Jamie passion and passionfruit!

Argentine film by Ana Katz director of the embarrassingly humourous El juego de la silla.  Ana also plays Ines the main carácter who is in the middle of a break up with her boyfriend. To say she is unbearable is an understatement – a control freak, a pain in the neck , it is no wonder her man stays on the bus and lets her get off at the coastal resort where they were to have their anniversary weekend.  And this is the problem with the film.  Why should we care about a woman who is basically selfish and unlikeable and who doesn’t seem to learn anything during the film.  She gets the hots for a hotel porter who isn’t interested.  The only person who really is interested in her, Germán (nicely portrayed by Carlos Portaluppi) gets the brush off.  There is no doubt that Katz gives us authentic scenes that can occur with many people but watching such an immature selfish girl is not so attractive.  There are some well constructed scenes but a lot of boring stuff too.  More hype than really important cinema.

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A powerful little film from Argentina about Alex who is 15 and in the middle of a struggle with the fact that she is a hermaphodite.  Along to visit her and her family on the windswept Uruguayan coast is a family made up of a plastic surgeon father, a mother and a 16 year old boy who seems more interested by sketching beetles than sex but is soon in the middle of the turmoil that is present here.  Should Alex be operated on?  Should she give up the pills and risk regression to a more masculine state?  Father Richard Darin, impeccable as always, agonises over this, keenly supported by Valeria Bertuccelli.  But the real acting honours go to Ines Efrón whose feral look and ambiguous performance makes for a perfect Alex and Martin Piroyanski as Alvaro, all confusion and excitement.  Excellent compositions by both young actors.  The photography is also great and Lucia Puenzo must be given great credit for not shying away from difficult scenes and a very touchy subject in order to bring us this satisfying debut work.

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