Synopsis
Untamed Royals (Príncipes Salvajes) an upcoming 2024 Mexican crime drama film, paints an unrelenting reality of entitled young adults, privilege, and complete sociopathic disintegration. In the words of Humberto Hinojosa Ozcariz, the film’s director, it explores the lavish but soulless Mexico’s upper class emotionally disconnected world, through the indifferent society’s chilling consequences of abundance whine.
The plot focuses on Xavier—an emotionally detached teenager from a wealthy family. In a classic case of feeling ignored, he comes up with a plan to stage a robbery in his house that he would orchestrate himself, that is supposed to be exciting. His close friend Gerardo, a man who is equally caught up in the admiration of wealth and his own insecurity, helps him execute his plan. What was supposed to be a harmless plan, escalates into something far more sinister in an instant.
Among their friends are Mariana and Renata, two young women who happen to occupy the cushioned space of Mexico’s social upper crust. As the small acts of rebellion escalate, the clique joins in amplifying acts of delinquency, including car stealing, burglary, and later kidnapping. They set their eyes on Vicente, a teenage boy, whom they plan to keep captive in an abandoned building as a ransom, sedating him adequately so he won’t resist. What they consider a game turns tragic when Vicente, their captive, ends up overdosing, dying, and their tragic oversight became an unmarked grave that would alleviate their guilt without consequences.
The group continues with no serious repercussions regardless of the escalating severity of their crimes. Their social pedigree, along with parental guidance as lawyers, acts as a shield. While their victim’s families suffer confronts with trauma alongside unshakeable questions, the group remains untouched. The movie ends with an uncomfortable remains of reality when the group is depicted sprawled at the couch blissfully watching television, reeling in laughter and gossip, displaying complete apathy to the irreversible damages caused by their actions.
This last scene reiterates the primary message of Untamed Royals: the detachment from reality experienced by young people sheltered by wealth and society’s failing to reprimand them. The audience now grapples with the harsh reality that, for some, even the bleakest of privileges can be overlooked.
Cast & Crew
The film’s ensemble cast added nuance to the grim narrative through their deep performances.
Main Cast
Juan Pablo Fuentes as Xavier: As the film’s protagonist, Xavier embodies both the group’s self-destructive epicenter and their emotional heart. He is a complex character, wishing to belong but teetering toward complete moral disintegration and is delivered with petrifying accuracy.
Fernando Cattori as Gerardo Larios: Gerardo is Xavier’s partner in crime, whose motivations appear rooted in misplaced loyalty, bewilderment, and an absence of ethics.
Ximena Lamadrid as Mariana: While Mariana is cold and calculating, she is fully complicit in everything the group perpetrates but detached on an emotional level.
Renata Manterola as Renata: Participating in the crimes despite being slightly more reluctant than the others, Renata is compelled by the combination of thrill and fear of being left out.
Alfonso Herrera as Rodrigo Manjarrez: A detective unmasks one of the remaining moral characters in the film. To “unravel” what the group has done, he faces a system that purports to protect the rich.
Supporting Cast
Caraly Sánchez as Paty
Ana Wills as Pilar
Yuriria del Valle as Victoria
Francisco Rubio as Santiago
Claudette Maillé as Angélica
Crew
Director: Humberto Hinojosa Ozcariz
Jack of All Trades: Santiago Mohar Volkow
Producers: Rodrigo Trujillo and Pablo García Gatterer
Cinematography: Marc Bellver
Editor: Sam Baixauli
Music: Rodrigo Dávila
The direction and screenplay are instrumental in rendering the film’s enduring and visceral the impression. Hinojosa Ozcariz builds a taut and compelling narrative that does not revel in violence but rather reveals the apathy that comes with privilege. Santiago Mohar Volkow’s script brings the characters to life with authentic detail, avoiding caricature, and instead leaning into the unsettling ordinariness of their evil.
IMDb Scores & Reviews Evaluation
As for now, Untamed Royals has a rating of 4.6/10 on IMDb and reviews seem to be dissapointing. Some angry watchers have harshly critiqued the film’s bold attempt at tackling class privilege as socially relevant in fiction, to be class stratification criticism, arguing that modern-day Latin America is too complex for a film like this. Alternately, some praise the movie’s lack of balance of character development, lack of emotional resolution, and detachment from viewers.
It has been noted by many critics that the Untamed Royals does deserve praise for its powerful acting and the skillful use of lighting, but that the film does not come without faults, as the overly-apparent intention of the message might undermine the impact. There is so much disinterest, in fact, so much on distance as ready to be taken off, that overcoming Apathy becomes a possible design decision on behalf of the creatives.
Yet, it fails to address some very relevant sociopolitical conversations such as the dangerous considerations offered by the phrase “What happens when the law extends its arm to cradle money?” or “Where does morality go when ever when elite citizens are never compelled to endure effects paybacks the repercussions of their actions?” These statements, and many other conceptual frameworks of inequality are very much alive in these times.
Conclusion
This documentary puts forth the notion that Untamed Royals is certainly not designed for a gentle audience. As a matter of fact, its imposition may be debilitating as it requires moral alignment and provides inadequate or unsatisfactory remedies. In this case, there is ‘untamed’ power which steers a viewer towards does ‘accounting’ at the portrayal of blatant impunity and privilege and confirms justice is seldom blind.
Through the eyes of Xavier and his cohort, the film depicts the unsettling reality where beauty, rich, and the bored serve as sugar-coated wrappers for evil. After committing a series of incalculably unforgivable crimes, their retreat into comfortable life leaves an unforgiven question in the mind of a viewer – isn’t it dangerous if nobody is punished for excessive crime?
Regardless of whether praised for being a sufficient accompaniment of untamed neglect affluence brings or absence of social bonds is toned down when discussed for narrative detachment, Untamed Royals is bound to come across as a contradicting perspective and leave an unsettling imprint. It is simultaneously a story and a warning targeting the harmful impacts unleashed when empathy succumbs to entitlement.
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