Michel Franco‘s incredibly cold, undeniably brilliant New Order (Neon), which I went apeshit for last September, finally began playing in theatres on 5.21.
The fact that “prior to its October 2020 release in Mexican cinemas, the trailer was received with an overwhelmingly negative response from the public, including a fierce internet backlash. One stand-out complaint said that the trailer indicated ‘a classist, racist and painfully stereotypical portrait of upper and lower classes in Mexico’…this alone requires that you see it.
“The racism accusations worsened when Franco claimed the film had been the victim of ‘profound reverse racism’ and felt himself as victim of ‘hate crimes’ as a White Mexican. Franco later apologized on social media, claiming he was not aware of the impact of his response,” etc.
From my 9.14.20 review: Set in Mexico City, it’s about a violent revolution against the wealthy elites by an army of ruthless, homicidal, working-class lefties.
Director-writer Franco (After Luca, Chronic) is clearly tapping into all the insurrectionist anger out there (last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, last year’s French Yellow Vest demonstrations) and imagining the ante being raised a couple of notches.
Remember those rightwing thugs (“Los Halcones”) murdering leftists during that Mexico City demonstration in Roma? New Order is a roughly similar situation but with the lefties pulling the trigger, and with a lot more ferocity. Rage against the swells.
It struck me as a nightmare vision of what could conceivably happen if the ranks of our own wokester shitheads were to dramatically increase and anger levels were to surge even more.
New Order, trust me, is brutal, vicious and ice cold. But it’s so well made, and so unsparing in its cruelty. Franco is definitely the new Michael Haneke. He’s a very commanding and exacting director, but the film is ferocious and vicious, more so than even The Counselor (and that’s saying something).
I’m figuring that any serious fan of The Counselor would definitely be down with New Order. Especially given its Mexico City location, the fact that it deals with hostage-taking and exorbitant demands, and the fact that it has the same kind of cruel, compositional decisiveness and clarity of mind that Scott’s film had, only more so.
