This
deceptively simple, black and white charmer follows two 14-year-old boys as
they spend a Sunday afternoon in a modest apartment, playing video games,
ordering pizza, and revealing something about themselves in the process.
This deceptively simple little
charmer follows two 14-year-old Mexican boys as they spend a Sunday afternoon
in a modest apartment. The poster for the movie (a feature debut for director
Fernando Eimbcke) announces it as “presented by” one of its producers Alfonso
Cuarón, who directed the most recent Harry Potter movie as well as Y Tu Mamá
También. This didn’t blow me away like Y Tu Mamá También, but it
similarly takes a basic story about two pals hanging out and slowly fills in
little pieces of the characters’ lives and how their relationship to each other
is likely to change. There’s also the older woman, in this case the 16-year-old
next door. This movie probably isn’t everyone’s cup of tequila, and not just
because it’s in black and white. Eimbcke favors long takes with a static
camera, somewhat reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise, Broken
Flowers). The most overtly dramatic events in the movie are whether the
pizza man will make it in under 30 minutes, and who will win the big video
soccer match. (Both of those end up being the subject of major debate and major
plot points.) But I really like a movie that can take a slice of life, use it
to tell something beyond the immediate scope of the story, and make us care
about ordinary people.
posted 9/5/13
No comments:
Post a Comment