The films with a direct political theme are not from today and for that very reason, they had to reinvent themselves more and more through a subtle mix of genres, aesthetics, and others. Mexican director Michel Franco is one of the few who stood out in recent years when producing a layered political work called ‘New Order.’
The first act of the film has undeniable similarities with Parasite (2019), the writer/director Michel Franco works in the first twenty to thirty minutes to break expectations in relation to the plot and its characters with the context of social inequality, starting in a passively strange way and evolving into a catharsis that, in addition to the South Korean work, has strong influences from George A. Romero’s films – especially Dawn of the Dead (1978).
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Since the film starts with the ‘rich’ and gradually shows the ‘poor,’ Franco apparently demonstrates an ethical ambiguity in the second act that generates enormous discomfort. It’s a potent question – whether to defend or not to defend the class struggle? The inventiveness is absolute in the third act when we understand that in such a provocative film, putting ourselves in the skin of the unconscious catalysts of that new order, i.e changing the point of view consequently through blocks (‘good’ and ‘bad’ ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ revolutionaries).
That way to compose the film establishes the maxim of ‘violence generates violence.’ All of it is encompassed with a real coldness as in a firing scene and the recordings of testimonies of the kidnapped. The whole cast is working well, there is no highlight because the film is much more moved by the actions of several characters and by not having a central protagonist – something that we recently saw in the Brazilian film Bacurau (2019).
In the midst of chaos, violence is established by dirt. With contrasts for the design of environments and the union for photography that could have more vigor in colors, but a pessimistic humanistic standardization is understood in relation to different social classes. The notoriety is in a choice of costumes referring to Schindler’s List (1993) without sentimentality (“exchanging” for the sordid), where the character Marian wears a red coat for about fifty minutes of the film, standing out from the pattern of any another character, an exceptional characterization of love and violence in a piece of clothing.
Also, Read – Mrs. America [2020] Review – A tale of revolution, with a counter-revolutionary at the center
‘New Order‘ is a masterclass on the reasons for a revolution, with a manipulative script and direction in the best sense of the word.
New Order Trailer
New Order Links – IMDb
