Well, I got about a month behind on my reviews, and now I can barely remember these movies. So here are some quick hits to clear out the backlog.

La Zona was the first movie I saw at the DC Film Fest. It was in Spanish, which is my sworn enemy, but I still found it quite entertaining. So, you know how there are nice parts of cities and then crowded, rundown, dirty parts of cities (at least until they become cool and become a nice part)? Imagine an entire city that’s poorly off, save for one heavily fenced-off zone (I’m assuming that’s La Zona, but again, I passed Spanish based entirely on my rugged good looks) that looks roughly like your average upper middle class neighborhood.

There’s a power outage, three riffraff youths manage to make it over to La Zona, a few people die, and one of the youths ends up trapped, desperately trying to get back as he’s stridently hunted. We get a little Lord of the Flies/civilization vs. nature action as the select citizens in La Zona attempt to prevent the police from disrupting their world by taking matters into their own hands.

Not a perfect summary, but close enough. John said something along the lines of how the plot ripped off like four Twilight Zone episodes. Maybe more like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but still, the point is both valid and works in the movie’s favor, I’d argue. It is a fascinating study and constantly entertaining. The movie does run a little thin at points, but it is definitely worth a look. Also, I’d be a poor IB student if I didn’t mention the similarities to Durrenmatt’s The Visit. Which I thought was pretty great.

Also, the movie co-stars Javier Bardem’s brother. Who I actually enjoyed. Trailer after jump: