Radical

Radical

In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries a radical new method to break through his students’ apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential… and maybe even their genius.

  • Released: 2023-01-19
  • Runtime: 127 minutes
  • Genre: Drama
  • Stars: Eugenio Derbez, Daniel Haddad, Gilberto Barraza, Enoc Leaño, Kaarlo Isaacs Barria, Margarita Chavarría, Claudia Fuentes Medina, Libia Regalado, Rocío Canseco, Librada Elois, Sergio Iván Juárez Correa
  • Director: Christopher Zalla
 Comments
  • sk13zBG - 19 June 2024
    Great beginning but progressed into a mess.
    I went into this movie not expecting to like anything, but as Sergio excitedly taught the students about boats, I started to warm up to the film. Sergio is also very open to most questions except for when Nico carries a bag with a weapon inside, his homelife being one that he shouldn't have been brought up in, and Sergio believes in him, allowing Nico to choose the right thing with Paloma. Seeing Chuco jump into the dumpster and knowing the mass sizes between him and Sergio was funny. There is a lot to learn from this movie if you believe in what they think and want to make a classroom more fun. But I also don't believe that all they talk about is something I agree with. Palmona's father is very dismissive of his child's dream to become an astronaut or the giant speech with the administrator.
  • digdog-785-717538 - 3 February 2024
    WTH are you even talking about.
    Normally when i see a number of 10/10 reviews on such a poor quality film, i think they are "sponsored" reviews (e.g. Paid or otherwise people who have an interest in the film having a higher score, idk maybe the film's own crew), but in this case i think it's genuinely people who have watched this film, and somehow thought it was some kind of a masterpiece.

    Radical is the story of a teacher who teaches young kids in a poor city in Mexico.

    Than in of itself is fine, there's nothing wrong with this, but the plot isn't really anything more than just this line, "a teacher teaches kids".

    The problem is that film is absolutely horrid from a filmmaking point of view. The camera wobbles, and pans incessantly over stand-ins, does not highlight protagonists, even cuts midway the face of a character mid-dialogue.

    The photography is absolutely horrid, everything is washed out, no colours, i'm talking gray-white over pale azure over mauve over light brown, the palette is absolutely ghastly.

    The dialogue is .. i'm sorry but this is just not film dialogue.

    Do you remember "OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN" ?

    I just can't wrap my head around the fact that *i* get how films are made, but someone who is paid to make a film doesn't. You can't just have mundane character delivering mundane dialogue in mundane settings because that does not make for a captivating film.

    There is barely any acting worth mentioning. The plot is almost nonexistent, and what little "teacher inspires student" we have here has already been done better before - and several times over, while *also* having the issues of poverty and crime.

    And if you really, really want to instead watch a film that is about poverty and crime, watch City of God instead.

    Sorry but, if you are giving 10/10 to this, you don't know how to review films.

    My score: 4.5/10 - a truly mediocre script made even more insufferable by abysmal production qualities.