(PCM) Written and directed by Mariana Rondón, Pelo Malo is the story about a nine-year-old boy whose preening obsession with straightening his hair elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother.
In Pelo Malo, Junior is a nine-year-old boy who has stubbornly curly hair, or “bad hair.” He wants to have it straightened for his yearbook picture, like a fashionable pop singer with long, ironed hair.
This puts him at odds with his mother Marta, a young, unemployed widow. Junior, Marta, and his baby brother live in a large multi-family building.
Overwhelmed by what it takes to survive in the chaotic city of Caracas, Marta finds it increasingly difficult to tolerate Junior’s fixation with his looks. The more Junior tries to look sharp and make his mother love him, the more she rejects him.
His paternal grandmother, a witness to this rejection, asks Marta to give her the boy so that he can look after her. Marta refuses and tries to correct her son’s obsession by “setting an example,” a cruel moment which was meant to be a lesson.
Junior finds himself cornered, face to face with a painful decision.© FiGA Cinema Tropical
Written and directed by Mariana Rondón (At Midnight and a Half, Postcards from Leningard), Pelo Malo stars Samuel Lange Zambrano, Samantha Castillo, and Beto Benites.
Pelo Malo has been well received by critics so far; the film currently has a fresh rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Jay Weissberg of Variety says: “Mariana Rondon’s impressively multilayered drama brings a powerful specificity to the story of a boy and his embittered single mother” and David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter agrees: “This miniaturist mosaic provides tender insight into a complicated mother-son relationship.”
Pelo Malo opens in New York on November 19, 2014; watch the trailer below and visit the official Facebook and website for more info and updates!
The post Mariana Rondón’s ‘Pelo Malo’ or ‘Bad Hair’ Explores Troubled Mother-Son Relationship also appeared on PCM Reviews.