What to Watch Online this Week on Cinema Tropical
Films Premiering This Week:
Virtual Theatrical Release:
IDENTIFYING FEATURES
(Sin señas particulares, Fernanda Valadez, Mexico/Spain, 2020, 95 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Middle-aged Magdalena (Mercedes Hernandez) has lost contact with her son after he took off with a friend from their town of Guanajuato to cross the border into the U.S., hopeful to find work. Desperate to find out what happened to him—and to know whether or not he’s even alive—she embarks on an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous journey to discover the truth. At the same time, a young man named Miguel (David Illescas) has returned to Mexico after being deported from the U.S., and eventually his path converges with Magdalena’s. From this simple but urgent premise, director Fernanda Valadez has crafted a lyrical, suspenseful slow burn, equally constructed of moments of beauty and horror, and which leads to a startling, shattering conclusion. Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Audience and Screenplay Awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
The Contenders 2020 at MoMA:
THE WOLF HOUSE
(La casa lobo, Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León, Chile/Germany, 2018, 75 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
In the spirit of Czech avant-garde master Jan Švankmajer, Cristόbal Leόn and Joaquín Cociña’s painstakingly hand-crafted stop-motion feature is a nightmarish fairy tale inspired by a real-life Nazi commune that existed under Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s rule, from 1973 to 1990. Fashioned as an obscure narrative of capture and control, the film riffs on Alice in Wonderland and the Three Little Pigs, animating the fragile existence of an escaped child attempting to make a home in a sinister cabin in the woods. Following a live-action framing sequence, the filmmakers undermine the integrity of their pointedly artificial human and animal characters and settings with a 65-minute collage of seemingly unedited morphing effects that erase the line between fantasy and horror. An instant classic of surrealistic animation, The Wolf House is visionary in its imaginative breadth and a virtuoso technical accomplishment.
Streaming from Thursday, January 21 to Tuesday, January 26
Daily Recommendation:
SOUTHERN DISTRICT
(Zona Sur, Juan Carlos Valdivia, Bolivia, 2009, 110 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Nestled in the lush valley of La Paz, Bolivia, the upper-class suburb of Zona Sur has sheltered the country’s wealthy elite for many years. Here, in an adobe-tile-roofed castle, a statuesque matriarch reigns over her spoiled progeny and her Indigenous Aymaran butler. But all is not what it seems. As the mother fights with her oversexed son and clashes with her petulant daughter, her six-year-old son rambles the rooftops unnoticed. Decline hangs in the air, and the threat of aristocratic privileges changing hands signifies a new chapter of a prickly and ill-fated class war. Juan Carlos Valdivia’s revolving camera poetically articulates the devolving drama while exposing the bubble of decadence in which the bourgeoisie exist. With the recent reelection of Bolivia’s first Aymaran president, the long-suppressed Indigenous people are rising up to reclaim their homeland, and Valdivia returns to Sundance (Jonah and the Pink Whale—Sundance Film Festival 1996) with a crystal vision of the change taking place in his native country
Daily Recommendation:
MATRIA
(Fernando Llanos, Mexico, 2014, 62 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Winner of the Best Documentary Film at the Morelia Film Festival, the debut feature by Fernando Llanos, tells the story of Antolín Jiménez, who was one of Mexico’s most distinguished charros or horsemen. He fought alongside Pancho Villa, represented the state of Oaxaca in Congress, and was the president of the National Charro Association. In 1942, as rumors spread of a Nazi invasion of Mexico, Jiménez formed and trained a group of 100,000 fighters to repel the attack. Seventy years later, Jimenez’s grandson Llanos brings us the film Matria, tracing the director’s quest to understand more about his mysterious grandfather and the culture of charros in the mid-20th century. Deeply rooted family secrets are unearthed in the process, and what begins as a character profile becomes an entangled story of family lore and a window into the history of modern Mexico.
Daily Recommendation:
THE COLORS OF THE MOUNTAIN
(Los colores de la montaña, Carlos César Arbeláez, Colombia/Panama, 2010, 93 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Young Manuel lives with his hard-working farmer parents in the remote, mountainous region of the Colombian countryside. While the adults in their lives try to avoid both the armed military and the guerrilla rebels fighting each other in the area, Manuel and his friend Julián are obsessed with playing soccer any chance they get. Shortly after his birthday, the new ball Manuel received as a gift gets kicked off to a minefield, and he, Julián and their albino friend Poca Luz will do everything in their power to recover their prized belonging—an essential part of their everyday lives and dreams.
POV Broadcast Premiere:
THE MOLE AGENT
(Maite Alberdi, Chile/USA/Germany/ Spain, 2020, 90 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Sergio is a Chilean spy. Sort of. At least, he is offered the role of one after a casting session organized by Detective Romulo, a private investigator who needs a credible mole to infiltrate a retirement home. Romulo’s client, the concerned daughter of a resident, suspects her mother is being abused and hires him to find out what is really happening. However, Sergio is 83, not 007, and not an easy trainee when it comes to technology and spying techniques. But he is a keen student, looking for ways to distract himself after recently losing his wife. What could be a better distraction than some undercover spy action? While gathering intelligence, Sergio grows close to several residents and realizes that the menacing truth beneath the surface is not what anyone had suspected.
Premieres on PBS on Monday, January 25
Daily Recommendation:
BURNT MONEY
(Plata quemada, Marcelo Piñeyro, Argentina/Spain/Uruguay,, 2000, 125 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Love and betrayal complicate a robbery gone wrong in this offbeat crime thriller shot in Argentina. Angel (Eduardo Noriega) and El Nene (Leonardo Sbaraglia) are a pair of small-time criminals hired to take part in the robbery of an armored truck organized by mobsters Nando (Carlos Roffe) and Fontana (Ricardo Bartis), who working in cahoots with the driver, El Cuervo (Pablo Echarri). Angel and El Nene are also lovers, and when the robbery goes sour and Angel is shot by the police, El Nene is enraged and opens fire on the officers, turning the heist into a bloodbath. Angel and El Nene somehow escape and go into hiding, with El Nene attempting to nurse Angel back to health. As the couple tries to avoid detection in Uruguay, El Cuervo’s moll, Vivi (Dolores Fonzi), tells the police of their whereabouts under threat of torture. Meanwhile, beginning to crack under cabin fever, Angel and El Nene slip into town to visit a carnival, where El Nene’s head is unexpectedly turned by Giselle (Leticia Bredice), sparking murderous jealousy in Angel. Burnt Money was adapted from a novel by Ricardo Piglia, which was inspired by a true story.
Daily Recommendation:
THE GASOLINE THIEVES
(Huachicoleros, Egdar Nito, Mexico/ Spain/UK/USA, 93 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Living with his mother and working as a farmhand in his hometown, fourteen-year-old Lalo (Eduardo Banda) sees buying a smartphone for his high-school crush the only surefire way into her heart. When his mother is forced to use his savings in order to pay for medical bills, Lalo decides to approach the local huachicoleros for help, who quickly enlist his aid in their business of illegally siphoning gas in order to take advantage of the country’s shortage and re-sell on the black market. As Lalo naively becomes more involved with the huachicoleros’ work, an uneasy air of violence begins to overtake the world around him, while investigators narrow their search for those responsible. Depicted in beautifully sun-drenched imagery and grounded in Banda’s remarkable first on-screen performance, director Edgar Nito crafts an intensely resonant and engrossing story of the tightening grip facing both his protagonist and his country with this feature debut.
Daily Recommendation:
CASA GRANDE
(Fellipe Barbosa, Brazil, 2014, 114 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
Set in Rio, Fellipe Barbosa’s long-awaited fiction debut is a clear-eyed, empathetic portrait of a teenager who strives to transcend the limitations of his upper-middle-class family life. Seventeen-year-old Jean (an outstanding Thales Cavalcanti) contends with pressure from parental expectations, university entrance exams, and the surprising discovery of a family financial crisis in this tender, beautifully written coming-of-age story that deftly explores class differences and racism in Brazil today.
Virtual Theatrical Release:
THE WEASELS’ TALE
(El cuento de las comadrejas, Juan José Campanella, Argentina/Spain, 2018, 129 min. In Spanish with English subtitles
From Juan José Campanella, the director of the Oscar Award-winning The Secret in Their Eyes, comes The Weasels’ Tale / El cuento de las comadrejas. a comedic thriller that stars a bumper crop of well-known older Argentine actors. The film is the story of a group of four long-time friends, including a used-to-be-famous actress, her now disabled husband and an actor as well, who she eclipsed, and the sharp-tongued screenwriter and director of her greatest hits. Their coexistence is menaced by a young couple who, feigning to be lost, slowly insinuate themselves into their lives. It’s Sunset Boulevard meets The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, with a Latin twist. Financial gain, seduction, betrayal, and memories run amok are the elements that create the recipe for this delightful game of cat… and weasel.