Diablo

Released by: Breaking Glass Pictures
Released on: June 4, 2013.
Director: Nicanor Loreti
Cast: Juan Palomino, Sergio Boris, Luis Ziembrowski, Luis Aranosky
Year: 2011
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The Movie:

Directed by Argentinian filmmaker Nicanor Loreti in 2011, Diablo tells the story of a boxer named Marcos Wainsberg, (Juan Palomino), a boxer with Jewish roots whose nickname was 'The Inca From Sinai.' Once upon a time, Marcos was a champion and it looked like he'd have it all until, in the midst of a bout, he killed a man in the ring. Marcos more or less became a hermit after that, hiding from the world content to let his career disappear. Early in the movie his phone rings, the woman who left him after he fell from grace calls and wants to meet with him, to talk things over and see where they stand. Marcos starts to feel that, hey, maybe things are going to turn around.

But they don't. There's a knock at his door and when he opens it he finds not his ex-girlfriend but Hugo (Sergio Boris), his cousin, covered in blood and wreaking of booze. Marcos lets him in, against his better judgment, but Hugo leaves shortly thereafter to go get some beers. While he's out, a pair of toughs shows up and beat the snot of out him. Marcos puts up with this but not for too long, and once he snaps his boxing skills once again prove fatal. From this point on, cops start crawling around, Hugo's friend Cafe (Luis Aranosky) shows up and all sorts of people that Marcos has never met before stick their nose into his business. They all want something, possibly from him, possibly from Hugo, and eventually Marcos finds out that Hugo stashed a human liver in his fridge intended to go to his mobster boss desperately in need of a transplant. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Marco ate it - and now the daughter of Hugo's boss wants the half a million dollars she paid him for it back.

Diablo is a pretty great movie. Yes, it is slightly derivative of certain Hollywood gangster and crime movies and yes, it does occasionally delve into stretches of snappy dialogue that can't help but conjure up moments from Tarantino's filmography but shoving those issues to the side, Loreti has made a ridiculously entertaining slice of low budget indy cinema. What makes this work, probably not so surprisingly, are the characters. Sometimes they're quirky just because they can be but most of the time they're genuinely interesting and Marcos in particular turns out to be a surprisingly likable sort. As he uses his fists to deal with the problems thrust upon him by his cousin, we watch him come out of the funk he fell into and it's an interesting transition. Hugo, on the other hand, may have meant well and hoped to use the money he made off of the situation to do some good, but he's obviously not cut out for this type of work. The relationship between he and Marcos gives the movie an interesting backbone of sorts for the different subplots to spin off of.

Fast paced and plenty violent, the South American locations and cast give the movie something different, and there's enough style here to keep things looking good. The cast are all solid throughout the movie, not really a bad performance in the bunch. Some healthy doses of wicked black humor also help to keep things interesting and Loreti shows enough skill here that it's safe to say he's one to watch out for.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Diablo arrives on DVD in a 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that looks appropriately hot and sweaty. Shot on digital video, the contrast is sometimes cranked way up presumably to make the movie look more intense. As such, color reproduction looks intentionally off through much of the movie. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact it works in the context of the story being told and the type of tone that Loreti seems to have been going after. Otherwise, the transfer is solid. Detail looks good, there are no issues with any dirt or debris and black levels are decent.

The only audio option on the disc is a Spanish language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix (not the 5.1 mix advertised on the case) with forced subtitles provided in English only. A 5.1 track might have been more fun during the more action intensive scenes but as it stands the 2.0 mix is a good one. There's some noticeable presence to the sound effects and the score and a fair bit of depth throughout the movie. Dialogue is well balanced and as you'd expect from a recent movie, there are no problems with hiss or distortion to note.

Extras include a quick four minute behind the scenes featurette presented in Spanish (frustratingly without any subtitles), a trailer for the feature, a still gallery, trailers for some unrelated Breaking Glass Pictures releases, menus and chapter selection.

The Final Word:

If it's a bit light on extras, the DVD presentation of Diablo from Breaking Glass Pictures is otherwise very good. As to the most important part of the package, the movie itself, if this feels a little derivative at times it is at least an energetic tough guy picture with some interesting characters and a decent story. There's a lot here that works, and this turned out to be a pretty solid low budget import, one worth seeking out.