Rudo y Cursi

Two brothers (Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna) follow a smooth-talking sports agent (Guillermo Francella) from their rural village to Mexico City, where they rise to pro soccer stardom, earning the nicknames Rudo (“harsh”) and Cursi (“showoff”). But celebrity goes to their heads in a flurry of drugs, gambling and shallow women. Writer-director Carlos Cuarón reunites with the stars of his Y Tu Mamá También, with fair-to-middling results. Performances are unpretentious and sympathetic (especially Bernal and Luna) and often disarmingly comic (especially Francella), but we’ve seen it all before, albeit seldom in Spanish or with such exotically stark Mexican locations. Cuarón gets credit for a gentle touch and a brisk pace, but the gain-the-world-and-lose-you-soul moralizing is a bit too pat and predictable.