Borrego Review: Lucy Hale Leads Thoughtless, Messy & Misguided Thriller
Borrego is a film with an identity crisis. Not entirely the film promised in its opening scroll and it ends up never fully grasping the depth of what it is trying to convey. The opening text of the film references the rise of prescription drug usage, overdoses and drug-related deaths in America. It points to fentanyl and ADHD stimulants as being starting points for this upward trend. It also includes a note about how all of this is impacting the lives of people on the border. Borrego, however, doesn't meaningfully engage with its set-up and it would have served the plot better if the opening scroll was not included. Borrego, written and directed by Jesse Harris, is misguided and fails to be thought-provoking or contemplative on the matters it seems to be about.
The film follows Elly (Lucy Hale), a botanist who is out in the desert surveying a plant that is not native to it. From the beginning, we are made aware of the fact that Elly is battling some personal demons. Her job turns into a form of personal exile, but then quickly turns into a nightmare. Elly witnesses a plane crash, and when checking on the occupants of the plane discovers a drug mule, Tomas (Leynar Gomez). Elly is now in for the fight of her life as she and Tomas are hunted by cartel member Guillermo (Jorge A. Jimenez).
Related: 9 Anticipated Movies Coming Out In January 2022
Borregoprimarily deals with, quite honestly, a figment of alarmist ideas. While the border between the United States and Mexico could be a dangerous place (depending on who you are and on what side of the border you reside on), the idea of an innocent bystander witnessing a drug plane crashing and then being caught in a game of life and death plays into the fears of drug trafficking
Read more on screenrant.com
