Trying to avoid stepping on toes while talking about eating disorders is like trying to avoid lame jokes and flying watermelon at a Gallagher performance, but we will try our best, as it is a subject that is close to our hearts. Basically, the consumption of food is an inescapable facet of life; there are those to whom the act gives not even the slightest pause, but for some people it consumes every moment of conscious thought, whether it be avoiding caloric intake or hoarding it. Members of the latter group, three women to be exact, are the focus of the dark and whispery Malos Hábitos (Bad Habits), the feature film debut of Mexican director Simón Bross, which is screening tonight at the Alamo South Lamar as part of Cine Las Americas.

Beginning at a dinner table during the holy time of Lent (after a short flash-forward scene with a habit-clad nun) we meet Matilde (Ximena Ayala), our first character. When her father begins to choke on what we presume to be a fish bone from their traditional Friday pescado feast, Matilde, the good catholic that she is, begins to recite the Lord's prayer. One her father's airway is clear again, she feels that it was the act of her putting down her fork and praying that miraculously saved his life. After finishing medical school as her parents desired, Matilde joins a convent to bring healing to the people through prayer, rather than through medicine, and believe that her prayers are only answered when she denies herself food.

Introduced at that same Lenten dinner table are architect Gustavo (Marco Antonio Treviño) and his soon-to-be-wife Elena (Elena de Haro), a woman whose rail thin frame and anal retentive control issues later on in the film only work to exaggerate the perceived plumpness of her completely healthy daughter, Linda (Elisa Vicedo) (which me must point out means "Pretty" in Spanish). Elena, who consumes cigarettes and apple slivers for sustenance is disgusted by her daughters fuller form and puts her through multiple demeaning and pointless weight loss programs, desperately validating her own self worth and beauty by constantly reminding Linda that "no one likes fat people." Never mind the fact that Gustavo finds her to be undesirable in bed because her bones jab into his fleshy skin and chooses to enter into an affair with a more shapely university student.

Bross expertly weaves in and out of each of these stories, allowing us to simmer in the suffering of these women as they self destruct, each basing their actions on false assumptions of how the world supposedly works. Lingering on shots just a little longer than we would like, he leaves us alone in the silence of darkness as we yearn for comforting words that will make the pain subside, or at least distract us from the claustrophobia of it all. We are left alone with these women in their darkest moments, and are therefore forced to face our own feelings toward food. Bross knows firsthand what anorexia can do to a woman, as he watched his grandmother suffer from it for years, even though the word "anorexia" was never used. Most likely she thought that she had to live up to some predefined standard of beauty, and the only way to stay above the waters of public disdain was to remain as light as possible.

Eating for all of us is an issue of control. We are not like dogs who cannot discern when we are full, so the choice to eat or not is based entirely on our acceptance and admission that we need fuel to survive. However, the knowledge that food can bring us both pleasure and pain allows us to use the act of consumption as a tool to control other aspects of our lives. It becomes a reward and a punishment, a blessing and a curse. In the end, all three of the women must suffer the consequences of their actions and their unhealthy attitude towards eating, or their "bad habits" as it were.

If for nothing else, you should see this film for the sheer fact that it even exists. After going to Film school in Italy, Bross returned to Mexico and found that the type of movies that were being made were not to his liking. He chose instead to make a life as an ad man, creating commercials for such brands as Volkswagen and Jose Cuervo. When he was diagnosed with cancer seven years ago, he made a list of things that he wanted to do before he died, one of which was to make a movie, and the product of that list is Bad Habits. He has fully recovered (minus a kidney) and now has quietly brilliant film that has shown at Cannes, CineVegas and been invited to screen at over 30 other film festivals.