Javier Patron Movies

A handful of desperate characters sort out the loose ends of their lives in a place as run down as their lives in this drama from Mexico. Parian is a dingy town forgotten by progress, where locals who are down on their luck drown their sorrows at the village tavern. One of the regulars is Laura (Ana Graham), who has been trying to finds out what's become of her child and spouse who've mysteriously disappeared. Another steady customer, Ismael (Ricardo Blume) shot a young man five decades earlier, and has come to town hoping to mend fences with the victim's still-grieving brother. Antonio (Dagoberto Gama) tries to drink away the memory of the wife who abandoned him and has left him lonely and without a child to carry his name. As the barkeep doles out liquor and sinks deeper into the collective depression around her, a powerful rainstorm strands the customers in the bar, where emotions soon rise to a fever pitch. Mezcal received its world premiere at the 2006 Karlovy Very Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Javier Fox's drama Fuera del cielo (AKA Beyond Heaven, 2006) spans a 24-hour period. It begins at 6am with young Cucú, who is greeted by the return of his brother Malboro after a five-year separation. The brothers unite and embark on a long journey to the locales inhabited by their relatives, and wrap at 6am the following morning. The theme of Fox's film is "orphanhood," not in the literal sense (where children lose their parents to death) but in the abstract sense - the sense in which individuals can easily fall out of touch with their family ties. That estrangement brings to Cucú and Malboro a sense of social disconnectedness that causes a great deal of inner pain, pain they must strive to overcome. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide