El Norte

I was sort of not looking forward to today's movie, just based on the simple fact that it's really long - 2. 5 hours. I kept putting off watching it and didn't start it until it was late, but the movie was so good that I was totally interested and engaged the whole time. Seriously, it was good enough that it's currently 3am and I still want to be awake and writing about it, because I'm too excited about it to go to bed like a rational person and just post in the morning.

Today I watched El Norte, directed by Gregory Nava in 1983. I never really heard of the film before, and was mostly just displeased by anything I read about it online before I watched it. The word "epic" was thrown around, both to describe the plot and the length. Tired from work and with some sort of repetitive strain injury from hole punching over 500 little hang tags, I really wasn't in the mood for anything long in story or in actual running time. I was so shocked by how unexpectedly awesome the movie ended up being! I started it so late that I sort of assumed I'd be too tired to really care about it, but I got so into it as soon as I started watching. I felt so awake and focused on the plot - it was so great!