El año de la garrapata (2004)

Director:

Jorge Coira

Writer:

Carlos Portela (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 August 2004 (Spain)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Si no sabes qué hacer con tu vida, lo mejor es no hacer nada. [If you don't know what to do with your life, the best thing is to do nothing]

Plot Keywords:

Handicapped | Parasite | Comic Book | Exam | Pinball Machine

Cast

Félix Gómez	...	Fran
Javier Veiga	...	Morgan
Verónica Sánchez	...	Ana
María Vázquez	...	Patricia
Víctor Clavijo	...	Lito
Camila Bossa	...	Rosa
Mela Casal	...	Madre de Fran
Celso Parada	...	Padre de Fran
Josefina Gómez	...	Abuela de Fran
Rosa Álvarez	...	Amiga [de] Montse
Elina Luaces	...	Madre de Morgan
Manuel Millán	...	Hombre 1
Mariana Carballal	...	Mujer 1
Ernesto Ferro	...	Hombre 2
Marta Pazos	...	Laura

Also Known As:

O ano da carracha (Spain: Galician title)
The Year of the Tick (International: English title)

Runtime:

87 min | Argentina:105 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Certification:

Spain:18 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Lugo, Lugo, Galicia, Spain

Company:

Filmanova

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Fran says that Can't Stop the Music (1980) was released in 1979. In fact, it was first released in 1980.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs The Matrix (1999)

Soundtrack:

BÉSAME

Quite good

Although its premise didn't look too promising, "El año de la garrapata" is quite an entertaining and surprisingly well directed film. Lately teen comedies have been more full of bathroom jokes than of intelligent humor, and that's why my expectations were pretty low. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

Although the film presents an unbelievable and certainly not recommendable lifestyle (be a bloodsucker to your parents as long as you can) it does so in quite an amusing way. The cast is very good too, specially Félix Gomez, María Vázquez and Víctor Clavijo, the three of them extremely promising rising stars. Verónica Sánchez has been better both in cinema ("Al sur de Granada") and TV ("Los Serrano"), but here she looks rather absent-minded. Javier Veiga is a victim of miscasting, and he does as much as he can with his disagreeable character.

The only thing I can say is that I was amused all throughout the film. Maybe it's not high cinema, but it's a more than acceptable summer movie.

Overall rating: 7/10