Tailgate (2019 | Netherlands | 86 minutes | Lodewijk Crijns)
The Netherlands’ answer to Unhinged – the 2020 hyperviolent lockdown-defying flick wherein Russell Crowe takes the excuse of a stranger honking at him in traffic to let loose on a deranged murder spree – has arrived. Although this must simply be a case of parallel thinking, as Tailgate (also known by its adorable Dutch title, Bumperkleef) saw release in its home country as early as 2019, the two stories are eerily similar.
Hans (Jeroen Spitzenberger, giving off a Dutch James Purefoy air) and his family are running late for a visit with his parents. After witnessing a traffic-related close call on the road ahead which he fails to take to heart as a warning, Hans finds himself stuck behind a slow-moving white van occupying the highway’s passing lane, and like any impatient and self-righteous driver, he tries to move things along by tailgating the van. When the family pulls into a rest stop down the road, though, they are surprised and disturbed to find the driver of the van there waiting for them, delivering some creepy advice about childhood nutrition – and a violent cat-and-mouse chase kicks off.
Like in Unhinged, one of the morals of this story is certainly that it’s wisest to treat everyone you encounter with respect, lest they turn out to be a psychotic murderer looking for a hair-trigger excuse to kill your whole family. However, blessedly unlike Unhinged, the film doesn’t take any feints toward sympathy with the psychotic murderer’s viewpoint: rather than taking a position that could possibly be construed as “this white male rage is understandable!”, this film takes toxic masculinity much more clearly into its satirical and over-the-top crosshairs.
Director Lodewijk Crijns does an excellent job of maintaining and ratcheting up an air of tension throughout this film’s 86-minute runtime, allowing just enough time for an occasional breath of air between pummelings of the nervous system. It’s a testament to the effectiveness of these methods when I say I’m glad the film wasn’t any longer – particularly considering the foley that keeps running through the end credits, I’m not sure my white knuckles could have taken even one more minute.
Luchadoras (2021 | Mexico | 92 minutes | Paola Calvo & Patrick Jasim)
If you recognize the word, you already know exactly what this documentary is about: female “Lucha libre” wrestlers in Mexico. Specifically, our subjects are a part of the wrestling scene in Ciudad Juarez: the “most dangerous city in the world”. This film follows three women as they work to achieve their dreams of success on the wrestling circuit – and, perhaps more importantly, it shares a portrait of what their everyday lives are like in this often-brutal setting.
All three women (who go by the wrestler names Mini Sirenita, Lady Candy, and Baby Star) are mothers, and all have stories that shine light from different angles on how strong, organized, resourceful, and empowered the women of Juarez are forced to be, and how well they rise to the challenge. In the face of a rising wave of femicides (murders of women, because of their gender) as a component of the region’s deadly drug war, we see these women banding together, protesting in the streets, activating legal processes, traveling in search of better circumstances for themselves and their families, and participating in the Lucha libre scene: a potential vehicle toward success by way of the liberation of increased income, respectability via raised public profiles, and physical empowerment thanks to strength training and self-defense skills.
Co-directors Paola Calvo and Patrick Jasim add some artful touches to offset their otherwise straightforward documentary style: the film opens with a voiceover recounting the story of a woman who was attacked by a bus driver, set to dreamy reenactment footage of women on a bus in the desert, and it ends with a shot of a long line of women standing tall and proud in that same desert. Wrestling matches are mostly shot in slow motion, removing some of their viscerality and replacing it with a sort of triumphant, exhilarating nostalgia. But the meat of this film is in the time spent at home with these women and their families.
Fans of the Netflix show GLOW will recognize elements at play here: the scrappy fun of creating a costume and character and performing over-the-top physicality for an enthusiastic live audience, and the twisty dynamics of working with while competing against fellow fighters. (In this wrestling community, there isn’t a gender separation – the women we follow are frequently matched up against male competitors.) The most important difference, though, is that here, success in the ring can sometimes make the difference between life and death outside of it.
Tailgate and Luchadoras are both available to stream as a part the virtual component of the North Bend Film Festival via Eventive through the end of the day today, July 18th. Images courtesy of NBFF.