Psychological Thriller On Tubi Gives Intense Look Into Mexico City

I started dating the man who would become my husband in 2006, and I immediately introduced him to all my favorite films — True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Pretty Woman (guilty pleasure), G.I. Jane, and more. I’ve been a movie lover my whole life, and I needed to share my passion.

Not such a huge film fan himself, my husband, an immigrant from Mexico, sat me down to watch one movie — Amores Perros. I had never been to Mexico City at the time, but when the credits rolled, I felt like I had.

Amores Perros is a film focused primarily on a teenage boy, Octavio (Garcia Bernal), in love with his brother’s girlfriend, Susana (Vanessa Bauche), and finds himself caught up in the vicious underground world of dogfighting.

His brother, Ramiro (Marco Perez) is abusive toward Susana, but she’s in love with him and they have a child together. They all live together with the boys’ mother (Adriana Barraza) in Mexico City. Meanwhile, Octavio watches on, determined to make Susana love him and to find a way to rescue her and her child from their life of relative poverty in the inner city. 

Amores Perros also tells two other, seemingly disconnected, stories at the same time. We also meet Valeria (Goya Toledo), a beautiful young supermodel moving into a fabulous apartment with her lover, Daniel, a magazine publisher. Valeria has an injured leg and she’s in a wheelchair.

Daniel has recently left his wife to be with Valeria. On the day they move in, Valeria’s dog runs under a floorboard and gets trapped. Valeria becomes inconsolable and can only think of securing her barking dog’s freedom, which causes problems between the new couple. 

The third story in Amores Perros is of a hitman who once worked as a terrorist for guerrilla movements in Mexico. El Chivo (Emilio Echevarria) abandoned his daughter, Maru, many years earlier, when he began his guerrilla work, but now he hopes to connect with her.

As he heads out to complete the latest assassination he’s been hired to carry out, he’s interrupted by a car crash. Then, he discovers his client is the brother of the man he’s supposed to kill. Instead, he ties the two men up, facing each other, with a gun between them, wishing them well as he leaves them alone. 

At the center of Amores Perros is Cofi, a rottweiler who originally belongs to Octavio. When Octavio discovers Cofi can fight, he enters him into the dogfights.

Unfortunately, even though Cofi wins, he is badly injured and Octavio rushes in his car to save him. . 

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Inarritu (of Birdman fame) went on to write and direct what he calls sequels to Amores Perros. 21 Grams and Babel are both filmed in the same way, with intersecting stories that begin disparate. They are, as he and his writing partner call them, the “Trilogy of Death.” Each movie leaves you with more questions than answers, and also reflects heavily on modern societal norms. Start with Amores Perros on Tubi, and you’ll be hungry for the next two without a doubt.