Amores Perros

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Amores Perros ★★★ Love's a Bitch 2000 (R)

A Mexico City car accident and the fortunes of a dog bring together three stories of love, loss, and redemption in director/producer Gonzalez Inarritu's impressive feature debut. Octavio's love for his brother's wife leads him to enter his dog, Cofi, in a dogfight for elopement money. When Cofi is wounded, it leads to a car chase, and the central accident. A woman, Valeria, is injured and permanently scarred in the accident. This affects her beau, who has just left his family to be with her. A homeless man, a former revolutionary turned hitman, witnesses the crash and rescues the dog, who becomes a part of his search for his estranged daughter. The plot structure invites comparisons to Tarantino, but these characters inhabit a more consequences-and-morality-oriented world than Q's characters ever did. Film came under fire from animal rights activists for the dogfight scenes, although it was made clear from the start that no animals were actually harmed. 153m/C VHS, DVD . MX Vanessa Bauche, Emilio Echeverria, Gael Garcia Bernal, Goya Toledo, Alvaro Guerrero, Jorge Salinas, Marco Perez, Rodrigo Murray, Humberto Busto, Gerardo Campbell, Rosa Maria Bianchi, Dunia Saldivar, Adriana Barraza; D: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu; W: Guillermo Arriaga; C: Rodrigo Prieto; M: Gustavo Santaolalla. British Acad. '01: Foreign Film; Natl. Bd. of Review '01: Foreign Film.