At some point years ago, Joel’s life took a wrong turn. He let himself be drawn in by the energy of unscrupulous gangsters to run criminal errands for a pittance. He has known his way around envelops and guns ever since. But now the day has come when he wants to leave the sinister night shifts behind and follow his actual destiny: repairing motors, keeping his car repair shop in Mexico City afloat and getting people moving. But the gang boss chooses the birthday of Joel’s beloved nephew of all days to direct him to a last job. Joel must debate this with himself and, above all, make a decision.
Director Esteban Azuela stages this debate in a space of passage between this world and the next, where decisions can no longer be revised, only relived. With an intricately composed mix of memory fragments, car body parts and existential junk he adequately brings his protagonist’s breathless existence to the big screen. Jagged 3D scans animated in single-frame captures as well as camera angles and plotlines from the early days of ego shooter games stylishly evoke the urban Mexico of the 1990s: heated, threatening, refusing to stand still.