1991 is about a kid from a poor neighborhood named Daniel who in an effort to be friends with the rich kids starts to lie about where he lives, his upbringing and he also starts ditching his best friend, who is of the same social status as him. The twist here is that the rich kids go on rampages looking for the poor kids to beat them up with metal baseball bats.
From the moment he starts ditching his best friend you can predict the ending of this movie. Not to mention you don't get any kind of resolution by the time the credits roll. No real introspection on social and class relations, what motivates them. It's like the synopsis says, "They don't know why they do it" and the movie doesn't know either.
Also, adults and parents don't exist in this movie. It's like they're conveniently out of the picture because the filmmakers were too lazy to write them into the plot. There are only two instances of parents being mentioned, but they're never on screen.
I know the film had budget issues, but the way they cut corners ultimately hurt the movie. The film is too short, too rushed, too predictable, too underveloped, and horrendously edited. The film feels like it ends half an hour before it's supposed to.
The fact that it took three people to write this one-hour and 10 minute unresolved mess is beyond me. I really want to support Guatemalan cinema, but movies like these make it extremely difficult.
