Imagine the pressure of being an illegal alien with a crappy job and countless other hurdles to overcome. Welcome to the life of Lalo, a New York City Mexican delivery worker who must prove to himself that he can overcome any obstacle. Daniel Maldonado’ excellent short film is presented as a keystone cop-comedy and touches upon many moments of madness that occur to many people around the world.
The film begins when Lalo (Neftali Jurec) is given an ultimatum to get his deliveries done on time. He races out only to have his bicycle demolished. He spies a little girl, Lucy (Abigail Stucker), on her pink bike and takes it. Unfortunately, he picked on the wrong girl, who grabs a kick scooter and gives chase. A Chinese deliveryman (Doua Moua) and a bike messenger (Billy Magnussen) who fancies himself as an Indy 500 God force him on a race to the death—or maybe just plain humiliation. I mean, a big guy on a girl’s pink bike is asking for it.
This mad race is capped by many stereotypes, a mariachi band, a hysterical Haitian nanny, border patrol officers, stop motion animated soldiers, and fortune cookie road spikes.
Daniel Maldonado does great work with the camera and the editing moves the film with excitement. He has done a number of interesting award winning short films including the horror short “Stickers” (2004) and 2006’s “Pacifier”. Maldonado is known for his “edgy” films such as 1998’s “Kings”, which is about the New York Drag-King phenomena.
The “Lalo” soundtrack is embellished with a ripping mariachi song that adds to the tension that it gives to this imaginative social commentary romp. “Lalo” is slated for repeated viewings so you can understand all the social metaphors that swim through the film. They glide in and out so quickly that many people left the theater with different interpretations; a conclusion that I feel Mr. Maldonado was aiming for. The film has won *BEST SHORT FILM at the HBO NY Latino International Film Festival and *BEST SHORT COMEDY at the Downtown Film Festival (SLVR LK FF), Los Angeles.
Maldonado’s website can be found at http://www.gashousefilms.com