A struggling punk band in Mexico City recruits a talented keyboardist with Down syndrome (Paco de la Fuente) and becomes a pop sensation. Writer-director Jesús Magaña Vázquez takes an interesting idea—that ego is the death of art—and ties it to disability, his tender and unconventional treatment of this tricky subject yielding occasionally awkward but mainly inspired results. Frequent and often corny asides to the camera from the female protagonist (Ines de Tavira) needlessly interrupt the otherwise clever material, but the film’s transgressiveness pushes it a step beyond most indie fare. In Spanish with subtitles.
Me and the Alien
1 hour 20 min • 2016