acsky9000 The film tells the story of two young teenagers "defying" their parents, teachers and the rest of the world, trying to find the true meaning of their own lives.Both the boy and the girl don't get much attention at their respective homes, so they notice each other during the performance of a school play. Then, they find themselves together at detention, beginning their friendship, which leads to a plan to escape from their oppressive reality.Director Gerardo Naranjo, also screenplay writer, does a poor job trying to express the feelings of a misguided youth. The movie itself is developed at such a slow pace, that it was necessary for them to give some action to the scenes by actually shaking franticly the camera side to side, and then taking the blue of the sky, to avoid the viewers from falling sleep after the first hour.The main defect of the story is that nothing actually happens. The characters are too young, too naive and to fool to actually accomplish anything. Roman, the boy, even he is only about 15 years old, proves nothing but to be an alcoholic and a coward who runs quickly to save his own skin, leaving Maru, the girl he uses to satisfy his little macho ego, on her own after every obstacle they face during their quest.While Fernando Meirelles did a marvelous job portraying the extreme excitement and eagerness of teenagers when they do their first sexual endeavours in Cidade de Deus, Naranjo's attempt is blunt and careless.One last mistake arises when we think they story is placed in Guanajuato, medium sized but internationally known city in the arts and culture scene, while the characters' speech, thinking and accent correspond to low income areas of Mexico City - Naranjo is not able to detach his own background from the screenplay and the result is the story is out of context.Photography and music were more promising, but by themselves can't keep the film afloat.

jotix100 Roman, the son of a prominent politician in Guanajuato, Mexico, blames his well connected father, Eugenio, for the death of his mother. He even keeps a 'gore' diary where he pastes newspaper clippings of the accident that took his mother's life. He is a rebellious teenager that will do harm to himself if not controlled. Unfortunately, his father, and stepmother, Eva, have more important things to do in their busy lives.Maru, who goes to the same school as Roman, is an angry teen whose father has left his family when he went up North, leaving her mother, Helena, a nurse, to fend for herself in rearing the family. Maru is also a rebel at school. Attending a school show, she is wowed when she watches Roman perform his solo act in which he pretends hang himself, only to be taken down from the rope by a horrified teacher.It is only natural these two misfits will gravitate toward each other when they realize they have so much in common. When they stage their disappearance, they do not take to the open road, instead, they stay on the rooftop of Roman's house, stealing supplies to hold them. It is almost inevitable the two youths will begin to form a bond that will prove impossible to break.Their charade about being kidnapped serves Roman and Maru well. They are clearly having fun outwitting their parents. It is only Eva, the stepmother, who catches on to what the teens are doing, but since she stands to win nothing, she keeps her mouth shut. Having an opportunity to escape to Mexico City, they decide to go back to their hideaway. In doing so. The sexual attraction has been there all the time, but Maru is not ready to commit herself. When they finally engage in sex, it transforms their relationship. Unfortunately, their love affair is short lived, in part because of the fire arms the couple gathered to protect themselves will have fatal consequences.This Mexican film surprised this viewer. Gerardo Naranjo, who wrote and directed this movie, shows great talent. His influences are clearly French. One can detect his admiration for Jean-Luc Godard, in the way he shaped the narrative. The teen couple at the center of the story want, in a way, to escape the families they are saddled with. In their view the adult world is something that cannot be grasped in their young minds. Loss guides their short lives; they resent the authority imposed on them. The duo does not want to conform to the rules society. This is clearly the result of coming from dysfunctional families, a problem for a lot of people in their age group. Escaping is the only thing left to them to make their point.Mr. Naranjo directs with precision and gets surprising performances from Maria Deschamps and Juan Pablo De Santiago. The young actors are terrific, working in what appears to be an innate sense of what it was expected from much more experienced performers. Daniel Gimenez Cacho is seen as Eugenio and Rebecca Jones as Eva, the stepmother. Among the producers of the film are Gabriel Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, two actors that went to bigger and better things, something one can wish on Ms. Deschamps and Mr. De Santiago.The film was shot in and around the city of Guanajuato, in the Bajio area of colonial Mexico, and photographed with style by Tobias Datum. Georges Delerue's musical score mixes well with themes from Albinoni, Mahler and other contemporary popular composers. Mr. Naranjo, whose "Drama/Mex" was another surprise, continues to distinguish himself with every new picture.

Howard Schumann Though it appears doubtful that J.D. Salinger's classic paean to teen-age rebelliousness, "Catcher in the Rye", will ever be filmed, Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo's I'm Going to Explode (Voy a Explotar) provides a kindred spirit in teenage Roman, an updated cinematic expression of Holden Caulfield's search for authenticity (though one with decidedly more reckless abandon). Naranjo, who studied film at the American Film Institute with another up and coming young director, Azazel Jacobs (Momma's Man), owes a big debt of gratitude to the French New Wave, yet his I'm Going to Explode stands on its own as an involving tale of two lovers on the run, never feeling derivative or redundant.Produced by actors Gabriel Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna from Y Tu Mamá También, I'm Going to Explode rises above its youthful flaws with energy, dark humor, and personal style, and an expressive spontaneity that makes it a rich and deeply moving experience. If Holden had a partner, she might have resembled 15-year-old Maru (Maria Deschamps), a troubled outsider with a rebellious spirit. Bored and feeling very much alone at her suburban prep school in Guanajuato, Maru is an outsider who empties her soul each day into her diary, aching for someone who understands her longings. Her world comes alive, however, when she meets Roman (Juan Pablo de Santiago), the disaffected son of a well-to-do right-wing politician.A bright, impulsive, emotional, and unpredictable young man, Roman seems to delight in seeking his father's (Daniel Gimenez Cacho) attention by getting kicked out of every school he is enrolled in. Now in the same school with Maru, they meet at a talent show in which Roman pretends to commit suicide by hanging and Maru feels an immediate camaraderie. She writes to a friend that "He exists, but I also made him up," and says that "the best part is that he's angry." Roman has similar feelings for Maru and it does not take long for the two free spirits to plan a runaway from a world they can make little sense of. Roman, in melodramatic fashion, pretends to be abducting Maru while flashing one of his adored guns but the reality is less exciting.Although they both want their parents to think they are far away, in reality they are hiding out in a tent on the roof of his father's house, sneaking downstairs to corral the necessities of life when his dad, Maru's mother, and sister (who have made themselves part of the rescue team), are not at home. Fortified with plenty of wine and rock music which they listen to with dual headphones, they are clearly having fun at the expense of their self-involved but legitimately frightened parents who are thrown off the trail by hysterical phone calls from Roman, replete with misinformation. In a startlingly insightful sequence, Maru expresses her conflicts about having sex with Roman, fearing that she will lose her power over him and be taken for granted if she "puts out" (why most Hollywood teens never think about that is a mystery).Like most adolescents, one minute they express powerful emotion and seem grown up, the next minute they are squabbling or not talking because of inconsequential jolts to their ego. When Roman and Maru do have sex, it is very erotic because they are at first so hesitant and tentative, perhaps the way we all were the first time. Ultimately, they steal a car with the idea of going to Mexico City but, as in real-life, it does not always work out according to plans. Surviving an unnecessarily melodramatic and predictable ending, I'm Going to Explode is a film of sensual delight and pure exhilaration and Deschamps' performance as the more mature protagonist keeps the film from descending into juvenile hi-jinks.

colcam In this case, what starts out as an interesting "outsider boy meets outsider girl and their inner selves bond" premise slowly gets lost as it repeatedly diverts from their story into trivia and returns to the "pair bonding story" before it finally concludes without a real resolution. leaving you wondering "and what happened THEN?"There is semi-nudity and sexual activity, large dollops of "language" scattered throughout it, but the promise of the premise is washed out and lost before the ending, making the story ring hollow, neither fish nor fowl when the credits roll.Most of the viewing audience liked it, they just could not fathom why it didn't "really" come to a conclusion of some kind.