REVIEW: ‘El Hombre Búfalo,’ a new movie directed by David Torres
Photo: David Torres writes and directs El Hombre Búfalo. Photo courtesy of Indiepix / Provided by Foundry Comm with permission.
David Torres’ new movie, El Hombre Búfalo, is a cinematic experience that feels most at home in a museum, let’s say one of the movie theaters at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This abstract, experimental film, running just shy of 70 minutes, is a piece of art that takes some to getting used to and some extra comprehension to fully appreciate. There will be some who want to enter this rabbit hole, while others will be turned off by the complexity of the narrative and the disruptions along the way.
Ostensibly, the movie tells the story of Eric (Raúl Briones), a young journalist who faces a violent pushback to his reporting (the bruises on his body are evidence of his travails). As he takes a break from writing, he becomes obsessed with a homeless man and this mythical creature with a buffalo’s head. Some of this plot needs to be gleaned from press notes because the narrative presented in the film is never straightforward and sometimes can stray.
There are times when Torres, an adept director, has the action play out as if El Hombre Búfalo were a documentary. There are scenes with testimonials and revealing insights that feel as if they are authentic, pulled right from Eric’s journalistic work. Perhaps one reason everything feels so real is because journalists often face violence around the world, in particular in Mexico, where the film is set, and Torres’ movie is actually inspired by true events.
However, despite its cinéma vérité look and feel, there’s also a dream-like quality to the proceedings, as if El Hombre Búfalo were more fable than documentary. Eric and the people who surround him seem stuck in a nightmare, unable to escape, and Torres’ camerawork, which is bracingly intimate, adds to the unsettled, mythical quality. Sometimes the screen shrinks to Polaroid size as if the audience were viewing something recently discovered in an attic. Other times scenes are presented in a more typical fashion, only to be interrupted a few minutes later by another fever dream.
El Hombre Búfalo is a maddening experience, but one that does leave a mark. This is emotionally driven, painstakingly constructed cinema that drains the viewer and has a few important points to say about the fear one has of telling the truth.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
El Hombre Búfalo (2020). Written and directed by David Torres. Starring Raúl Briones, Verónica Bravo, Atanasio Cadena, Ana Clara Castañón, Carmen Giménez Cacho, Antonio Monroi and José Luis Pérez. Running time: 69 minutes. Now available on stream from Indiepix. Rating: 
