Mike Reyes As I Mexican living abroad every time I come back to Mexico I ask myself why there are so many problems in Mexico. At first sight, one might think it is coincidental to random events, lifestyle, economy. This documentary offers one insight of *why* Mexico is in its current situation and the big role politics have played in worsening the situation. This movie is one of the many eye-openers that every Mexican, or anyone interested in Mexico, needs to watch to understand the crisis that Mexico has lived for decades. And also gives a good overview of the government and its presidents (or better called dictators as they are not chosen by the people but it is a make-believe) from the 60s until today.

RainDogJr Olallo Rubio's new documentary (GIMME THE POWER) made me think in another one that I got to see earlier this year: TALIHINA SKY THE STORY OF KINGS OF LEON. The reason: both are films about a rock band (this one is about Molotov, which emerged in Mexico City during the mid-nineties) that doesn't really show us, step by step, the actual story of the band. They both go much more for the CONTEXT in which each band appeared: the Kings of Leon documentary shows their whole family and religious background while this one make us take a look to the political and musical context in Mexico, with the purpose of understand what Molotov represents. To tell the truth, I wanted to see much more about Molotov here. But this isn't really a complaint, actually is even a compliment since I wanted more material of the band just because what we get to see is damn fantastic. We have the usual amount of great anecdotes, quotes, stories behind songs (for instance I didn't know the story of "Frijolero" -one of their best and most famous tunes- and it ended being as great as outrageous), live footage (and parts of some videos too), interviews (we have from musicians to writers saying good and not-so-good things about the band) and those kind of things that any good rock documentary has. As a whole, GIMME THE POWER offers A LOT for those who are not fans of Molotov (it's more about the context, like I said), but just based on the minutes dedicated to their story, their anecdotes and stuff, I think this is still great for non-fans (if anything, it's always really entertaining). I guess is time to say that Molotov was simply my favorite band when I was a kid; before I fully immersed in stuff like the Doors, Led Zeppelin and a Ibanez electric guitar, they rocked my world. And I saw this movie during its opening weekend (a couple of weeks ago) so clearly I still like them a whole lot, despite the fact that they didn't make anything interesting for almost 10 years; for my money, their last worthy material is the "Dance and Dense Denso" album (from 2003) and it was until this documentary that something from them truly attracted me. I had some great memories while seeing this film; for instance, I think is the brother of Micky Huidobro (one of the bassists - yes, this is a band with one guitar and two basses!) who recalls when he saw the huge excitement of some kids at a record store while listening to the forbidden-by-their-parents music by Molotov! This made me remember how, when I was about 10, my -freakin' cool- uncle recorded me a CD with some of their songs and said to me something like "this isn't a CD to play while you're with your mother". It's also worth nothing how later I fully understood why my uncle didn't put a couple of songs on the CD; the songs were "¿Porqué No Te Haces Para Allá?... Al Más Allá!" and "Quitate Que Ma'sturbas (Perra Arrabalera)", a couple of love songs dedicated to a woman (or more than one) who, as we can tell, didn't treat nice a member (or members) of the band. With this I'm going for a couple of points that the film also has: 1) the first thing of the band that attracted me as a kid was their use of some -very- rude language (it was basically like watching SOUTH PARK when I was a kid: obviously I didn't understand everything, but that rude language was absolute fun and NOBODY else was doing that!); in the documentary the controversy due to the explicit lyrics of their first album ("¿Dónde Jugarán las Niñas?") is shown and it is pointed out that the songs (especially "Puto", the most controversial one) came from just the idea of having FUN by saying repeatedly a dirty word. 2) My uncle didn't want me to hear those two love songs because yes, they are quite vulgar for a kid. Sex is shown here as the ultimate thing that frightens people – like the ultimate taboo. So Molotov came out from a country that historically repressed the things that they were doing. Olallo Rubio is quite right when he refers to the different presidents of Mexico as *dictators*; here we get to see the natural clash between the government and the Mexican rock scene from the late sixties and early seventies (people from that scene, like Alex Lora appear here). It also works really well as a resume of the *bloody* history of Mexican presidents after the revolution (with good criticism by people like the writer Juan Villoro). GIMME THE POWER was actually released a month before the still upcoming 2012 Mexican presidential election. And it's like a reminder that right now, with the many protests against the possible next dictator, we are not living anything new. Anyway, Rubio's third film (I have only seen his other documentary -¿Y TÚ CUÁNTO CUESTAS? - which is also quite good) left me hungry for some more Molotov; they actually just released a live album/DVD recorded in Russia, which I might purchase thanks to the incredible footage we get here from some of the shows in that country! Yes, they gained me back. *Watched it on 03 June, 2012