Adolescence is tough as it is, but with what happened to Cuellar, that just made it tougher.
In Los Cachorros (aka "The Cubs") we meet 12 year old Cuellar. He just got admitted into a ritzy private school and befriends some his classmates. The boys spend time together eating lunch and hanging out after school. They even play soccer together at gym class. After playing a game, Cuellar heads to the shower and while he showers, some boys are messing with a guard dog that is locked up in a wooden shack. When the dog is accidentally released; the dog goes after the boys. When the boys enter the locker room where Cuellar is showering, the dog ends up running inside the locker room and attacks Cuellar brutally by mauling at his genitals. Cuellar's genitals are permanently damaged thus leaving him without any. He no longer has a penis and this greatly affects him for life. Still, his friends remain good to him and hang with him still. They grow up together. Now in their early 20s; Cuellar (now played by Jose Alonso) and his friends still spend time with each other, but Cuellar's attitude differs from his friends. His friends are typically girl crazy and always want to spend time with their female companions. Cuellar however is afraid to be near women other than his mother because she is the only female in his life that isn't 'judging' him of his permanent injury. At a party, Cuellar for the first time falls in love with a girl named Tere (Helena Rojo). Tere is a model and she too has grown fond of Cuellar. Their relationship soon blossoms and it seems all good from then on. When Tere finds out about Cuellar's injury in the most awkward way, she dumps him and moves on. This ultimately causes Cuellar to go through a terrible depression & madness.
Los Cachorros is a pretty sad movie when it comes to Cuellar. As the movie goes on, we just keep seeing Cuellar suffering worse & worse til the end. The movie never does really get better. It just worsens. However, the movie does get confusing when it comes to Cuellar's actions. There are scenes where we are to believe Cuellar murders the women that find out about his missing gential (Tere isn't the first, but is the last). When I say "believe" its because we aren't ever sure if he just killed them or just beats them unconscious. We just see him attack them and then left there as if nothing. He also seems to get away with it. Another confusing part of Cuellar's actions is when he crashes his car with his friends inside it. We get a glimpse of Cuellar in a daze after the crash and the next scene jumps to him sitting in a bar alone with his head-shaved due to a head injury which of course is from the car accident. We never find out if the friends survived the accident or not. Thinking about that now, I'm pretty sure those scenes with Cuellar 'murdering' were just randomly inserted for shock value. Perhaps even the car accident scene as well.
Los Cachorros was definitely very depressing to watch and quite interesting despite the 'inserted shock scenes' (egh). I been wanting to see a new coming of age movie for a while and Los Cachorros definitely whet my appetite for that.
Worth watching, but just remember, this one will really make you feel really down. Try not watching it on a bad day. 5/10.
In Los Cachorros (aka "The Cubs") we meet 12 year old Cuellar. He just got admitted into a ritzy private school and befriends some his classmates. The boys spend time together eating lunch and hanging out after school. They even play soccer together at gym class. After playing a game, Cuellar heads to the shower and while he showers, some boys are messing with a guard dog that is locked up in a wooden shack. When the dog is accidentally released; the dog goes after the boys. When the boys enter the locker room where Cuellar is showering, the dog ends up running inside the locker room and attacks Cuellar brutally by mauling at his genitals. Cuellar's genitals are permanently damaged thus leaving him without any. He no longer has a penis and this greatly affects him for life. Still, his friends remain good to him and hang with him still. They grow up together. Now in their early 20s; Cuellar (now played by Jose Alonso) and his friends still spend time with each other, but Cuellar's attitude differs from his friends. His friends are typically girl crazy and always want to spend time with their female companions. Cuellar however is afraid to be near women other than his mother because she is the only female in his life that isn't 'judging' him of his permanent injury. At a party, Cuellar for the first time falls in love with a girl named Tere (Helena Rojo). Tere is a model and she too has grown fond of Cuellar. Their relationship soon blossoms and it seems all good from then on. When Tere finds out about Cuellar's injury in the most awkward way, she dumps him and moves on. This ultimately causes Cuellar to go through a terrible depression & madness.
Los Cachorros is a pretty sad movie when it comes to Cuellar. As the movie goes on, we just keep seeing Cuellar suffering worse & worse til the end. The movie never does really get better. It just worsens. However, the movie does get confusing when it comes to Cuellar's actions. There are scenes where we are to believe Cuellar murders the women that find out about his missing gential (Tere isn't the first, but is the last). When I say "believe" its because we aren't ever sure if he just killed them or just beats them unconscious. We just see him attack them and then left there as if nothing. He also seems to get away with it. Another confusing part of Cuellar's actions is when he crashes his car with his friends inside it. We get a glimpse of Cuellar in a daze after the crash and the next scene jumps to him sitting in a bar alone with his head-shaved due to a head injury which of course is from the car accident. We never find out if the friends survived the accident or not. Thinking about that now, I'm pretty sure those scenes with Cuellar 'murdering' were just randomly inserted for shock value. Perhaps even the car accident scene as well.
Los Cachorros was definitely very depressing to watch and quite interesting despite the 'inserted shock scenes' (egh). I been wanting to see a new coming of age movie for a while and Los Cachorros definitely whet my appetite for that.
Worth watching, but just remember, this one will really make you feel really down. Try not watching it on a bad day. 5/10.