Tejano

The situation at the Texas/Mexico border in 2019 is becoming quite a dramatic theme for movies now.  Recently the big studios gave us Miss Bala, about an American woman being forced into working for the cartels to save the one she loves.

Now we have Tejano, an independent effort, telling a story of the American man, being forced into....   you get the drift.

Filmed in the Rio Grande Valley and in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, it's got some authenticity to the area.  The photography and the colors were very realistic.  Patrick Mackie stars as Javi who is a simple farmhard in love with a beautiful Mexican senorita.  But when he is robbed of the money he is saving to bring her over, he turns to the cartels to smuggle drugs for money.  Always a good plot point when the hero loses everything he has.

Thug life ain't easy.  The "Blood in, Blood out" rule applies here.   The heist takes a Reservoir Dogs turn as well, and builds toward a grande finale like in a Western back at the hacienda. A very memorable final scene also.

 A good man doing bad things?  There is an ambiguity here and that makes it even more watchable.

In case you were wondering whatever happened to State Senator Hector Uribe, he's now a working actor, playing the grandfather here and stealing the show!

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