TIFF 2024: ‘Pimpinero: Blood and Oil’ Shows That Criminals Have Morals Too

Posted in Festival Coverage, Movies by - September 11, 2024
TIFF 2024: ‘Pimpinero: Blood and Oil’ Shows That Criminals Have Morals Too

The people who know Andrés Baiz know his work in shows and this time, he’s staying in film. Like Narcos, Pimpinero: Blood and Oil has a lot of moving parts, eventually landing on its female protagonist. It’s up to viewers to decide if landing on that protagonist, Diana (Laura Osma) was or wasn’t by design. It seems like it’s about Diana’s boyfriend Juan ‘Juancho’ Estrada (Alejandro Speitzer) and his brothers. Juan, Moises (Juanes), and Ulises (Alberto Guerra) accepts an offer to be part of a smuggling cartel. 

Moises tells Diana that someone told him of Juan’s accidental death during one of the dangerous smuggling runs. This is when the film turns into a realistic version of Mad Max into a one woman investigation. She remembers the route where Juan took her the one time and finds the truck burnt down. 

There are two kinds of people who watch Pimpinero: Blood and Oil – the first being the diehard fans – those fans come for the cast and will love it even before the first frame comes on screen. The second are people like me, where the film grows on them a few hours after watching the film. Within me, the two kinds of viewers intersect and yes, the cast has something to do with it. The first standout is Guerra as Ulises, capturing a downward spiral of someone choosing new money over family. The second is Osma as Diana, playing someone brave and dumb and survives, one tribulation at a time.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
This post was written by
While Paolo Kagaoan is not taking long walks in shrubbed areas, he occasionally watches movies and write about them. His credentials are as follows: he has a double major in English and Art History. This means that, for example, he will gush at the art direction in the Amityville house and will want to live there, which is a terrible idea because that house has ghosts. Follow him @paolokagaoan on Instagram but not while you're working.
My Twitter »
Comments are closed.
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-61364310-1', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview');