Sin Nombre (2009)

This Sundance prizewinner is a journalistic saga of immigration directed with a thriller's physicality by Cary Joji Fukunaga. Casper 
(Flores) has long been a member of the Mara, a cutthroat cult of Mexican youths who wear so many scary tattoos, they're like the Maori of the barrio. He ends up on the run, joining a group of immigrants who are traveling, literally, atop a train while seeking passage into the U.S. They include Sayra 
(Gaitan), a Honduran teenager who's the film's clear-eyed, one-note heroine. Whenever Sin Nombre turns violent, it seizes you with its convulsive skill, but the film's images 
 vastly outstrip its imagination. B–

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