check everywhere [Netflix]

Director: Pityball Ybarra | Script: Adriana Pelusi | Cast: Anna Serradilla (Gabriela), Maurice Ochmann (Fernando), ea | Time to play: 97 minutes | Year: 2023

The road movie is a rewarding genre for depicting colorful encounters, deepening relationships, and bringing people who have drifted closer together. in mexican Everywhere interprets the latter between the brothers Fernando and Gabriela. They haven’t seen each other for fifteen years and they only look into each other’s eyes again when their father dies.

In fact, the two do not have much to say to each other. When Fernando, now a banker in Singapore, manages to be late even for the funeral, Gabriela knows exactly what she’s there for. Nothing. Fernando is forced to spend the night with his sister. But little of their mutual hatred and envy is seen when the duo begin a game of table tennis. Or you should see an intense drama in the annoyance Gabriela feels when her brother calls her Gabo.

During the game it happens that Fernando discovers a map under the table, which they drew together when they were eighteen years old. When they had their whole lives ahead of them and they were close, Fernando and Gabriela planned to cross Mexico on a motorcycle. With the ultimate goal of urinating in the sea in Acapulco. Apparently no obligation is standing in the way of the two of them making the trip after all. In honor of his late father. His annoyances and quirks melt away like snow in the sun, which begs the question: how could it have gone so wrong?

Everywhere die an early death because it’s all pretty soon between brother and sister. So the motorcycle tour has not started yet. Why director Pitybol Ybarra and screenwriter Adriana Peluis fire their guns so fast is not only a huge mystery, but also a huge misstep. This genre rises and falls with tensions that fade with the passage of time and especially with the time we spend together. You have to milk that aspect to the last drop and cultivate it to the bone.

Therefore, Fernando and Gabriela do not have much to discuss with each other. The number of fights between the two can be counted on the fingers of one hand. By far the most emotional element of the story is Fernando’s confession that there is still an unknown relative out there somewhere. The additional crafting of this side quest to track down this person also vanishes like a night candle and mainly serves to ramp up the feel-good content a bit.

Everywhere it is a succession of mostly fortuitous encounters, some woolly and other explosive. However, he doesn’t really want to shoot each other between brother and sister, an aspect that should be a major plot element. It’s hard to reconcile brother and sister literally attacking each other in the graveyard at kickoff with the moods that follow.

This Mexican road movie certainly has charming moments, but these ultimately aren’t in the interaction between the two blood relatives who have to pull the car, uh, the motorcycle. Completely disappointing is how abruptly it ends after almost a hundred minutes. In reality, after the end we have not progressed at all and there is no emotional insight either. This makes this slightly comedic Mexican drama an easy snack to digest, after which you’ll soon be hungry again.

Everywhere can be seen in Netflix.