Corruption, Redemption, and Way Too Many Pigs in Revenge Thriller La Soga

Details

La Soga
Directed by Josh Crook
7-57 Releasing
Opens August 13

Related Content

• Nicolas Jaar
  January 25, 2012
• Spring Guide 2012: The Stabbin' Cabin
  March 28, 2012
• Undertow: A Haunting Peruvian Ghost Story
  November 24, 2010
• Nicolas Jaar and Gwilym Gold Play with Their Packaging Strategies
  April 11, 2012
• Cannes 2011 Has Issues
  May 18, 2011

More About

• Manny Perez
• Santiago

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Suspiciously employing the same thug flashiness, upbeat nouveau-ethnic soundtrack, and glamorously shot poverty found in fellow shanty-town raves City of God and Sin Nombre, director Josh Crook's straightforward revenge thriller also shares those films' aesthetic aim: to find the tonal overlap between brutality and elegance. If La Soga feels neither gritty nor poignant enough to hit that sweet spot, it's not for a lack of sincerity. Writer, co-producer, and star Manny Perez alone brings a soulful charisma to the lead role of Luisito, an eager assassin for the Santiago secret police who demonstrates no mercy toward the drug dealers who reign over the sweaty slums. (Crook shot the film in real crime-infested Dominican hoods.) In too many parallel flashbacks with too frequent ham-fisted pig imagery, we learn of Luisito's path from innocent butcher's son to avenging loner forever hunting the man who murdered his father. His street nickname, "La Soga," refers to the noose around a slaughterhouse oinker's neck, and the subgenre's clichéd two-way street of corruption and redemption predictably sees our antihero finding liberation in a childhood sweetheart while facing down the crooked lawman who led him to a life of transgression.