Zorrita: Passion's Avenger (2000)

Ditch the lube and get to the point in the raw, honest, cheeky dramedy written and directed by Mark Schwab.

This MiamisFF Review is on the short film 'Rewind Thirty'. Created and released in the United States, this short film has an unclear message.

The differences in these films could not be more blatant, and yet Gus Van Sant has found a way to portray the same messages and use the same techniques in each.

The Bluff unravels its mystery slowly, opening on the capture of a ship captain named Bodden (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and the swift execution of his entire crew. Then, viewers are treated to a tranquil British settlement in the Cayman Islands in the 1850s, where a mother bakes a coconut birthday cake for her son in a house suspiciously rigged with makeshift tripwires and burglar alarms. As it turns out, that mother is Priyanka Chopra’s quick witted and resourceful ex-pirate Mrs. Ercell Bodden, and her husband’s captors are on the way to the island to hunt her down for abandoning them and stealing their loot. The pirates of the Libertas land on the beaches of Cayman Brac, and the scenes that follow show a Viking-esque slaughter of half the island.

The film, which focuses on an Argentinian family during an intimate birthday dinner, efficiently captures the eccentricities of each character as well as the nuances of their interpersonal dynamics. 

Barry Jenkins' masterpiece holds up as the story of a lifetime centered on the intersection of Blackness and gay identity.