My heart sank a little when Alonso Ruiz Palacios, the director of Güeros, showed up onscreen halfway through this movie, asking the actors what they think of the screenplay. Oh, boy—that breaking-the-fourth-wall gag is the kind of thing you’re supposed to get out of your system in film school. In retrospect, though, the intrusion actually kind of works for this loosey-goosey Mexican film. Güeros begins with a prank—undersized teen Tomás (Sebastián Aguirre) drops a water balloon on a neighbor—and the film that follows is full of tricks. It’s shot in black-and-white and an antique aspect ratio (boxy rather than widescreen), it’s full of storytelling threads that never pay off, and its characters idolize a musician whose music we can’t hear—the movie goes silent whenever they listen to a cassette tape.