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In New Order, chaos seethes right below society's surface

Mexican film not the easiest to watch, with its violent Hobbesian philosophy

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Watching Mexican writer/director Michel Franco’s New Order, I was reminded more than once of his countryman Alfonso Cuaron’s wistful 2018 drama, Roma. But not in the way you’d think.

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In that movie, set in 1970 Mexico City, most everyone lived in harmony – wealthy mom Sofia, housekeeper Cleo, four kids, pet dogs. There is sometimes violence around them – a student protest is particularly intense – but they get through it all together, as a family.

Not so in New Order, which opens on a ritzy wedding held in a family’s walled estate. Inside the gates, wealthy guests mingle. Outside, there is chaos in the streets, and it’s growing.

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The two worlds intersect when a former employee pays a visit. He needs 200,000 pesos (about $12,000) to pay for emergency surgery for his daughter. Most members of the family seem to want him to just go away. The suggestion is they believe he might be trying to scam them on this happy day.

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But bride Marianne (Naian Gonzalez Norvind) takes pity on the man and his situation, and leaves with another servant (Fernando Cuautle) to see if she can help. This is about the same time that the protestors breach the walls, and any semblance of upstairs-downstairs harmony disappears amid the looting and gunfire. Marianne herself is first rescued by government forces, then kidnapped by a faction of that same group and held for ransom.

Aside from the well-meaning bride, the best way to approach this story is to trust no one and sympathize with nobody. In Franco’s dark and disturbing tale, people are motivated solely by the possibility of social or monetary gain. The rich will do anything to hang on to power. The poor will do anything to wrest it away – and will then act just the same once they have it.

New Order is not an easy film to watch, but it does have a very distinct and trenchant worldview if you’ve got the stomach for it. It echoes the writings of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who described life without order as solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. Check, check, check, check, eighty-five minutes.

New Order opened May 28 in Montreal and is available June 11 on demand.

3.5 stars out of 5

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