“Gueros,” February 15, 2016 (2014), DVD. Tomas is the fair-skinned adolescent son of a single mother in Veracruz. That matters as in Mexico he is denounced as a pale one or “guero,” (although I can’t get the umlaut over the u), a slur that suggests he’s not a real Mexicano. She just can’t keep him from acting out and, at her wits end, sends him to stay with his brother, Sombra, an Indio-looking Mexicano, and his roommate Santos at UNAM in Mexico City. But the university is in the middle of the year-long strike of 1999 and these two slackers are neither in nor completely out in opposition. They’re waiting for the strike to end but listen to the strikers pirate station, steal electricity from their neighbors, and are otherwise students without a class. Tomas has brought a cassette tape with him of an obscure Mexican rocker who was his late father’s idol and, by chance, reads that he is hospitalized and near death. Thus begins their effort to meet this reprobate, a goal that takes them all around the DF’s many neighborhoods – some rougher than others – and into the strike itself. The well-acted and very interesting film is the first major auteur work for writer/director Alonso Ruiz Palacios, who was, himself, a student at UNAM. The film features elements of high comedy and wonderful commentary on race, gender, and class and provides an excellent look at the student political activists who, awash in a mix of ideology and jargon, are holding endless meetings and rallies where partners. in different parties denounce one another’s tactical flaws and class backgrounds. Gender is a key piece of this, of course, and as anyone who has been so engaged knows, it gets nasty very quickly. The film is heavily influenced by the French New Wave – Ruiz Palacios was watching a lot of it at the time – both in terms of pacing and photography. It also has outrageous moments where the narrative line turns into a commentary on the film itself. There are lots of wonderful bits in here, but also some wasteful pieces that drag and are just too self-indulgent. Still, I really enjoyed this and recommend it highly.