''Midnight Family'' is a 2019 Mexican-American

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

written and directed by Luke Lorentzen. It focuses on Ochoa family who run a private ambulance business. It is produced by Kellen Quinn under the banner of Hedgehog Films, and No Ficción. It stars Fer Ochoa, Josue Ochoa, and Juan Ochoa.

Synopsis

The Ochoas are a family of paramedics who own a private ambulance in Mexico City. Mainly set at night, we watch as the Ochoas monitor emergency calls and race other private ambulances to accidents in hopes of making enough money to sustain their business and family. A series of vignettes shows the family interacting with one another, patients, hospitals, and the police. Among their patients are a young woman assaulted by her boyfriend, the child of an addict, a mother and son in a car accident, and a young woman who suffered a fall. At the end of each ride, the Ochoas must demand payment from their patient or their families. The scenes build upon one another to tell a subtle story of the risks, rewards, and heartbreak of running the service.

Cast

* Fer Ochoa as himself * Josue Ochoa as himself * Juan Ochoa as himself

Release

Critical response

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "As narratively urgent as it is technically well-crafted, ''Midnight Family'' offers an enthralling and disquieting glimpse of healthcare in modern Mexico."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Carlos Aguilar writing for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' wrote, "Life-or-death incidents unfold before our eyes with intense urgency, yet the filmmaker finds breathing room to intimately profile a group of terribly underpaid heroes". Monica Castillo of ''

TheWrap ''TheWrap'' is an American online news organization that covers the business of entertainment and media. It was founded by journalist Sharon Waxman in 2009 and is based in Los Angeles. The site features original reporting, analysis, and editor ...

'' wrote, "''Midnight Family'' does not shy away from showing the pressures they face from all sides and the constant exhaustion in their line of work, but we also come to understand their sense of loyalty to their patients". Nick Schager writing for ''Variety'' wrote, "''Midnight Family'' illustrates that compensation is rarely in the cards here, as haggling leads to either polite apologies from those unable to pay, or harsher rejections from those simply unwilling to reimburse the paramedics for their trouble".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=tt6010976 2019 films 2019 documentary films Mexican documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about families Documentary films about health care 1091 Media films Spanish-language American films 2010s Spanish-language films 2010s Mexican films 2010s American films Ambulances Healthcare in Mexico Films set in Mexico City