FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
NICOTINA
Over the course of one night in Mexico City, meek computer whiz kid Lolo (Diego
Luna) hacks into a Swiss bank's database, copying account numbers onto a CD
to be sold to a Russian gangster. Bespectacled Lolo appears to be harmless, but
he has planted Web cameras and a microphone in the apartment of his
promiscuous neighbor (Marta Beláustegui). An attempt to squish a huge
cockroach turns the CD exchange into a shooting spree followed by revenge,
blood and (literally) guts. The Russian flees to his barber to change his
appearance while a character in the background, Carmen (Rosa María Bianchi),
metastasizes into a cross between Lady Macbeth and Mrs. Lovett of Fleet Street.
As its many story lines collide, Nicotina makes effective use of the split
screen.
With a steady pace, and plenty of twists and turns, it's easy to overlook the film's
tinge of misogyny as Lolo harasses and humiliates his neighbor, and Carmen
morphs into a monster. Nicotina is light and diverting, but not nearly as
intricate or hard-hitting as this year's other Tarantino-inspired romp
Intermission. Ultimately, it is series of coincidences and
misunderstandings in which nicotine is to Nicotina what the Big Mac was to Pulp
Fiction. But like a puff of smoke, its impression quickly fades away. Kent Turner
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