by Eternality Tan

Museo (2018)

This superb sophomore feature from one of the finest Mexican filmmakers working today is infectious with its artistry as it tells of two men who robbed a famous museum in Mexico City in 1985.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Review #2,675

Dir. Alonso Ruizpalacios
2018 | Mexico | Crime, Drama | 127 min | 2.35:1 | Spanish & English
M18 (passed clean) for some nudity

Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Leonardo Ortizgris, Alfredo Castro
Plot: Mexico, 1985. Juan and Wilson, two perennial Veterinary students, perpetrate an audacious heist in the National Museum of Anthropology, running away with a loot of more than a hundred invaluable pieces of Mayan art, unaware of the consequences of their outrageous act.
Awards: Won Best Screenplay & Nom. for Golden Bear (Berlinale)
International Sales: Luxbox

Accessibility Index
Subject Matter:  Moderate – Heist; Unintended Consequences; Art & History
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse

Viewed: The Projector Golden Mile – Mexican Film Festival
Spoilers: No

Out of the three feature films Alonso Ruizpalacios has directed thus far, Museo might just be my favourite. 

From one of the finest Mexican filmmakers working today, this superb sophomore feature is loosely based on the true story of criminals who robbed the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City in 1985, stealing more than 100 pre-Hispanic artefacts and making a national embarrassment of its security system. 

As much as it is a ‘heist film’, and it largely satisfies in that area with an exquisitely-mounted sequence of deception, stealth and resourcefulness, there is still significant arthouse DNA in Museo as the story takes us deep into unchartered territory after the heist. 

As such, it is a film of two halves, with Ruizpalacios having great fun with not just its left-field narrative trajectory, but perhaps even more so, the creative, and sometimes exuberant, use of film language, including sensitivities to sound and music. 

“Preservation is not possible without plunder.”

It’s such a bubbling work, incredibly infectious with its artistry, which is no surprise considering that his Gueros (2014) and A Cop Movie (2021) are both also fiercely original and brimming with ideas. 

At once classical in style, yet also conspicuously subverting genre tropes, Museo also benefits greatly from the performances of Gael Garcia Bernal, and even more impressively, Leonardo Ortizgris (his face is an entire mood unto itself), who plays his way-too-loyal sidekick. 

Their characters may be on the run but Ruizpalacios finds thematic weight in their navigation of stasis.  As they try to seek out a buyer for the stolen goods, Museo becomes not just an indictment on colonial plunder but also how the difference between pricelessness and worthlessness is no more than two sides of the same coin. 

Grade: A-

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