‘New Order' Makes the Case Against Violent Social Movements [TIFF Review]

Mexican director Michel Franco’s “New Order,” a dystopian shocker that resonates in these deeply troubling times, is not just his most grueling movie to date, and that’s already a feat in itself, but also his best and most accomplished work. If you were already not a fan of the guy’s work, then this won’t necessarily convert you, but regardless, it’ll convince you of his technical talents as a director.

This, his sixth feature as writer-director, is as coldly calculated as a Haneke, an assault on our psychological senses, with at least half a dozen moments that will make you jump out of your seat. The civil unrest tackled in the film feels pertinently relevant to today’s world — all this, despite it having been shot many months before the BLM protests/riots currently occurring nationwide. If anything, “New Order” can be seen as a depiction of what could happen if such a movement resulted in a attaining its ultimate goal: power.

Set in a Mexico City where violent protests from the poor, mostly native/indigenous rebels have reached a fever pitch, Franco’s initial gaze is set on a luxurious home, where a wealthy white family is throwing a private wedding ceremony. These festivities are being held within heavily secured and walled confines. Marianne (Naian González Norvind), daughter of a wealthy businessman, has just been married, and despite rabid protests happening just a few miles away, the joyous nature of the event is a clearcut example of the disparity and uncaring nature of the rich towards social justice causes.

Franco isn’t hesitant in telling us that this family is very much ingrained in “old money” and part of the 1%, but they also couldn’t care less about the vehement violence and social issues raging on outside. It’s only when demonstrators show up at the door that these “elites” get the rude wakeup call. Senseless acts of violence follow, and guests are shot and killed, robbed, beaten to a near-pulp. Franco uses sound effects to fill our imagination with images of the horrors happening in the background, he refuses to show the acts of violence, only hinting at them.

As the rich are being killed and/or kidnapped as prisoners all around the city, Marianne, on her way to helping pay for the operation of a former helper’s dying wife, is abducted by the revolutionaries and taken captive in a prison where she is raped and held up for ransom. It’s here that Franco’s vision starts to feel a little shakier — the film’s second half descends into the kind of perverse human depravity that lacks any sort of subtlety.

The resulting effect is a bleak state of the union address by Franco, who sees social unrest and the aims of anti-establishment movements as more than just about positive change or smooth democratic transitions of power. He sees them as Marxist manifestos. Is he implying that capitalism, for all its flaws, is still the best system we have to go by? This kind of message will certainly irk many to no end. The protestors in “New Order” are filled with rage and youthful anarchy but without a contingent plan to manage the nation peacefully. They want the rich purged, abused, and ruined.