Manuel Betancourt “Son of Monarchs” has a lot on its mind. When Mendel (Tenoch Huerta), a biology grad student living in New York City, returns to his home town in Mexico to pay his respects to his late grandmother, old wounds he’d kept at bay resurface.
Yet Mendel’s story becomes but a way for writer-director Alexis Gambis to map out an urgent plea about the effects of climate change, among many other timely concerns.
As if wanting to give us a key to decipher his often clipped and dreamlike sensibility, Gambis offers us plenty of didactic moments throughout.
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