While many films and tv shows fall under the category of “art for art’s sake” and are meant to be escapes or simply entertainment, plenty of cinematic pieces in recent years have been tackling some more important themes, especially in the horror genre.
These senior citizens live in a run-down neighborhood with a diverse community of mostly lower-class people. They all look out for each other, especially the leading lady – Lupita (Adriana Barraza) – who will fight tooth and nail to keep her community alive. But the changes that happen in the movie show the impact of gentrification and greed on communities, as well as its members.
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Gentrification Leaves the Community No Choice
Audiences grow attached to Lupita and her friends as we watch them struggle in their poor community, all trying to make ends meet for their businesses and homes. Lupita and her best friend Dolores (L. Scott Caldwell) run the local bingo hall, where they raise money to go to the winners and help their fellow members of the community. There’s a lot of love for this small neighborhood coming from these older folks, and they’ll do anything they can to keep on going. But soon, the community begins to lose its shine.
Younger generations and “hipsters” move in, along with many big businesses and chains that shove the locals out of their space. As these companies try to “better” the neighborhood, they leave the locals no choice but to sell their own businesses just to stay alive since they can’t compete with the new groups moving in.
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Along with these new businesses comes Mr. Big’s Bingo Hall, where Mr. Big (played by Richard Brake) is somehow able to offer winners thousands of dollars each night. As he asks the players what they’re looking for in life and why they want to win, he refers to them as “desperate souls,” immediately showing how the wealthy Mr. Big looks down on this lower-class neighborhood and its residents.
During the film, we learn that Mr. Big doesn’t care about these people, and each winner at his bingo hall becomes his next victim whose selfishness he feeds off.
Greed Is Always a Downfall
While money can’t buy happiness, it can certainly help buy stability and necessities, which is all this community wants. They don’t want to worry about their rent being due or, in Dolores’ case, her grandson having to break into people’s cars to steal and make a quick buck. Everyone in the community is desperate for a new life, but when they get too greedy and too selfish, they fall into Mr. Big’s grasp.
The characters we see fall victim to are always elated with joy and pride, practically high on the fact they’ve won thousands of dollars. As they try to get out of town or bask in their newfound success, they fall into a giddy daze. They begin to hallucinate things that aren’t there. Their greed takes control, and they inadvertently get themselves killed and feed into the wills of Mr. Big. Their greed blinds them to the surrounding truth, the truth that they had been living up until the moment they took the suitcase full of money.
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But it’s not all their fault. Their feelings are influenced by the sudden gentrification of their neighborhood and the need to uproot and start over because there’s nothing left for them. Mr Big makes them want to win his cursed bingo game and even lights the playing room with deep green colours – a colour often associated with greed and wealth. The poor people of this neighborhood are pressured into their decisions, and it takes Lupita and her friends working together to save them all from Mr Big and save what remains of their beloved community.
As they fight him and destroy the bingo hall, they smash his container of money and set it ablaze; as the money dies, so does Mr. Big. This reinforces that these new businesses were all about money and greed, not benefiting the community.
