screen in the manner that made “Mama” such a joy; and Cuaron has fun with a cheesy music video of Garcia Bernal singing badly. Beneath the horseplay “Rudo” implies that soccer and singing, the ticket out for Mexico’s slumdogs, work for only a tiny fraction. And the closing images of a wedding are shadowed by the narco money behind it and the installation of a drug lord as the new surrogate father. indieWIRE recently caught up with Carlos Cuaron when he was in town with his two delightful stars to promote the film.
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