El Chicano movie review & film summary (2019)

“El Chicano” takes place in a contemporary L.A. that’s steeped in traditional Mexican folklore. It’s about understanding your place within your biological family while also grasping how you’re viewed within a larger cultural community. And it’s at once melodramatic and gritty, beginning as it does with this mysterious stranger hovering over a tombstone at night, his blood mixing with the pouring raindrops that saturate the engraved words “never forgotten” while a police helicopter circles noisily overhead.

Sometimes, the operatic aspirations and tonal extremes clang. It can be too much, when the inherent drama of this story might have been enough. But at the center of it all is the always charismatic Raul Castillo as LAPD Detective Diego Hernandez, whose investigation of a drug cartel massacre forces him to find the truth about his deceased twin brother’s past. Castillo’s performance as a charming yet terrifying husband and father in the dreamy indie drama “We the Animals” was among last year’s highlights. Here, he shows the same ability to juggle various disparate traits, although you’ll wish he had the opportunity to play a more richly developed character.

At the film’s start, we see a flashback to 20 years ago when twins Diego and Pedro are roaming the streets with their best friend, nicknamed Shotgun. They have contrasting role models in the swaggering gang members who rule the neighborhood and the stern police officer (George Lopez, surprisingly good in a rare dramatic role) who constantly keeps an eye on them. In between, they catch a thrilling glimpse of a figure who represents both good and evil at once: the mythical El Chicano, who leaves his ominous, stenciled mark on sawed-off stop signs before exacting his revenge. He’s a bogeyman, we’re told—a “ghetto Grim Reaper.” It’s clear that this enigmatic figure has fascinated Pedro and frightened Diego at their young, impressionable age.

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