Smoke permeates Nicotina, Hugo Rodriguez’s middling second film. Of course, with such a weak plot and motley collection of underdeveloped characters, this film can barely hold smoke, much less an audience’s attention.
The movie is set in Mexico City, where the scruffy, bespeckled hacker Lolo, played by Diego Luna of Y Tu Mama Tambi?n fame, employs his technical skills to spy on his neighbor, played by Marta Belaustegui, and her numerous male visitors. Unable to act on his feelings for her, Lolo instead pours his energies into playing her suitors off against each other.
Lolo only interrupts his voyeurism to refill his lighter or hack into Swiss bank accounts in that vague, unrealistic way most computer crime is depicted on screen. The plot centers on the transfer of these account numbers to the Russian mafia in exchange for diamonds. When something goes wrong with the handover, Lolo remains a voyeur, lingering in the shadows watching the shootout and the ensuing chaos.
All of the secondary characters, from the disgruntled pharmacist to the gold-digging hairdresser, seem to be caricatures of themselves. Each character seeks change and profit, but the combination of bad acting and worse writing leaves no subtlety to their actions. The lead Russian-a stereotypical Russian mobster complete with gratuitous facial hair and the requisite leather jacket-is a good example of the sub-standard characters at play.
Nicotina feels like a college film project by a student who watched Pulp Fiction one too many times. Director Hugo Rodriguez’s first film went straight to video 10 years ago, and it’s unclear why he decided to return to directing after having served as a producer on a number of mildly successful projects over the last decade.
Quentin Tarantino’s following among Hispanic directors is both well-documented and well-deserved. Tarantino’s work with Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico), especially the cult favorite From Dusk Till Dawn, created a link among a common generation of filmmakers. Alejandro Gon?zelez I?rritu’s fantastic Amores Perros came in on the cusp of the generation gap and owed a large debt to the interlacing story lines of Pulp Fiction. However, where Amores Perros succeeded by creating characters with a depth beyond anything Tarantino has achieved, Nicotina just blatantly rips off the ideas of these movies, taking style over substance.
Still, the film can not even capture the substance. While Mexico City glimmers at night, the cinematography captures none of the magic of the giant metropolis. Nicotina lacks almost any sense of connection to its setting-a few jokes about governmental corruption is as close as the film comes to identifying itself as Mexican. The film was shot on digital video, which gives it an air of being one step above a home video. The shots tend to be fast and tight, not letting the audience see anything outside of the action at hand. A recurring theme of rectangular boxes meant to focus attention on particular elements in a shot comes off as a rookie mistake or an homage to Uma Thurman’s “Don’t be a square” comment from Pulp Fiction. Either way, it should have been discarded somewhere in the editing process.
It seems sadly appropriate that the credits for the film roll over a song by Colombian trip-hoppers Aterciopledados. Trip-hop is a deeply western genre, and though Aterciopledos capture the spirit of the music well, there is still a clear debt. Nicotina has this same feel of a Latin American product that owes far too much to the American original. Unfortunately, Nicotina can barely even cover the basics, much less match the complex emotional and psychological aspects of its forebearers.
