al otro lado de las Américas...

...they make movies just like we do.

Our biopics are about spoiled tycoons with OCD, while theirs are about bike-touring Marxists with asthma. Our Los Angeles is a suburban wasteland, where movie stars join the Republican Party, run for Mayor of Carmel, Gubernator of California, or even Presidente de Los Estados Unidos, all in the name of sending Mexicans back across the border before they steal our jobs. Their Los Angeles is an Andean shithole, where the Chileans give tango lessons and chase penniless Argentinians back across the border before they steal their daughters.

Diarios de motorcicleta is a classic roadtrip movie. You got your sensitive young hero, trying to sort out his life during one last roadtrip before growing up. It's Easy Rider and Y tu mamá también, but driving through a very different world than either, a world of enormous economic inequality to match the greatness of the Andes or the Amazon. It's also the true story of one of the most fascinating icons of our time, the story of a idealistic middle-class medical student who experienced on his journey something amounting to a religious conversion and devoted his life to the Marxist liberation of Latin America.

The expert direction, combined with a charming, well-crafted script, ravenously-beautiful Andean and Amazonian settings, and the ever-more-impressive acting of Gael García Bernal, weave this simple genre tale into a beautiful homage to the egalitarian, pan-Latino ideals of a lost age.

Okay, back to Oscar party preparations. I wonder if Old Navy carries "Che" t-shirts...