La Soga (2010)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

LA SOGA (dir. Josh Crook) The film concerns government corruption in the Dominican Republic and Manny Perez plays Luisito (he also wrote the screenplay), the morally conflicted enforcer for a corrupt Dominican general who is illegally monitoring the island's criminal element. The central premise of the film is that it is easier and cheaper for US authorities to deport criminals back to the Dominican Republic rather than to try them in American courts, and this influx of criminality is threatening to destabilize the Dominican government. However, Luisito's boss gives the criminals an opportunity to buy back their freedom regardless of the ruthlessness of their crimes. Luisito's moral dilemma might be a bit cloying, but the action sequences shot in the barrios of Santiago are fairly riveting.

This movie is wick making characters credible, for instance, General Colon, a Police Chif of Santiago province, has the gut to send one of his officer to Washington Heights to steal the merchandise to Rafa (the drug dealer that killed Luisito's Father many years ago when visiting DR) leave him alive, them with the general's "influence" at the DEA make the Rafa deportation to DR possible in order to facilitate the Luisito's father revenge. I think even Generalisimo Trujillo, the bloody DR dictator, didn't have such power! In other hands Director fails with the overdose of the metaphoric use of the pigs images trying to simulate the dogs in "Amores Perros", the Bull of "Apocalypse" Now,the Chickens in "Los Olvidados" and "Cidade de Deus". Hermes -Mala Cotumbre-

The story is about a cop works against his country's corrupt government in order to find justice on a case. "La Soga" is set in the neighborhoods of the Dominican Republic and Washington Heights, New York. This Dominican film has good production values for a low budget and delivers good acting from the main characters and most of the cast. Another point in favor is that the movie flows in a good pace BUT the story feels empty, cliché with flaws and lack of depth to make the viewer feels what is told. "La Soga" is entertaining but uninteresting piece of Dominican cinema. At the end La Soga (rope) didn't tie me up hard.

I just saw La Soga (The Butcher's Son). It's by far the best film made in the Dominican Republic over the last 20 years (One-way Ticket, made in the 80s was also very good). Not a cheap extended sketch or an episode from a bad soap opera. It's excellent. You can't miss this movie. It would be difficult to find someone not affected profoundly by it, after watching it. Other Dominican "filmmakers" should take it as a model to learn how to shoot a good movie. This one shows it's possible to make good movies with low budget. It is much better than most Hollywood movies we commonly see in theaters. Here you never know what will happen next. It reminds us the film City of God that we saw a few years ago. There is never a dull moment. From beginning to end, the film fills us with different emotions. There is action, suspense, comedy, romance ... It's been a long time since we felt this good watching a film. This is one of the reasons why we love movies so much, but good ones.