''No Man's Land'' is a 2021 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film, directed by

Conor Allyn Conor Allyn is a director, screenwriter, and producer from Dallas, Texas, who is best known for the 2021 film ''No Man's Land''. Biography Allyn graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. where he received his bachelor's degree in h ...

from a screenplay by Jake Allyn and David Barraza. It stars

Frank Grillo Frank Anthony Grillo (born June 8, 1965) is an American actor and martial artist. He played Brock Rumlow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films '' Captain America: The Winter Soldier'' (2014), '' Captain America: Civil War'' (2016), '' Avengers: ...

, Jake Allyn,

George Lopez George Edward Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American comedian and actor. He is known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture. Lopez has rec ...

Andie MacDowell Rosalie Anderson MacDowell (born April 21, 1958) is an American actress and former fashion model. MacDowell's known for her starring film roles in romantic comedies and dramas. MacDowell has modeled for Calvin Klein and has been a spokeswoman ...

, Alex MacNicoll, Jorge A. Jiménez, and Andres Delgado.

Plot

Bill Greer is a Texas rancher living with his two sons, Jackson and Lucas, and his wife, Monica, in a ranch close to the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

where illegal immigrants from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

cross the U.S. Mexican Border. Jackson was prepared to move to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

so he could join the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...

. Illegal immigrants would trespass into the ranch, cutting the fences and freeing the horses and cows. Due to their frequent trespasses, the Greer family is about to lose their ranch despite Jackson's assistance in staying even though he wanted to go to college in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Meanwhile, an illegal Mexican father, Gustavo, a former smuggler, takes his son, Fernando, and his mother to the border and meets Luis, the leader of the smuggling ring transporting illegal immigrants into the country. One night, Bill and Lucas will be on patrol of the ranch until morning, but Gustavo and his family end up on the ranch, where Bill and Lucas confront them at gunpoint just before Jackson comes by to help. A

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

brandished a knife, leading to a scuffle between Bill and Gustavo, trying to defend his son, but when Fernando tries to help his father, Jackson shoots and kills Fernando out of fear for his dad's life. Lucas is shot during the struggle, and Bill forces Gustavo and the rest of the immigrants off his property just before the police arrive. Texas Ranger Ramirez questions Bill and, not wanting to let his son be arrested for shooting an unarmed illegal immigrant, fabricated the story of him shooting the unarmed Fernando. Jackson, feeling guilty and frustrated that he could get arrested, is confronted by Ramirez and is forced to ride his horse across the river and into the Mexican border after being chased by Ramirez. The ranger comes back to inform Bill and Monica to try and convince them to call Jackson to come back to the States. Meanwhile, Jackson rides his horse to a smuggling camp, where he meets Luis, who tries to rob him of his horse before escaping. Gustavo meets Luis after visiting the morgue, and Luis gives him a gun so that Gustavo can find and kill Jackson. As Jackson journeys in the desert, he is picked up by cattle ranchers Hector and his daughter, Maria, and takes him and his horse back to his ranch. While working at Hector's ranch, Jackson bonds with Maria and the other ranchers. During a visit to a bar, Luis finds Jackson at the bar, but he leaves after other attendees threaten him and his gang to leave. The next morning, Jackson calls his father, who tells him that the Texas Rangers will come to extradite him to the States with the Mexician Police, but he hangs up. Jackson leaves his horse under Maria's care before taking a bus to

Guanajuato Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...

. However, Luis follows Jackson on the bus where he is taking. Luis and Gustavo stopped the bus and caught Jackson, but he was distracted by one of the passengers recording the scene on a phone, which allowed Jackson to escape into the forest. Gustavo breaks off with Luis after discovering Jackson is heading to his hometown. Jackson stumbles upon a cabin owned by an elderly couple before being captured by the Mexican police. They and him over to Ramirez, who has come to extradite him. Jackson manages to escape Ramirez before he spots Gustavo attending his son's funeral and heads to the church where the funeral occurs. Jackson expresses his remorse for killing his son, and Gustavo forgives him. Luis appears and has Jackson at gunpoint, but Ramirez arrives and shoots Luis, killing him. Jackson returns to Texas to see his family before Ramirez takes him in.

Cast

as Bill Greer * Jake Allyn as Jackson Greer *

as Ramirez *

as Monica Greer *

Esmeralda Pimentel Esmeralda Pimentel (née Maria Esmeralda Pimentel on September 8, 1989) is a Mexican actress and model. She began her media career in 2009, appearing in commercials and television promotions. After participating in Nuestra Belleza México, whe ...

as Victoria * Alex MacNicoll as Lucas Greer * Jorge A. Jiménez as Gustavo * Andres Delgado as Luis *

Ofelia Medina María Ofelia Medina Torres (born 4 March 1950) is a Mexican actress, singer and screenwriter of Mexican films. She was married to film director Alex Philips Jr. and actor Pedro Armendáriz Jr. Biography She was born in Mérida and has four ...

as Lupe *

Tiaré Scanda Tiaré Scanda (; born Tiaré Scanda Flores on January 6, 1974 in Mexico City, D.F., Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the nor ...

as Maria

Production

In June 2019, Jake Allyn,

, Jorge A. Jiménez,

, and Alex MacNicoll joined the cast of the film, with Allyn directing from a screenplay by Jake Allyn and David Barraza Ibañez.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began in June 2019.

Release

In June 2020,

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...

acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was released on January 22, 2021.

Reception

Review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film a 40% approval rating based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 5.60/10. The website's consensus reads: "Noble yet often monotonous, ''No Man's Land'' proves that the old adage about a road paved with good intentions is just as true for a dusty Western trail." According to

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which sampled 14 critics and calculated a score of 52 out of 100, the film received "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 10449052 2021 films 2021 Western (genre) films 2021 multilingual films American Western (genre) films American multilingual films 2020s English-language films 2020s Spanish-language films IFC Films films Contemporary Western films 2020s American films