MAY 13: Tigers Are Not Afraid

          When I added this movie to my lineup, I said to my Dearest Girlfriend, this is not a movie for you. And boy was I right. The one thing Dearest Girlfriend cannot abide in a horror film is child peril and (especially) death, and lo, here comes a movie whose whole premise is “here are some children and they are in peril” and where multiple children die. Very, very not for girlfriend. But, for Sara? Yes, very for Sara.

            Wait, not because bad things happen to children. I like children very much! I just mean, because it is a good movie, see.

            Tigers are not Afraid is one of the most recent films in my lineup, last year’s feature from Mexican director Issa Lopez. The film takes a child’s-eye view of Mexico’s drug war, following kids whose parents have been killed by cartels, traffickers, and other assorted ne’er-do-wells. After the murder of her mother, young Estrella takes up with a gang of similarly orphaned boys, who are trying to be fierce but are, at heart, adorable children who want to tell ghost stories and play soccer and have dorky talent shows. They are all my sons. Estrella has to prove herself to the insular group and before long she and her new friends are being pursued by a drug lord turned politician looking to cover the tracks of his wrong-doings. Meanwhile, Estrella is haunted by the vengeful ghost of her mother, who demands justice.

Precious kiddos 

            The supernatural elements are integrated lightly at first before driving the film’s climax, a skillful integration of realist tone and surrealist content. The CGI visuals are never breathtaking, but the film makes up for it by using the children’s graffiti as a visual theme, cartoonish illustrations that help the kids narrate and make sense of their lives, a tonal microcosm of the film’s combination of whimsy and violence. The tiger is a great motif; it stands for both the threats the haunt the children and the ferocity and self-sufficiency they aspire to in order to survive. Morrito, the littlest member of the smol gang, trembles to hear his friend’s story of an escaped tiger who haunts the street, but also clings to an adorable stuffed tiger at all times. There was a bit at around the halfway point where I worried I would have to preface this with “it’s not quite a horror movie.” And, don’t worry, it gets there, but it’s a drama first. I love these kinds of genre benders that seamlessly incorporate the supernaturally horrific with drama grounded in the real world; horror can be great for making sense of current events or historical traumas, and does so to great effect here.  

Lopez’s child actors, most of them making their acting debut, are spell-binding. There are pretty much only kids on screen at all times; kids bickering and making power grabs, kids debating the consequences of their actions, kids being petty and kids being kind, kids expressing wonder at goldfish and telling each other stories. That it works is a testament to the young cast and to Lopez, who draws out heart-wrenching, earnest, compelling, delightful performances from them all.

I feel like I write so much more about the movies that don’t quite work for me than the movies I really like. I could say more about how much Tigers are not Afraid works, the delightfulness of its fairy-tale elements, the ache of its tragedy, but I’m really just saying the same thing over and over. This movie is good. You should watch it.

Unless you’re my girlfriend in which case, maybe stay away.

 More than just a spooky ghost

Vibecheck: I’m gonna harp on the graffiti again – simple and whimsical, yet still loaded with the emotional weight of childhood.

Scare Factor: This doesn’t go for typical horror movie scares, though the ghosts in this are not messing around. Far more dreadful is the violence, which is typical to what you’d find in your average Gritty Drama but, as it involves kids, it is not pleasant.

Pairs Well With: It’s no surprise to me that Guillermo Del Toro dug this movie. It has that same fairy tale tone melded with realist violence and compelling child protagonists as Del Toro’s early stuff, namely Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone. Another great recent movie that combines drama rooted in real-world awfulness with supernatural intrigue and cute kids is Under the Shadow. Finally, the vengeful ghosts reminded me of nothing so much as my favorite Carmen Maria Machado short story “Especially Heinous,” in which Law and Order: SVU victims because terrifying specters who haunt the detectives.

But how gay is it?: Not particularly, though there is an implicit critique of toxic masculinity in the initial misogyny the little boys show to Estrella.

Girlfriend’s Corner: JESUS FUCKING CHRIST NO WHAT THE HELL