Set in 2012, ‘Pimpinero: Blood and Oil’ is a crime drama that explores the illegal cross-border smuggling of cheap petrol from Venezuela to Colombia. Three brothers – Moises (Juanes), Ulises (Alberto Guerra) and Juan (Alejandro Speitzer) – find their smuggling operation brought to a halt when they’re pushed out by Don Carmelo (David Noreña). Rather than fight back Moises decides to pursue a new path while Ulises joins his former enemy. Juan encourages his girlfriend Diana (Laura Osma) to help him get his own smuggling operation off the ground, putting himself firmly in Carmelo’s crosshairs.
‘Pimpinero: Blood and Oil’ comes from director Andrés Baiz who more recently had a hit on Netflix with his mini-series ‘Griselda’ starring Sofia Vergara. With this film, Baiz sticks to what he knows and sets the action in Colombia with a family of brothers at the centre. After an intense opening, the film switches down a few gears as it attempts to flesh out each of the brothers. This results in a film that feels a little bit more like vignettes pulled together into a cohesive narrative rather than one film.
Much of the first hour of the film focuses on Juan as he tries to get his own smuggling operation going. We see his relationship with Diana intensify as they join forces, and we begin to understand some of the friction that exists in the family, especially between Juan and Ulises. Alejandro Speitzer as Juan is the strongest actor in the film and his presence on screen is magnetic. He’s blessed with handsome good looks and he has the acting chops to back them up. As Juan he creates a complex character that’s driven by his ambition, regardless of the dangers that brings into his path.
Unfortunately, after that first hour Juan is completely side-lined and the action instead switches to Diana. A tragedy at the mid-point transforms the film from a smuggling drama to a tale of revenge, but it never really finds its feet. Diana is shown to be a strong woman but that aspect of her character is wildly undermined by the events that happen to her. Instead, she ends up being a damsel in distress rather than a woman in control of her own destiny. Her future is shaped by the men around her and as her situation becomes more dire, she’s reliant on the men in her life to do something about it.
Things take a very dark turn in the second hour and that will make for very uncomfortable viewing for a lot of people. Smuggling is replaced with people trafficking, with an emphasis on the sexual exploitation of women, and it’s not easy to watch. It also feels like a totally different film than the first hour. Credit to Laura Osma who gives a stellar performance, but her character is so confused that Osma can only take her so far. Juanes, the popular singer, is drastically under-used and Alberto Guerra as Ulises is an intriguing but under-developed character.
‘Pimpinero: Blood and Oil’ has a lot of ideas but it doesn’t know how to blend them together into one cohesive story. Perhaps the film would have worked betters as an intertwined anthology rather than a film trying to push forward several individual story strands. The first hour is the strongest and the film is at is best when Speitzer is leading the charge. When he’s not on screen, everything feels that bit duller and less engaging.
Cast: Alejandro Speitzer, Laura Osma, Juanes, Alberto Guerra, David Noreña Director: Andrés Baiz Writers: Maria Camila Arias, Andrés Baiz Certificate: 18 Duration: 122 mins Released by: Prime Video Release date: 22nd November 2024
