For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - Circo
The Impression:
A documentary about a centuries old Mexican circus winding
its way through the back-water gullies of Central Mexico?
Sounds like a fascinating slice of life.
The Reality:
If you’re thinking that Circo is going to be a film
about the joys of elephants, cotton candy and trapezes and
the magic of the circus life, you’re very very wrong.
Circo never dips completely in to depression, but the
film’s portrayal of a family circus trying to make its way
in the modern world never glows with sunshine either. Circo
Mexico is over a hundred years old, an old-timey circus
that’s been passed down through generation after generation
of the Ponce family. At one time its traditional circus acts
thrived in huge venues, but recent years have found the
tightly knit circus falling on hard times. The story follows
the newest ringmaster Tito Ponce and his wife and kids. The
film is fascinating as we get to watch how a circus is
actually run and how the acts are actually learned. And when
that fascinating aspect is tempered with the truths about
circus life (i.e. the fact that most of Tito’s children
don’t know how read or write) you get a great film. There’s
an impressive amount of real drama on display here as Tito’s
wife, a non-circus born woman (a huge distinction in the
film), wants to the younger kids to leave the circus and get
real educations. The circus is failing, there’s no money,
and seemingly no interest for circus performers anymore.
Aaron Schock, a first time director, does a fine job of
exploring the day in and day out world of the circus, while
digging in to the lives that make it actually run.
The Lesson:
Circuses need our support ... or maybe they need to just
fade in to oblivion. The film argues both points.
- Noah Sanders
-
Unless
otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any
related pages, including the blog's archives, is licensed by
John Laird under a
Creative Commons License.
