Sin Nombre

Director: Cary Fukunaga
Year Released: 2009
Rating: 1.5

A gang member kills his heavily-tattooed gang leader and takes off on a train heading for the Mexican/American border where he and other Mexicans can sneak into our country illegally, but the rest of his old buddies give chase, and they really like violence. Aside from the inherent drama of being poor and needing an escape, the characters are largely one-dimensional - director Fukunaga is an adroit stylist (his "Go Forth" ad for Levi's is beautifully shot and edited) but needs a lot of work on script development. As a piece of liberal bait it's sure to find suckers, but compared to Nava's rich El Norte it's a hollow adventure.