............................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FL Equal parts Tarantinoesque film noir, Greek tragedy plus sociocultural satire, Nicontina makes for a rousingly entertaining 90 minutes. Populated by a rather oddly colorful assortment of characters whose lives, in one way or another, revolve around cigarettes or attempting to curtail their use. Thusly, "Nicotina" is a passive cast member. What really makes this work is the quality of the ensemble performance and the uncanny sense of timing of both director (Argentine Hugo Rodriguez-Producer/The Violin) and editor (Alberto de Toro). Diego Luna (Y Tu Mama Tambien) delivers an Oscar nomination worthy performance as the Uber-creepy obsessive voyeur criminal nerd next door. With a Classic flair noir twist, Lolo(Luna)learns a painful Karmic lesson on the nefarious repercussions of his techno-voyeurism. 8.5*...ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!!!Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome! [email protected]

'Nicotina' is a dark semi-gangster comedy revolving around gangsters (obviously), a computer geek, a corpulent Russian kingpin, two hairdressers and a convenience shop owner among others. The premise is interesting and I liked the premise and the Mexican humour.However, the film starts off slow. The dialogues are a little repetitive but the pace brilliantly picks up after about the first half hour. Rodriguez could have incorporated more style in his execution. The editing could have been tighter but at the same time, some of the characters could have used more development.The comedic situations, which the characters encounter and deal with, work excellently. The irony is well displayed and the film has a darkly whimsical feel to it. I thought a different background score would have worked better, something with a little more energy.Yet, 'Nicotina' remains an enjoyable urban film. Diego Luna, Martha Tenorio, Rafael Inclán and Rosa María Bianchi are very good. At the time, dark urban comedies may have been a trend in Mexican cinema but that does nOt stop 'Nicotina' from being fun.

I'm not very fond of co-productions between different countries, mostly between Spanish-speaking countries; but is something that is done a lot today and I have to accept it. Mexico has a very wide range of film and an important filmography inside of Latin America's countries. But…There's always one but. Lots of soap-operas are done in Mexico too, and there's a lot of television.And as I said, many times television looks like movies, which is good, but also movies look like television; which is absolutely terrible. "Nicotina" starts as silent as a telephonic call; with one line in the screen that represents a person talking, and another one that represents another person, and so it goes. It also has the usual black screen with anything on it, typical of directors that don't take risks.The story follows Lolo, a hacker lost in the lust of her neighbor Andrea's love, who has to enter an account to get money for el Nene, who drives with Tomson, and has to pay a Russian mobster that will sell some much cherished diamonds to him. This leads to shoots and encounters in different places, like Goyo's and his wife Barbershop, or Beto's and his wife Pharmacy.The actors are Marta Belaustegui, Lucas Crespi, Jesús Ochoa, Norman Sotolongo, Rafael Inclán, Rosa María Bianchi, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Carmen Madrid and Diego Luna; and they all accomplish their portrayals very well. The latter one is the cover of the film, or the most known of the actors nowadays. I won't tell his whole story, but I will say that being the reason many people saw the movie, he doesn't deliver.What ensue are multiple talks between all of the characters. Not any talks, but insightful, interesting, metaphoric talks that ultimately seem to lead to the film's title. And the writer, Martin Salinas, is probably the most prepared man of the crew, whose first words for a movie got Norma Aleandro an Oscar nomination. He has written for series, for movies in two languages… This script, however, presents a contradiction. We can't tell if his plot is an excuse to develop these conversations, or even worse, if the conversations are an excuse to fill the incoherent plot. And it's right there, in the plot, where the film has its defined problems. The ending is fantastic indeed, and thought provoking, but we get confused during the road, and we don't feel the time.When Goyo's wife is about to shoot him, the shot changes to another scenario. Strangely and incorrectly, when the camera goes back to the couple's barbershop, the woman is still holding the gun…After five minutes. Is not only Salinas' fault but director Hugo Rodriguez's; because he prefers not to take risks during his second feature.And he can't manage the timing. And it looks like television. And I didn't plan to stay home.

I'd give it a 7.5 if i could, the major problem with this movie is, it is a hell of fun to see the characters slip more and more into their misery... but there is so little room to guess whats happening. You always know whats happening, you are the one that knows just everything, that won't mean the story is predictable but there's just no room for guessing (like in other movies, "f.i. who's the murder ?"). Anway it's a very cool movie, if I had to compare it it's like a thrilling story your grandpa tells you. You're eager to know what's happening next but once you heard it you don't want to hear it again.Good and maybe Great but not Excellent.