What to Stream On Cinema Tropical This Week
The 2021 edition of the Sundance Film Festival is in full swing, taking place through Wednesday February 3. And this year, take advantage of the opportunity to skip the crowds in Park City and ‘attend’ virtually! You can still catch Users, the newest documentary film by Mexican director Natalia Almada, and The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet by Argentine director Ana Katz.
Tomorrow Tuesday, be sure to join us for a special conversation with Paula Hernández, director of Argentina’s Oscar submission The Sleepwalkers,
moderated by filmmaker Julia Solomonoff. This special TropiChat will be streamed live on Cinema Tropical’s Facebook.
Special Events:
TropiChat: Paula Hernández on THE SLEEPWALKERS
Join us for a special conversation with director Paula Hernández, director of The Sleepwalkers / Los sonámbulos, Argentina’s official candidate for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, moderated by filmmaker Julia Solomonoff (Nobody’s Watching).
A poignant and engaging drama about a family in crisis framed by the fraught relationship between a mother and her daughter, The Sleepwalkers boasts a terrific cast featuring Érica Rivas (Wild Tales), Luis Ziembrowski (The Boss, Anatomy of a Crime), Daniel Hendler (The Moneychanger), and the fantastic newcomer Ornella D’Elía—who was nominated for Breakthrough Actress in both of Argentina’s main film awards, the Silver Condor and Sur awards.
Tuesday, February 2, 7pm EST on Facebook Live
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.
Daily Recommendation:
MATEO
(María Gamboa, Colombia/France, 2014, 86 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Mateo, 16, collects extortion money on behalf of his uncle and uses his pay to help out his mother, who grudgingly accepts the ill-gotten money out of need. They live by themselves in the poor, violent neighborhoods alongside the Magdalena River valley in Colombia. To prove his worth, Mateo agrees to infiltrate a local theatre group in order to uncover its members’ political activities. As he becomes enthralled with the free-flowing creative lifestyle of the troupe, his uncle escalates demands on him to produce incriminating information on the actors. Under pressure, Mateo must make difficult choices.
Daily Recommendation:
LOVE FOR SALE
(O Céu de Suely, Karim Aïnouz, Brazil/France/Germany, 2006, 90 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
In this follow-up to his internationally successful debut feature Madame Satã, Karim Aïnouz creates a very different portrait of an indomitable survivor. Returning to her hometown 7 in poor northeastern Brazil, Hermila (Hermila Guedes) awaits the arrival of her boyfriend, though her spunk and zest for life take on an increasingly desperate edge when it becomes clear that he will not be coming. Guedes’ major achievement is making Hermila likeable even in her most desperately miscalculated actions of despair. Breathtaking camerawork by veteran cinematographer Walter Carvalho captures not only the soulful decency of the townspeople but makes the empty landscape and rich colors an integral part of their characterization.
Daily Recommendation:
MAMACHAS DEL RING
(Betty M. Park, USA/Bolivia, 2009, 75 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Set in the heights of the Bolivian Andes, Mamachas del Ring is the story of Carmen Rosa the Champion, a cholita and wrestler who struggles to make it on her own in the male-dominated world of Bolivian professional wrestling. In 2004, Carmen Rosa was at the forefront of a cholita wrestler revolution. Never before had Bolivia seen an indigenous woman take her petticoats and bowler hat into the ring, and the crowds couldn’t get enough. Along with three other cholitas, Carmen became an international star, and all four were anointed the Mamachas of the Ring.
Films Available to Stream Now:
Sundance Film Festival 2021: USERS and THE DOG WHO WOULDN’T BE QUIET
USERS
(Natalia Almada, USA/Mexico, 2021, 81 min. In English)
Is technology how humanity expresses itself, or is it harmful to humanity? That’s one of the questions director Natalia Almada (The General) explores in this visual essay about the intended and unintended consequences of our tech-dominated world.
Tuesday, February 2, 10am (available for 24 hours)
THE DOG WHO WOULDN’T BE QUIET
(El perro que no calla, Ana Katz, Argentina, 2020, 73 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Sebastian, a man in his thirties, works a series of temporary jobs and he embraces love at every opportunity. He transforms, through a series of short encounters, as the world flirts with possible apocalypse.
Tuesday, February 2, 10am (available for 24 hours)
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.
Watch Now
Daily Recommendation:
TIME TO DIE
(Tiempo de morir, Arturo Ripstein, Mexico, 1966, 89 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Fresh from serving eighteen years in jail for shooting a man in self-defense, Juan Sayago (Jorge Martinez de Hoyos, The Magnificent Seven) comes back to his hometown to start life anew and reunite with old flame Mariana (Marga Lopez, Buñuel’s Nazarín). But the two sons of the man he killed, consumed by an overwhelming thirst for revenge, have been anxiously awaiting his return. From an original story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude), and featuring dialogue by Mexican novelist/essayist Carlos Fuentes (The Death of Artemio Cruz, The Old Gringo), this stunning directorial debut by a then-21-year-old Arturo Ripstein provides insight into the genius who would go on to create Deep Crimson and Hell Without Limits.
Daily Recommendation:
JAUJA
(Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/ Denmark/France/Mexico/USA/ Germany/Brazil, 2014, 108 min. In Spanish and Danish with English subtitles)
A work of tremendous beauty and a source of continual surprise, Alonso’s first film since 2008’s Liverpool is also his first period piece (set during the Argentinian army’s Conquest of the Desert in the 1870s), his first film with international stars (led by Viggo Mortensen), and his first screenplay with a co-writer (poet and novelist Fabián Casas). But the emphasis, as in all his work, is on bodies in landscapes. Danish military engineer Gunnar Dinesen (Mortensen, in a Technicolor-bright cavalry uniform) traverses a visually stunning variety of Patagonian shrub, rock, grass, and desert on horseback and on foot in search of his teenage daughter (Viilbjørk Agger Malling), who has eloped with a new love. Alonso’s style reaches new heights of sensory attentiveness and physicality, driving the action toward a thrilling conclusion that transcends the limits of cinematic time and space.
Daily Recommendation: SILENCE IS A FALLING BODY
(El silencio es un cuerpo que cae, Agustina Comedi, Argentina, 2017, 75 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Agustina Comedi weaves together a complex and moving portrait of her late father Jaime, constructed from more than 100 hours of videotape he recorded as a hobby prior to his untimely death. It seemed as though he recorded everything, although he left only small clues as to the man he was before marrying her mother and the secrets he kept with him. Interviews with those who knew him reveal fragments of a youth filled with political activism, joyful friendships, and sexuality that never fully bloomed in the repressive social climate of 1980’s Argentina. With equal marriage being introduced in the country in 2010, Comedi’s film is at once a love letter to her father, and also profound thank you to those who sacrificed so much for the freedoms of the next generation.