Mar del Plata Film Festival, November 2014. Some notes (II)

Let`s see:

Jauja, Lisandro Alonso, ARG.

• Really good... if you have problems sleeping.
• Could have worked as a series of stills in some art gallery.

DO NOT watch (*)


Gente de Bien, Franco Lolli, Colombia.

• Colombian neorrealism.
• Is about social class, but not about economic warfare.  More about the rights associated with "being part".  Do poor people have the right to educate their sons?
• There is a danger of taking it as a sign that nothing is going to change,that "the poor are like this and always will be".
• It is good that Colombians now can watch this.  Still long stretches of awakening to go.

Watch it (***)


Mr. Kaplan, Alvaro Brechner, Uruguay

• Funny Holocaust-related movie (!!).
• Feel-good (yep, same Holocaust-related movie).
• Filmed as a classic comedy with some hints of 21st Century "digitalism",but just a little.  It is mostly family 1960s comedy territory.

WATCH it (***1/2 or ****,depending on your mood)


Open Windows, Nacho Vigalondo , Spain.

• Vigalondo is a very cool guy (nothing to do with the movie, I just met him, and he is a cool cat).
• Opening-windows-in-a-computer gimmick is gimmicky.  But, that is the point of the movie,sort of.
• Maybe it will be trapped with others into the "found-footage" subgenre.
• Not so good as "Timecrimes" or "Extraterrestrial" IMHO.  Some parts are pulled from Vigalondo`s cool ass.  But he is aware of that, his mind was on the gimmick.  Which is an interesting one.

Watch it (**1/2) (lots of  movies with 3 stars for me in this Festival, maybe I should give 2 to some of them, if I`m feeling harsh).

Don`t kill me Nacho, I still liked it, but you know, twists are not for everybody.