Nobody's Watching

It has two virtues - Guillermo Phenning and the story of his Nico. The last can be the most significant for part of viewers. Because, the ambiguity, of his situation in New York, the ambiguity of his attitude between nanny and presumed succesful actor, his fights and illusions are very common and define many of us in different senses.

A film about honesty and the obstacle front to it.

About illusions, in the same measure.

And about forms of survive, loneliness, friendship.

I admitt, I real like it without have the impression to discover a great movie but appreciating the honest perspectives about ordinary problemes. And, not the last, the fair work of Guillermo Pfening.

This moves at a pace that is slower than slow. The film goes nowhere, even though the time passes. It's just pointless to watch this as you will never get back the time wasted!

I think that a single moment can define this film: when Nico has to teach an American the difference between the verbs "SER" (constancy) and "ESTAR" (mobility), something quite particular to both Spanish and Portuguese (my native idiom) languages: the new yorker realizes, and tells him right away, that his presence in the USA is merely provisional (he ESTÁ in New York), and that his true self É Buenos Aires. Everything else, the frustrated attempts to act in a film (which never materializes), his work as a nanny (the one he accepted and the some he rejected), the pathetic change in his hair color ... everything is an echo of that brief dialogue , which deals with the difference between the verb TO BE and the verbs SER / ESTAR.

Nico, an Argentinian actor who attained some recognition working in soap operas is trying to find more challenging acting jobs in New York. He survives by doing odd jobs such as babysitting for Andrea, his well-to-do friend from back home. He has an expired visa and shares lodgings with Claire (both are gay). Nico is chasing after some dubious jobs, among them a movie eternally in the preparation stage. Kara, a successful producer lays out clinically his possibilities, or lack thereof. He does not fit in any of the fashionable clichés; he is too fair haired and light skinned to play a Latino and has an accent too thick to "play white." Nico is haunted by a love/hate relationship with his ex-partner Martín, a TV producer who tries to entice Nico to return to Buenos Aires to renew his relation and retake his mediocre career (not even that is certain, though).

This is it. Nothing much happens on screen. The script is clever and deals subtly with problems exiles face, such as the fear of returning home a failure. Being a low income dweller of Manhattan a long time ago I enjoyed such details as Nico picking up used furniture left on the sidewalk for collection. All in all we see real people doing what real people do: talking to each other in sometimes rambling and unfocused ways, acting to unclear motivations, trying to discover what fits them and what of this is attainable. The title, Nadie nos mira, Nobody's Watching probably refers to Nico's frustration at not being noticed in spite of multiple tries.

An intense movie about struggling actor with too much pride trying to land an acting gig without letting people know the truth about himself, by hiding the reality. This movie highlights the struggles of many artists in a world filled with stiff competition.