Rudo y Cursi

Check listings for details

You can blame it on Saturday Night Live. The comedy staple is largely responsible for dumbing-down the genre, turning it into a morass of tedious, sketch-based, lowest-common-denominator drivel. Fortunately, the rest of the world is full of people who also love to laugh and approach humour from a somewhat fresher perspective. The world outside of North America also shares a passion for football. Though not strictly a comedy, Rudo Y Cursi combines an obsession with the beautiful game with a rags-to-riches fairy tale and good old sibling rivalry.

Half-brothers Beto (nicknamed “Rudo,” or “coarse”) and Tato (“Cursi,” or “corny”) work on a banana plantation in their Mexican coastal village. One day, they are discovered by shady talent scout Baton (Guillermo Francella) playing soccer on a dirt field. Rudo is a goalie with a gambling problem and Cursi is a striker with pop-singer ambitions. Baton whisks Cursi away to the teeming metropolis of Mexico City, where he becomes a star player, still nursing his pop-star fantasies — he eventually does get to record and make a video, an ultra-camp version of Cheap Trick’s “I Want You To Want Me” en Español. Rudo follows and scores a goal-keeper position with a rival team before his gambling addiction catches up with him. Both dream of building a big house on the beach for their mother. Of course, everything culminates in the inevitable climactic sibling showdown, but even the outcome of this is far from a forgone conclusion.

Director Carlos Cuarón co-wrote the screenplay for his brother Alfonso’s wildly successful Y Tu Mama Tambien. Here, he proves to be a masterful director, with a subtle technique that never intrudes or detracts from the story. There are moments of darkness, but the clouds never completely block the sun. Rudo Y Cursi is an immensely likable film with enough laughs to qualify as a comedy, but one that won’t leave you feeling like your IQ has been beaten down by a rubber chicken.