The movie is mediocre at best. The motivation of the main characters at the beginning is totally unexplainable. Their family lives a life that is shown as really satisfying for them so what is the boys' drive to take this perilous journey, for which they were warned from the very beginning, is beyond understanding. They just want to come to Europe and become famous "so white people can ask them for autographs". This is laughable as a motivation and should make a normal viewer unsympathetic to their motivation. One gets the feeling that the whole movie is a device just to achieve this - the two actors to become "famous" instead of really telling about the tragedy of those who really need to escape their country for economic or political reasons. Because there are immigrants with a thousand times more relatable and understandable motivations, including from those countries shown in the movie. Then these 16 yrs old kids work something as a side hustle, just laying some bricks, after school and before the family fiesta, unknown to the mother of the first one. And they are able to save something like 1000 USD just from this so they can leave for the journey! A normal viewer cannot help but wonder once again why do they need to leave for Europe if they can win so much money for a couple of hours of work... And then they start the joutney but all the misfortunes that happen to them seem exaggerated and yet they simply overcome them so when the next one comes you just know that it is going to be ok for them. Perhaps the fact that their motivation for undertaking this perilous trip was not explained well in the beginning contributes to the lack of emotional attachment to their troubles as well. At the end the two main characters haven't learned anything, they just think they are heroes. If it wasn't for the theme this movie tries to tackle (quite unsuccessfully), which is very trendy nowadays, it would have never been nominated for an Oscar.
Review of Io Capitano
