guiricinefilo Reviews

Lena (2001)

Charismatic young actress offers a glimpse of her potential

[7/10 · 10 March 2002]

Lena is an at times interesting, at times pedestrian coming of age story set in the bajos fondos of Vigo. Stories of criminals double-crossing each other have been done before, and better, but Marta Larralde, as Lena, makes much of a schematic role, showing her capacity for emotional variation and betraying a sharp intelligence behind her radiant eyes. Her conflicted love for her undeserving father is believable, much more so than her transferrance of sexual longing from yet another Al salir de clase veteran (Ivan Hermes--are there any fims in Spain this year without these people?) to the sociopathic Milio. I won't get into the Elektra complex implications as the movie doesn't merit it. Yet on the whole a decent hour and a half in the cinema.

L'illa de l'holandès (2001)

1940s Hollywood in Alicante

[5/10 · 3 March 2002]

Saw this film in the American Cinematheque's annual Spanish film festival (Thank God for small favors!) After 6 other films I was a bit blurry, but this was a very enjoyable, simple tale, told a la Warner Bros. classics of the 40s. A bit cliche, right down to the Louie/Rick dialogue ending, but nice enough. And the valenciá took me back to my days in Cataluña.

Liberty Heights (1999)

A quiet, poetic coda to the Baltimore saga

[7/10 · 29 August 2001]

While hardly the gems that are Diner, and especially Avalon, Levinson here offers another sweet meditation on his Baltimore roots. The love story between Ben and Sylvia is especially moving to every white boy who ever fell in love with a black girl before it was acceptable, and most of the credit goes to the enchanting Rebekah Johnson. Older brother Van's travels in WASPland are more cliche-ridden, though one must salute the acting of Adrien Brody and his friend Trey, who actually make their unlikely friendship believable. Trey's deb girlfriend is pure cardboard. The real standouts here are Joe Mantegna and Orlando Jones going toe-to-toe in dangerously caricaturish territory. Both manage to pull it off. One anachronistic comment- Scribbles calls one of Nick's men the Pillsbury Jewboy--far as I know that advertising icon didn't appear till 10 years after the film's 1954-55 setting. Again, no one will call this film a classic, but seen as part of a 4 film whole (Tin Men is more the aberration than Liberty Heights) it stands proudly and pulls at these 40 year old heartstrings from a very similar North Bronx background.

Thesis (1996)

If it were in English, it would have made millions

[29 August 2001]

Tesis is one of the finest Spanish films of the last 10 years. God help us if Tom Cruise remakes this first Amenabar gem as he has Abre los ojos> Vanilla Sky coming soon, blech! Using the iconic gaze of Ana Torrent--see her at 6 in Spirit of the Beehive or at 10 in Cria!-- Amenabar makes an obvious but still gripping statement about modern society's facination with violence in the media. Using phenomenal tracking shots, cross-referenced pov and suspenseful tension to maximum effect, he and his cast convert what could have been a hack DePalma style Hitchcock ripoff into art. An awareness of contemporary Spain certainly helps, as much that we Americans consider passe was fairly new over there at the time (not in 2001, alas.) Fele Martinez at his best, too.