Amores perros (2000)

Directed by

Alejandro González Iñárritu

Genre

drama film, independent film, thriller film, flashback film

Country

Mexico

Runtime

2h 33m

Rated

R

Rating

7.6 of 10 from 2,948 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Three different stories in Mexico City are connected by a single car crash. One story follows a teenage boy involved in dogfighting, another focuses on a model with a serious leg injury, and the third centers on a mysterious hired killer. Dogs appear in each storyline.

grittyrawbleakchaoticemotionally intenseinterwovenurbanvisceral

What happens

Amores perros is a 2000 Mexican psychological drama film produced and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (in his feature directorial debut) and written by Guillermo Arriaga, based on a story by both. Amores perros is the first installment in González Iñárritu's "Trilogy of Death", succeeded by 21 Grams and Babel. It makes use of the multi-narrative hyperlink cinema style and features an ensemble cast of Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo, Álvaro Guerrero, Vanessa Bauche, Jorge Salinas, Adriana Barraza, and Humberto Busto. The film is constructed as a triptych: it contains three distinct stories connected by a car crash in Mexico City. The stories centre on: a teenager in the slums who gets involved in dogfighting; a model who seriously injures her leg; and a mysterious hitman. The stories are linked in various ways, including the presence of dogs in each of them. The title is a pun in Spanish; the word "perros", which literally means "dogs", can also be used to refer to misery, so that it roughly means 'bad loves' with canine connotations. The film was released under its Spanish title in the English-speaking world, although it was sometimes translated as Love's a Bitch in marketing. The soundtrack includes songs by Latin American rock bands including Café Tacuba, Control Machete, and Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas. Amores perros premiered on May 14, 2000 at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and was released in Mexican theaters on June 16, 2000. Amores perros was a Mexican commercial and critical success and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000 and won the Ariel Award for Best Picture from the Mexican Academy of Film. Amores perros has been considered one of the best Mexican films by many. Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve praised Amores perros as one of the best films of the 21st century. In December 2020, Amores perros was remastered by The Criterion Collection. In May 2024, a 4K remaster was screened in the Cannes Classics section at the 78th Cannes Film Festival. Streaming service Mubi subsequently acquired worldwide rights to the film, re-releasing the remaster in Mexican theaters on October 9, 2025, followed by a streaming release on October 25. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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