Sightlines · reception

How Güeros was received

2014 · Alonso Ruizpalacios · Güeros on Sightlines

The arc

It arrived already garlanded — Best First Feature at the 2014 Berlinale, then a sweep of Mexico's Ariel Awards including Best Picture — and its stock has only risen since, as each new Ruizpalacios film (Museo, A Cop Movie, La Cocina) sends people back to the debut that started it all.

What’s debated

The perennial back-and-forth: is it too indebted to Godard and the Nouvelle Vague, or does its self-mocking awareness of exactly that critique make the pastiche the point?

Its footprint

Its most beloved gag is a singer we're told 'once made Bob Dylan cry' — whose music the film pointedly never lets us hear — and it famously has a character rant about Mexican directors making black-and-white festival films, inside a black-and-white festival film.

Where it stands

A fixture of 'essential contemporary Mexican cinema' lists and a Letterboxd word-of-mouth favorite — the standard 'start here' answer for the new generation of Mexican filmmakers.

Did you know? Güeros won the Best First Feature Award at the 2014 Berlinale and went on to win five Ariel Awards in Mexico, including Best Picture and Best Director — a rare sweep for a debut.