EIFF 2012 Reviews: A Band of Rogues

A Band of Rogues

Guest blogger Savithri Machiraju takes a quick look at the film A Band of Rogues which played at the Edmonton International Film Festival.

A Band of Rogues
By Savithri Machiraju

My main interest in the film was due to the fact that the synopsis said it was the story of a band that gets stuck in Argentina, and their adventures there.

The synopsis further mentioned that each adventure corresponds to one of the 11 songs on the album, so I was curious to see how they used the songs. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the music as, at first, I didn’t think there were 11 songs, but even more worrisome was that the songs didn’t add anything more to understanding the situation, so they felt unnecessary.

There were distinctions between the four main (male) characters, but these emerged only very slowly, so that for the first hour or so, I could hardly tell the three Americans apart. Also I find it hard to work up any sympathy for such self-destructive characters; ones who keep on doing the same stupid things that got them into trouble in the first place. It may be that way in life, but why make a film to show that?

The film was a nice travelogue of Argentina, but the scenery was slightly generic, and not really integrated into the story, so I didn’t see the point of setting the film in Argentina

Overall this is the kind of film that makes me wonder why the makers bothered to make it.  They’ve gone to a lot of trouble and expense (it was all shot in Argentina), but I had to ask myself, to what end? The story is a standard one of drifters/losers drifting and acting in self-destructive ways, falling in with another of their kind, and eventually “finding” themselves.  Further, throughout the film there were so many logical loopholes that I’m sure I wasn’t meant to notice, but to just “go with the flow.” 

That said, at the end I felt that this is a good example of how good cinematography, good acting, and an interesting locale can all be used to make up for the deficiencies of the script. Ultimately the film didn’t quite succeed with me.

Posted by: yegfilm on Sun, Sep 30, 2012