Concursante (2007) User Reviews

Leonardo Sbaraglia recital giving a terrific acting in this sour black comedy

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 3 January 2020]

The Contestant is a decent black comedy with a lot of incidents, social critique and awesome interpretations. It deals with a young executive, Leonardo Sbaraglia, an ordinary man who wins a TV contest, being subsequently harassed and deceived by the bank system, as Banks always win. Concerns the fate of the greatest gameshow price in histoy, 6 million euros, and its only winner, who becomes a wealthy man but at the end takes places a strange and surprising deneouement.

A real satire against the modern economy, about the global financial system meltdown with a predating system that devours the people by lying, deceiving, and leading them to despair, ruin and poorness. Adding magnificent interpretations, along with atmospheric and adequate cinematography by David Azcano. As well as a rousing and appropriate musical score by Victor Reyes. A strong actual portrayal full of irony, acid criticism to economical system, cynicism, corruption, and fatalism. It displays a deep critical in capitalist economy system, state robbing by huge taxes, abusive mortgages, hedge funds, excessive credits, loans and the predatory banks. A sour story of a man against the banks, daring the dark economic order, being masterfully played by Leonardo Sbaraglia. Argentina actor Leonardo, though a young player , has a long career from the Eighties, playing in both, Argentina and Spain, including films as Plata Quemada, Caballos salvajes, El corredor nocturno, Relatos salvajes, Carmen, Utopia, Vaquero, Sangre en la boca, , El rey de la montaña, En la ciudad sin limites, Dolor y gloria, Intacto, Nieve negra, Al final del tunel, among others .Leonardo is well accompanied by a good support cast as Myrian Gallegos as his girlfriend, Chete Lera as his advisor, Luis Zahera as a mean, corrupt banker , Myriam Maeztu, Susana Mayo and Fernando Cayo as his colleague .

The motion picture was well directed by Rodrigo Cortés. This Spanish filmmaker has directed notorious international successes as Red Lights, Dawn in dark hill and his biggest hit : Buried. The Contestant or El Concursante won Maestre Mateo Award to support cast : Luis Zahera, best director and editing. And Malaga Film Festival, best director and best cinematography : Daviz Azcano, and it had several Goya nominations.

A must see!!!!

[seroton133 · 9/10 · 20 March 2007]

One of the most incredible movies of this year!! Superb!! A half way between a Scorsese made in Spain and Paul Thomas Anderson with a little taste of Billy Wilder and even Tony Scott. You can rarely see a so talented young director. It has a great script, which explains the lies of the banks and the financial system. But it's not boring at all, as if a young Orson Welles decided to guide the daring formal structure. The best editing I've ever seen in Spain, I can tell you, magic, genius. And Leonardo Sbaraglia does his best performance until now, two thumbs up for him. Difficult to believe you're seeing this in Spain. It's an spectacle!! Intelligent, funny, terrible, fast, crazy, intelligent again... Much more than a movie!! It may not be perfect, but it certainly is a great great film!!

Among the best movies in cinema history.

[gardel46 · 5 January 2008]

And that's because it subtly educates the viewer on the abject fraud of the Ponzi financial and monetary system, which many imo still do not understand. _Money as Debt_ and _The Moneymasters_ are two other (non-fiction) titles worth viewing for further background.

This movie's timing could not have been better, given the global financial system meltdown currently underway, as a result of yet another Ponzi scam, to wit, the astronomical heap of worthless over-the-counter derivatives piled on top of garbage debt-backed paper of all sorts (securitized mortgage loans, auto loans, credit card debt, etc.).

I think the script wastes a bit of time at the beginning with details about the main character that aren't really relevant to the story, and over the course of the last 10-15 minutes when building up toward a denouement which I would've preferred had been different. Nevertheless, I'd give it a 100 points if I could, for the way it masterfully weaves a subject that most people don't want hear about because it bores them, into an extremely entertaining fictional story brimming with a plethora of unique, charismatic and hilarious characters. Even the most despicable character radiates uproarious charm.

weird film

[dcldan · 3/10 · 19 March 2007]

Martin is an Economy teacher, one day, he win the biggest prize given on TV: 3 million € in objects; that is to say, a new luxurious mansion, 5 cars, a yacht, a plane... But he has not the money to keep everything. He should sell something, but the greed of his wife and the thirst of money of his lawyer will make them to ask the bank for money to keep everything, which will ruin his life, as the bank is not going to put things easy... The movie, filmed in a very curious way, with very short shots, like a music video, it quite daring, and it criticize our economy system with energy. Anyway, most of the thing that happen are a little too much exaggerated and it results very unreliable. Should the main character had been a few more thoughtful, would he arrived to a better way to act, but, well, then there would not have been a movie. At most moments it is like a economics class rather than a movie, the result is quite disappointing and only the talent of Sbaraglia as the main character gives a ray of light to quality in the film. The filming is daring, but it is clear that it is from a novice. It wants to tell so many things that is not able to explain anything correctly. There better movies, maybe on next, the director makes a better job. He seems to have the talent, not the experience.

Amazing movie

[alquetglas · 10/10 · 31 March 2007]

I've seen this film in the Spanish Cinema Malaga Festival, and I consider it excellent. The audience also finded it moving and different, and all of us clapped spontaneously at the end of it, the whole theater decided to stand up as if we were one only person. "Concursante" also has a great performance by Leonardo Sbaraglia, an excellent actor from Argentina, his acting is spectacular, brilliant, and the same for the rest of the cast, very inspired and very well directed. It won the Critics Award (and Best Cinematography), but it deserved many more, that was the general feeling in Málaga. Excellent movie that may also work abroad, because of its international look and interesting theme (the truth of the Financial System). Ten points for "Concursante", Leonardo Sbaraglia and its young and promising director, Rodrigo Cortés.

The bank always wins, or the modern layman's crisis meets Wilder and Bergman

[Agnelin · 27 August 2008]

"Concursante" is the most brilliant, thought-provoking and intelligent movie I've seen this year, and I recommend it to any movie-watcher who has an open mind to new story-telling ways in cinema and to an out of the ordinary and ferociously critical content. It is basically an intellectual bomb aimed at the modern economy system based on "fictitious money" and on bank credits, mortgages and loans that ends up devouring the individual, his properties, his dignity and, eventually, his life.

The movie follows Martín Circo (not by chance, it means "circus" in Spanish, since that is exactly what we're about to watch), an Economy teacher who doesn't sidestep the traditional scholarship when he lectures his students: according to him, we live in "the best world possible". One day, he wins material goods worth 6 million euros on a television contest -he and his girlfriend are now filthy rich. But Circo is about to find out that being a millionaire is very expensive, and that he has now become a victim of the bank system. The movie starts a la "Sunset Blvd.", with Circo witnessing his own death scene (no spoilers therefore), and telling us his story of rise and fall. But, even though we know -or we think we know- how the story goes, there is much more to it than the story of an ordinary man versus the bank. In the wake of his gradual fall, he (and the viewers) will meet several picturesque characters, with the outlandish and rebellious economy expert Edmundo Figueroa clearly standing out and forming a memorable anti-heroic pair with Circo.

There are many reasons why it is advisable to watch "Concursante". It will tell you, or remind you of a few uncomfortable truths that we live with every day, but which we accept for the sake of being able to buy the newest cell phone model -and yet it will do so in a non-lecturing way. It is brimming with cynicism, irony, and some degree of accepted fatalism as to the world we live in -this could as well have been a rampant tragedy, but the director has wisely chosen to make it a surreal comedy of sorts, despite its heavy critical content.

Extraordinary bomb of time

[letalberdi · 8/10 · 5 April 2007]

A normal guy ruins his life because a stroke of good luck. Will the director die for the same reason? I don't think so, for he shows much more than simple luck on the guiding of this extraordinary film about the truth and the appearance of truth, abut the luck and the evil of the banks, about the fast and the cinema itself. Rodrigo Cortes directs his first film with master hand, it's difficult to believe this is his first feature. I haven't seen his short films, but I'll try to, since the joy and good time this movie has given to me. Impactant editing, masterful script, extraordinary music, amazing directing, unbelievable acting (and can an actor be more handsome??)... At first I thought this film was going to be a pedant bluff, but at the minute 20 I couldn't stop watching at the screen, almost hypnotized. I'll never trust a bank again!!

Great surprise!!

[gabria00 · 10/10 · 21 November 2007]

Excellent film! I couldn't see it on theaters (my town is not exactly a cultural prodigy), so I've discovered it hiring a DVD, feeling curiosity because of the extraordinary critics of the cover. I didn't even know this film existed! I still don't believe this movie is Spanish, it's difficult to believe that we have a director who can shoot this way. I also find the film brave, smart and even didactic in the best sense of the word, I've learned things that almost make my head explode. I'm still impressed for this lesson of real cinema, editing and performances. The structure and construction of this intelligent script deserves 10 points (my English does not deserve more that 4).

Clever, sleek and very intriguing

[Imdbidia · 8/10 · 15 February 2011]

Contestant is a sleek independent Spanish film-noir comedy with an intriguing and original plot that will keep you at the edge of your seat.

It tells the story of a couple of yuppies, Martin and Laura, who become multimillionaires after Martin -played by Leonardo Sbaraglia- wins a 30 million Euros in a TV show. The prize, however, becomes a curse.

The film is clever, thought provoking, very dynamic, and, above all, pure entertainment. It has brilliant dialogs; truly fantastic are those devoted to economics, which are explained in such a creative simple way that the lay person can easily understand. The film has a great tempo and frantic action. However, the film contains a satire of consumerism and capitalist society and its mechanisms to entrap the individual, but presented lightly.

Although all the actors are correct in their respective roles, Sbaraglia really shines, and he's impeccable in his his performance; the noir genre really suits his acting. Also great is Chete Lera as the old subversive retired professor Edmundo.

The direction is great, especially if you take into account that his was Rodrigo Cortes's first long-footage movie.

This is one of my favorite Spanish movies of the 2000s. A must see. Truly entertaining and intriguing.

Rodrigo Cortes is one of the best young talents in Spanish cinema and you are going to hear a lot from him from now on.

Brilliant, educational, smart, funny (in a black sort of way)...

[ilfod1982 · 10/10 · 1 January 2013]

I found this movie by fortuitous accident and consider it one of the best I've ever seen. At times funny, at others depressing, it will forever change the way you feel about consumerism and banks. It chronicles the drastic change in a man's life after winning the highest paid contest on TV and how his immense good fortune became a real-life nightmare as his prize money fails to materialize and he is coerced to borrow against it. A brilliant way to teach about the real perils of borrowing, how compound interest works and how to avoid falling in the trap. I dare are you to watch a constructive, powerful and unforgettable movie today!