La Soga (2010)
A cop works against his country's corrupt government in order to find justice on a case.
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Good story, Not enough for a whole film
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
LA SOGA (dir. Josh Crook) The film concerns government corruption in the Dominican Republic and Manny Perez plays Luisito (he also wrote the screenplay), the morally conflicted enforcer for a corrupt Dominican general who is illegally monitoring the island's criminal element. The central premise of the film is that it is easier and cheaper for US authorities to deport criminals back to the Dominican Republic rather than to try them in American courts, and this influx of criminality is threatening to destabilize the Dominican government. However, Luisito's boss gives the criminals an opportunity to buy back their freedom regardless of the ruthlessness of their crimes. Luisito's moral dilemma might be a bit cloying, but the action sequences shot in the barrios of Santiago are fairly riveting.
This movie is wick making characters credible, for instance, General Colon, a Police Chif of Santiago province, has the gut to send one of his officer to Washington Heights to steal the merchandise to Rafa (the drug dealer that killed Luisito's Father many years ago when visiting DR) leave him alive, them with the general's "influence" at the DEA make the Rafa deportation to DR possible in order to facilitate the Luisito's father revenge. I think even Generalisimo Trujillo, the bloody DR dictator, didn't have such power! In other hands Director fails with the overdose of the metaphoric use of the pigs images trying to simulate the dogs in "Amores Perros", the Bull of "Apocalypse" Now,the Chickens in "Los Olvidados" and "Cidade de Deus". Hermes -Mala Cotumbre-
The story is about a cop works against his country's corrupt government in order to find justice on a case. "La Soga" is set in the neighborhoods of the Dominican Republic and Washington Heights, New York. This Dominican film has good production values for a low budget and delivers good acting from the main characters and most of the cast. Another point in favor is that the movie flows in a good pace BUT the story feels empty, cliché with flaws and lack of depth to make the viewer feels what is told. "La Soga" is entertaining but uninteresting piece of Dominican cinema. At the end La Soga (rope) didn't tie me up hard.
La Soga is great. A believable, well-acted assassin (tough, but sensitive) who is beginning to doubt the motives behind his orders from the corrupt General, makes a great story, and unravels well with the revenge story about Luisito (La Soga)trying to find his father's murderer. It is beautifully shot in the DR and Washington Heights, has a very fitting score, wonderful acting by a Dominican cast. The revenge story, and love story, keep you watching. The action is excellent, and the view of gritty drug lords and corrupt government counterparts is the stuff movies are made of. The father and son story is touching, and echoed throughout. The visceral reminder of how human-human violence is akin to (but clearly not the same as) human-livestock 'violence' (ie. butcher references) was obvious, but poetic nonetheless. I loved it.