Gets Good Light

By: Dana Jacoviello

Gets Good Light by Alejandra Parody is very pertinent to our world today. It’s a story of family hiding from immigration and being deported. The father struggles with trying to keep his family safe from ICE while also maintaining a job, a roof over their head, food on the table, staying on a straight course and not getting caught. This film brings together a plethora of emotions on the subject we face today of whether innocent people just trying to make a life in America should be sent back to the danger of where they come from while breaking up a family, isolating the children and the children feeling abandoned by their parents. It raises anger and the question, what would you do if you were put in that same situation before you decide on whether you believe this is right or wrong?

Gets Good Light brings you on a tame roller coaster ride with Elena (Jessica Pimentel) Manny (Cedric Leiba Jr.), and Andrell (Edmond Cofie). Andrell is ambitious and hardworking. He is also trying to help his coworker escape a sarcastic, rough and smug ICE agent named Officer Kaminsky (Catherine Curtin). This film is not an action-packed horrific series of events that one might think of based on the subject matter. Rather, it has a calming presence as we follow Manny’s daily routine of working and going back to hide in a luxury condo, which Addrell happens to be trying to sell to wealthy buyers. The condo, that is during the day staged as an open house, is the only refuge this family has. 

You want to see Manny succeed, but at the same time there is another matter of Manny’s past drinking habit – something that his wife confronts him on when she sees he has been imbibing. Having a DUI and not being a citizen is a complete dismissal out of America and being sent back to his country. Andrell manages protects him that night and enlists the help of another friend. But how long can this last before they eventually catch him? This is a sad reality that so many in this country fight to stop from happening to innocent families trying to build a safe life. 

For these scenes it was essential for director Parody to get a feeling or emotion across to the audience to truly evoke these kinds of experiences. It matters in this film and I believe it was shot in a way that was successful to understand the characters and what they are going through. This film leaves you feeling a number of emotions – isolated, angry, lost, confused, scared and rooting for them to be safe through every arena of how this was filmed. It has a very dark and gloomy feel to it, as it should, based on the storyline.

One standout scene is when reality hits as ICE agents attempt to hunt Manny down at his job. As the ICE agents attempt to track him down and question Andrell, we see Manny hiding out in a freezing refrigerator. That is when you really feel the actual fear that Manny has as he struggles to focus on the washed-out voices outside the door, where at any minute, they could fling open and he will be taken into custody. You get a close up shot of Manny to where you can hear his breathing and almost feel what the character is feeling, something the shot and angle do well at conveying.  

The topic alone should make one want to watch Gets Good Light. It is a story that raises awareness and that matters. It might not end in any specific triumph, but it does satisfy compelling story telling. Everybody should watch this movie in order to get a glimpse into the reality of how these families and children must live in order to survive and keep themselves out of danger. People come to America for opportunity and this will show what little chance they get and the way they must try to survive.