Güeros (2014) – Youth in Revolt(ish)

The film follows our four characters around Mexico City, set in 1999 during a massive student protest. The protest are just a backdrop, although the main characters are protesting the protest, or rather procrastinating their inevitable adulthood. They are not motivated to go to school and protest or motivated to do much at all. However, the quest to find an old musician actually propels them from their listless existence into action. It does not seem to be as important as the events going on around them but don’t tell them that. Two of the events that bookend the film actually lead the characters to their “destiny.” The first, a mislaid water balloon that put Tomas into the presence of his brother Sombra and the second, a brick that leads our characters to their destination, a bar that contains the man they are looking for. These events happen by chance and are seemingly random. It is an accident that the film’s plot happens at all. They miss turns they are supposed to take but it leads them to where they are going. The film portrays them as possibly lazy or even bored but they continue to make their way forward and land exactly where they want to be, or need to be.

If the term “guero” comes from the “huero,” it takes on multiple meanings in the film. It is a reference to Tomas and his lighter skin tone from his brother Sombra. (meaning shadow) The real meaning can be found in “an egg that that is lost during incubation,” meaning it can never become an adult. Our characters do however, come out of their (egg)shells in the film, leaving their dull apartment and venturing out into the life they are trying so hard to avoid. It is the music that motivates them, which the audience is never privy to. The silence can be filled with whatever the audience wants it to be, leaving room for translation. What do you think about in silence that propels you to move forward? Does it mean the same thing to everyone else around you, or just you? The viewer can fill their mind with thoughts during the silence, finding common ground with the characters. The quest they go on is neither good or bad, sad or happy, it just sort of, is.

The film reflects life in this manner as what motivates the viewer to get up and leave the house is different from person to person. What you find meaning in does not mean the same to everyone. So go out there and find the thing that will motivate you to move on from incubation to your birth into adulthood.