Highly politically charged little comedy from Spanish master filmmaker Luis Buñuel during his Mexican period through which inside, practically in its entirety, of a streetcar he is capable of showing us the social reality of Mexico during that time.

During its short run time of barely 80 minutes, Buñuel touches upon all the usual motifs in his work, such as religion, political and social commentary, and surrealism (although much less present in this specific movie which reveals a more neorealist nature).

The first element (religion) is especially present early on in the film and by far is the weakest part. Throughout his work, Buñuel has produced much more poignant and incisive looks to religion and Christianity and in this particular film it resembles a simple parody.

When our common citizens and transit workers Caireles (Carlos Navarro) and Tarrajas (Fernando Soto) start their drunken night journey with their beloved streetcar 133 to give it one last ride, they have been notified that it will be soon decommissioned, that the true adventure starts, all the madness ensues, and the film truly starts to shine. In this special odyssey in which Ithaca will be the streetcars’ deposit, they will find themselves involved with a wide array of picturesque characters representative of the whole Mexican society: working class, devote Christians, kids, high class, criminals… This small streetcar becomes, therefore, like a microcosmos of the whole society in which deeper discussions on class and religion will take place in an absurd comic setting and, of course, surrealist at times.

All this is perfectly presented through great performances from all actors, but it is above anyone else the lovely and funny tandem of Navarro and Soto that, thanks to their perfect chemistry, will mostly carry on their shoulders the whole weight of the film fantastically.

In conclusion, although a lesser-known work from Buñuel, the iconic director does not fail in providing us with funny and entertaining movie while also showing us clearly which ones where his worries and inner debates as a human being very successfully. Considering its format and content (even though with a varied charge of surrealism), we could assess that this would be a movie that would work really good with one of his later and most acclaimed works, El Ángel Exterminador (1962). While in the earlier one our reduced stage is a streetcar and the main focus are the humble population, in the later one the stage is a fancy room in a fancy house and the focus is on the higher classes.