Glue (2006)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Alexis Dos Santos

Writer:

Alexis Dos Santos (writer)

Release Date:

28 September 2006 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

A Teenage Story In The Middle Of Nowhere

Plot:

"A teenage summer in a small town in the desert, a dysfunctional family, a rock band, a can full of glue...

Plot Keywords:

Rock Band | Desert | Patagonia | Discovery | Alienation

Awards:

5 wins

Cast

Nahuel Pérez Biscayart	...	Lucas
Nahuel Viale	...	Nacho
Inés Efron	...	Andrea
Verónica Llinás	...	Mecha
Héctor Díaz	...	Freddy
Florencia Braier	...	Flor
Sonia Stenico	...	La amante
Los Wamos Band	...	La banda
Jimena Prieto	...	Jimena
Griselda Ojeda	...	Doctora
Rodrigo Espinoza	...	Alumno Ingles
Flavio Alexis Saddi	...	Flavio
'Astor' Escobar	...	Astor
Ángela Odetto	...	Informativo
Mariana Dos Santos	...	Madre de Andrea

Also Known As:

Glue - Historia adolescente en medio de la nada (Argentina) (long title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

Argentina | UK

Language:

Spanish | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Patagonia, Argentina

Company:

Diablo Films

Trivia:

The film's script consisted of only a 17-page storyline and the majority of acting was improvised around the plot to deliver a certain level of authenticity and youthful awkwardness.

Quotes:

Andrea: [crying] Yesterday I went for a walk to the lake. And I was thinking that the world is huge. And that human nature, the Big Bang when it all exploded, it brought tons of things: the lakes, the mountains, all the animals. And it also brought human beings -
[laughs]
Andrea: I sound like a school book - but human beings are much more complex. While a tree is just a tree, a person is something more locked off. It's like we're stuck inside the soap opera of life. And we have to live, we don't have a choice. But we're not capable of seeing the world for what it is. And see that we're all here
[...]

A bit rough, but well done

Although the film does drag in places and there are scenes that really don't connect to the story line (e.g. the camping trip), I'm impressed by the overall coherence of the structure given its improvisational approach. The cast were excellent in portraying the ennui of adolescents in the middle of nowhere (to steal the film's subtitle), and if anything, the acting is understated--a rarity for the form. The cinematography, though, is what really impressed me. Not radically original by any stretch (the opening sequence reminded me of Van Sant), but effective in setting the mood of the piece.

What struck me most is the impressionistic nature of the film and how the fragments coalesce into the whole, which is something that rarely works for me. I'll use this in my creative writing classes to teach this impressionistic approach, but for narrative structure, I must go back to more conventional films, like "Y Tu Mama Tambien."