Frontera Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

Frontera Blu-ray Movie Review

Good Neighbors and Bad

Reviewed by Michael Reuben November 7, 2014

"Frontera" is the Spanish word for "border", and Frontera is a classic "issue" movie about illegal immigration at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. But first time feature director and co-writer Michael Berry has made a surprisingly good film by avoiding the usual mistake of the "issue" movie, which is to have activist characters acting as mouthpieces for various points of view. On the contrary, the script by Berry and Louis Moulinet III is unusually spare, and most of the dialogue is ordinary. Berry tells the story visually wherever possible, using the expressive New Mexico landscapes and the gifts of an impressive cast led by Ed Harris and Michael Peña to explore the situation from both sides of the border. More importantly, Berry doesn't stack the deck. No side has a monopoly on goodness. Indeed, there's very little of that to go around. Most of the people in Frontera act from baser motives, usually greed, sometimes stupidity, and occasionally pure viciousness.

In Mexico, a young father named Miguel (Peña) leaves his daughter and pregnant wife, Paulina (Eva Longoria, convincingly deglamorized), to begin the trek north on foot. Having done this once before and been caught and deported, Miguel knows both the route and the risks, but he needs to earn money for his growing family. He has the blessing and support of Paulina's parents (Daniel Zacapa and Tenaya Torres), but at the last minute, Miguel's father-in-law saddles him with a traveling companion, the son of the old man's close friend. One look at Jose (Michael Ray Escamilla), and Miguel can see that he's trouble, but he cannot refuse Paulina's father.

Their route north leads across the ranch owned by retired local sheriff Roy McNary (Harris) and his wife, Olivia (Amy Madigan). Miguel and Jose have the good fortune to cross paths with Olivia McNary, who is out riding and gives them water and a blanket. Then they have the bad fortune to walk past a cliff where three teenagers—Sean, Brad and Kevin (Seth Adkins, Evan Adrian and Tony Ford)—are hunkered down with a rifle belonging to the father of one of them. The boys are pumped up with adrenaline at the prospect of scaring a few illegals back across the border. But the hail of rifle fire can be heard for miles, and others come running. In the melee, someone is killed: an American. Roy arrives at the scene just in time to see Miguel fleeing. Jose is long gone, but Miguel stayed behind to try to help the victim.

Because Miguel has a record with Homeland Security, it doesn't take long for Roy to pick out his photograph. Because Jose is foolish and careless, it doesn't take long for him to be arrested driving a stolen vehicle. (Jose's activities once he and Miguel separate allow director Berry to show just why border security is such a legitimate concern among people residing in the region who fear for the safety of their loved ones.) Since only Miguel was observed at the crime scene, the current sheriff, Randall Hunt (Aden Young), charges him alone with first degree murder. He considers the case open and shut, despite Roy's misgivings. Roy distinctly heard a rifle, and there wasn't one at the scene. Nor did he see Miguel carrying a firearm. Despite warnings from Sheriff Hunt to leave the case alone, Roy begins his own investigation.

Back in Mexico, a call from Miguel in prison panics his family and send Paulina scrambling to join her husband. But because she does not have Miguel's knowledge of how to make the trip, Paulina has to pay the family's entire savings to a "coyote" named Ramon (Julio Cedillo), and the harrowing sequence that follows lets Berry explore the vicious world of human traffickers who exploit anyone who wants to travel to America but does not know the way. Crowded into vans, stripped of their possessions, sometimes savagely brutalized, they arrive in the U.S. only to discover that they are captives held for ransom, while the coyotes demand more money from the families they left behind—money that, in the case of Paulina's family (and no doubt many more), her despairing parents simply do not have.

Without explicit comment, Frontera depicts an unworkable situation by displaying the vast emptiness of the shared border between two countries. Controlling it is impossible, especially when there is money to be made. The coyotes' exploitation of the illegals has its analog in the corruption of susceptible U.S. border agents, one of whom is paid by Ramon to look the other way. (When he sees how many people Ramon is bringing across on this particular trip, the agent demands more money.) In this shadow world of illicit commerce, small acts of kindness are just as likely to get one killed as to accomplish something good. Lurking around the edges of the story is a mysterious figure, a rifleman pursuing in deadly earnest the project at which the three boys who borrowed an adult's gun were only playing—except that this gunman isn't wasting any time scaring illegals back home. He's dropping them where they stand. This man's role in the story remains uncertain down to the film's last frame.

Despite their many differences, both Roy and Miguel share a certain reserve and a respect for traditional propriety. (Miguel is appalled at the familiarity displayed by Jose toward Olivia during their encounter.) Playing these characters effectively requires actors who can express feelings on camera without the benefit of words, and both Ed Harris and Michael Peña excel at such performances. Harris is so good that he can show Roy's emotions even in a long shot, as the sheriff-turned-rancher leads a horse through a valley.

Frontera Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

According to IMDb, Frontera was shot on the Arri Alexa, which is consistent with the image on Magnolia Home Video's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray. The cinematographer was Joel Ransom, whose extensive credits include numerous episodes of The X-Files . The Blu-ray image is sharp, clean and detailed, with a vividly colorful reproduction of the New Mexico landscape from its deep blue skies to the browns, greens and ochres of the landscape. The various interiors, including the sheriff's headquarters and the makeshift holding "cell" where the coyotes warehouse their charges, are nondescript but clearly delineated. Blacks are solid, and shadow detail is very good.

With no extras, Magnolia has fit this 103-minute film onto a BD-25 with an average bitrate of 20 Mbps. That would be low for a film production, but it is acceptable for one that was digitally originated and, in any case, Frontera does not have major action sequences.

Frontera Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Frontera's 5.1 soundtrack is encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, but the mix has limited surround activity. Vehicles arrive and depart, gunshots come from multiple directions, and several environments have a distinct presence, but generally the track is dominated by dialogue and the alternately urgent and brooding score by Kenneth Lampl (35 and Ticking and other Russ Parr comedies) and his sometime partner, Darren Tate.

Frontera Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The disc has no extras other than the following, which are standard on Magnolia Blu-rays:

• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment: The disc includes trailers for The Two Faces of January, Frank and Ragnarok, as well as promos for the Chideo web service and AXS TV. These also play at startup, where they can be skipped with the chapter forward button.



• BD-Live: As of this writing, attempting to access BD-Live gave the message "Check back for updates".

Frontera Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Frontera does not make an argument or attempt to prescribe policy. It does what films do best, which is to tell an involving story about specific people, vividly portrayed, whose lives are affected by forces beyond their control. Whether the events of the film illuminate, obfuscate, infuriate or inspire a fresh look will depend on the predilections of the individual viewer, but the performances are excellent and both the film and the Blu-ray are technically superior. Recommended.