25 Watts

I am not an "art" movie buff, but this one is a gem. Excellent, almost documentary portrait of urban life for three young boys in ¿modern? Montevideo. The story is simple, the atmosphere is everything. This is sort of a 25 watt version of "Trainspotting", which is *exactly* the intention, if you know what I mean.

The DVD case likens this to "a Spanish language SLACKER" which isn't entirely off, but it reminded me more of CLERKS or STRANGER THAN PARADISE. The thing is, I don't like any of the films I just mentioned. Rudderless youths hanging around, whoop-de-friggin-do. Watching TV, being bored, meeting mildly oddball characters, smoking pot, talking about their girl troubles, blah blah blah. Fortunately, I did kind of like these three guys. They have a fun rapport, busting each other's balls and so forth. Some of the situations and conversations are fairly amusing... but others aren't. The raw black & white cinematography is a familiar route for this milieu, and it services the film well enough. But Rebello and Stoll indulge in a number of stylistic choices that I found more annoying than clever: 360-degree camera spins, quick cutaways, interior monologues. It's the sort of thing that screams "directorial debut". There were parts of the film I enjoyed, but not enough to give it a very strong recommendation.

I'm from Uruguay and movies here are not so good. But this year five uruguayan films have been made. One of them beat a record in the box-office. But the best of that five films, was "25 Watts". With only 200.000 dollars, Rabella and Stoll (writers and directors of the film) wrote an exellent screenplay and direct the movie in a memorable way.

The story is about three boys that dont do nothing but they have lot problems in the job, with studies, and other things like that. The result is an exellent "opera-prima", a first prize in the Rotterdam Festival, a first prize of best opera-prima in the Coral Awards and a pre-nomination to the Goyas Awards.

For me the best uruguayan film of the year and the history.

25 Watts might do something it wasn't meant to do -- and that is portray a boring day just as it should be portrayed: boringly. Although at times having wit and comedy, one cannot help but feel that somewhere between the script and the subtitles the true entertainment was lost.

Although this film contains a lot of original and interesting camera work combined with a pleasantly artistic depiction of daily events, it is only at the cost of excitement. The scenes which one finds to be most exciting are the scenes one finds to be the shortest. The scenes that portray pure boredom seem to always be the longest.

Although the general idea behind it and the hard work put into it may seem good, in the end it is overshadowed by the general boredom. Although it was interesting, it was not entertaining. Although it kept my attention, it did not terribly enthrall me. In the end, the zany characters and moments of excitement do not cut it and leave something lacking.

This film depicts an average day in the life of three young men in Montevideo (Uruguay) in a very funny way.

The adventures of these guys are bound to entertain you even though, or more likely because they are adventures on a tragically small scale. Even when our heroes are bored a few laughs are just around the corner. The array of sympathetic, hilarious and strange characters that crosses the screen is so colorful I almost forgot that I was watching a film in black and white.

And besides that, the realism that comes to your screen is a refreshment in the Hollywood-dominated world of film.