Sin Nombre

CLOSELY WATCHED TRAIN Gaitan and Flores hop a freight to the U.S.

Is there a rule requiring all Sundance breakouts to seem like disappointments at a lower altitude? (Yes, I’m including you, Ballast.) This one plays like a cross between City of God and an Iñárritu film, following the parallel gang-initiation rites of a frighteningly young lad (Ferrer), the crisis of conscience of one of the gang’s members (Flores), and the dangerous Mexico-U.S. emigration of a girl (Gaitan) with whom, it’s clear, the two young men will eventually cross paths. The movie overheats in its first half, which makes poverty look only marginally less exciting than in City of God. Sin Nombre is also, at least initially, too blunt when it comes to motivation; the hero chooses to change sides only after the gang’s leader tries to rape his girlfriend.

But at the midpoint, Sin Nombre turns into a more supple film—basically another rehash of They Live by Night, with the couple on the run both from well-connected gangs and an equally omniscient border patrol. (The romance, if it can be called that, is intriguingly unrequited.) The raw material is compelling, and Fukunaga—making his feature debut—has an eye that might take him far once he stops treading on such familiar turf.

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