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Mexico City, sprawling, overpopulated, polluted, is already a dystopian apparition, and in Francisco Laresgoiti’s “2033,” things have only gotten worse. Renamed “Villaparaiso” (Paradise City) after a military regime topples civilian government and thwarts revolutionaries, the metropolis teems with exploited poor and the enforcers of the rich. Religious cults are banned; pharmaceuticals are used to keep the populace content. While this 2009 production isn’t the equal of “Monsters” in its use of contemporary technology to make effective science fiction on a modest budget, it’s an engaging bit of malarkey. Plus dirigibles. Airships! Distinctly average, it’s a “Blade Runner” wannabe made for very little, a “Children of Men” with few cogent notions, yet still likeable in a B-minus movie kind of way. U.S. premiere. (Ray Pride)
“2033” opens Friday at Facets.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
