Film Review: We Are What We Are 25 February 2011 by Marc Patterson

I’d be hard pressed to admit the last time I looked forward to seeing a new cannibal film. Most of today’s riff’s on this classic sub-genre of horror are merely third rate TCM knock-off’s going for the gross-out factor and forgetting any nuance of horror or story-telling along the way. Can you imagine my shock when I caught wind of We Are What We Are, a film that emphasizes substance over gore and cannibalism? Though don’t be fooled, cannibalism is what this film is about.

The opening moments of Jorge Michel Grau’s film are powerful enough to want to make one stop dead in their tracks and discuss before moving into the film any further. An older man, sick, possibly confused stumbles though an upscale mall in Mexico City. He’s generally ignored by those around him, and when he pauses at a shop to stare at the mannequins in the window is shooed away by an indignant shopkeeper who quickly takes out a rag and cleans the glass where the man laid his hands. The man shortly thereafter begins coughing up blood and promptly collapses and dies. No one stops to help, or to even call for help. Only two maintenance workers quickly and promptly arrive to remove the body and mop up the mess. This is our silent dialogue-free introduction to We Are What We Are. A scene packed full of sub-text and meaning, an opener ripe for discussion.

As we move into the film proper we are introduced to this man’s family, his wife and three grown children, a dysfunctional family full of strife that falls further out of sorts when they learn of their father’s death. The death seems to complicate an important, yet unexplained ritual they must attend to, that of procuring meat for the table, a matter they treat with near religious fervor. The man’s children, Sabina, Julien, and Alfredo take that leap from being teen-aged children who follow the direction of their father implicitly, to being forced to make their own decisions, sometimes in defiance of their lunatic mother.

When they chose a street prostitute as their victim to be (something that is taboo and unworthy) the balance of power between the mother and her children begins to sway on near catastrophe. Complicating matters are two inept detectives who are alerted to the discovery of a human finger in the stomach of the father, leading them to track down this family of cannibals in hopes of a big promotion. Incest, homosexuality, prostitution and some serious Oedipus complexes are all themes toyed with at varying levels in this complicated and layered story of survival in a decaying city.

The dialogue in the film is strikingly sparse adding minimal flavor to a meal that is better served up visually, and to that end the film is truly a visual treat with cinematography that is gorgeous while simultaneously exuding the bleak backdrop of an impoverished community. In fact, at one turn, during the scene in the morgue I’m reminded of Guillermo Del Toro’s freshman masterpiece, Cronos. It was as if Grau was giving a direct nod towards his Mexican predecessor in more ways than one.

If one word could summarize We Are What We Are I’d call it depressing. The film is presented with absolute moral ambivalence and I still don’t know, after a full day since viewing it, whether or not I like it. Perhaps therein lies its brilliance, in that it can make one contemplate it long after the credits roll and still unsure of how to feel about it. For me, my most curious instincts are still wrestling on whether or not I should empathize with the at the one piece of uplifting propaganda spread from a subway convert, a simple piece of paper exclaiming “You are alive”.