One of the most important works of Mexican cinema to emerge at the turn of the century, this is still Inarritu’s finest achievement as separate narrative threads collide (literally), sparking a thought-provoking treatise on life, love and loss.

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We have to go back to Alejandro G. Inarritu’s first feature film to find his finest achievement. 

Made at a time when Mexican cinema was undergoing a critical transformation, Amores Perros became one of the most important works of this burgeoning New Wave, which was further cemented by Alfonso Cuaron’s Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) and Carlos Reygadas’ Japon (2002), to name a few. 

But nothing could have prepared viewers for a sensational work that was provocative and full of pathos at the same time. 

At times relentless in its intensity, particularly the dog fighting scenes which had caused controversy, but also contemplative when it needed to be as its array of characters, unbeknownst to each other, reflect on their somewhat pathetic lives. 

In the tense opening car chase that would eventually lead to a horrific collision that brings the separate narrative threads together, Inarritu shows us how things would come to be that fateful day—and its aftermath. 

“It could be the last day of your life.”

The first of his ‘hyperlink’ trilogy that included 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006), Amores Perros is sparked by Inarritu’s bravura direction and its gritty aesthetics (with its bleached colours) that give the film an everyday tinge of despair. 

A young man is in love with his brother’s wife, a family man cheats with a model, and an ex-hitman tries to reconcile with his estranged daughter—these are all acts of passion and faith, sparking a thought-provoking treatise on life, love and loss, the ‘3Ls’ that mark the turbulence of being alive. 

Inarritu recalled that when he was making Amores Perros, he didn’t know if he would be given the chance to direct a second film, so everything he wanted to do and say he had dumped them all in.  To be fair, the film does feel sprawling and occasionally unevenly-paced, but an ambitious failure it is surely not.

Grade: A

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