Cara de queso - Mi primer ghetto -

I saw this movie not a long time ago, and I think is excellent. It's not supposed to be funny, it's supposed to be faithful to a really particular context: private countries clubs in the nineties, and the movie really fulfills that purpose. The whole plot which seems really superficial (in fact, it is a bit, but with a lot of humor) is just an excuse to shows what living in countries clubs was, in a very truthful way.

I think that everyone should consider seeing this movie, if only because it's very different from every Argentinian movie I've ever seen.

I can tell when a film is a first work; from a first time director. I don't know how you can tell that, but I know that Argentine first time directors usually choose common things for their films. I'm saying common for an Argentinian like myself. Jewish directors write scripts about Jewish families in their typical environment.

Daniel Burman directed "El Abrazo Partido", the most recognized among the films he did about his Jewish origins but with other characters in the story lines. What highlighted in each of Burman's films was the presence of the great Uruguayan actor Daniel Hendler and the fact that his main characters were always called Ariel.

Coincidentally, Ariel Winograd's picture main character is also named Ariel (as himself) and I believe his script contains an obvious reference to Burman when his name is mentioned during one scene. Ariel is played by a child actor named Sebastián Montagna, who appears as the main character in the plot, while not being the main actor of the film. Ariel has many friends of his age and they all live in a private neighborhood; a place where the popular kids mess with guys like Ariel and his friends.

Meanwhile, Ariel walks the streets with his friends and encounters his grandfather (the legendary Juan Manuel Tenuta): "How many times do you masturbate in one day?", he asks them. The grandfather character will have his moments, as will all of the characters in a brilliant screenplay where everyone gets a chance to shine.

Yesterday I read an interview made to two young actors of an enormous talent and a promising future ahead of them. Martin Piroyanski and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart; both of them star in "Cara de Queso": the first one as Ariel's brother David, a sports genius with a difficult girlfriend, the latter one as Felman, a nerd rejected by Ariel and his friends and crazy in love for Ariel's sister. In the interview, both actors appear so intelligent and their characters here demonstrate that intelligence as they cover their different faces.

Unlike many first time directors (Pablo Trapero with "El bonaerense", Carlos Sorín with "El Perro", Adrián Caetano with "Piza, Birra y Faso"), Winograd's casting includes actors we all know. Not only familiar but also terrific actors, like Mercedes Morán, Carlos Santamaría, the young Julieta Zylberberg and even Daniel Hendler as a sports man; plus the special appearances by Federico Luppi and Susú Pecoraro. All the child actors are the right choices for the peculiar beings Wingodard put on his screenplay.

In first works I look for innovation, and the cameras looking from the sky to the ceilings are really interesting. However, the screenplay is the element that makes us jump off our seats, because the behavior of the Jewish community never bores the Argentine viewer; and the unexpected endings like the one in this film never bore me.

So you must wonder…After a first screenplay and a first film like this one, probably about his own life; what will be the next thing on Wigodard's mind? I certainly hope something original and luckily different from this gem.

When it comes to Argentine cinema, you don't need to be an expert to know that many of their films from the 2000s to the 2010s lack the necessary resources to be great films. When it comes to a film made by someone who is just starting out in this type of filmmaking, the end result can leave a lot to be desired. Cara De Queso was Ariel Winograd's first film when he was just starting out and his intention was to make something based on his experiences as a child. The goal was to make a teen comedy-drama with touches of comedy about the struggles of being an outcast and the role played by the norms of the Jewish community. On one hand, the film has a functional idea for a fairly decent teen drama, but on the other hand, the film conveys the idea in a rather vague way. As is common in these Argentine films, the humor and comedy is mostly based on dialogue and some situational acting in a light-hearted manner. The film offers a good introduction with good music and the soundtrack features good songs. The best of them all is the incomparable "Te Quiero Tanto" by Sergio Denis and it's good that the film had the decency to give this singer-songwriter a part to contribute something. Apart from Denis, they also decided to include Federico Luppi, although his part is short and feels somewhat wasted.

The film features several young characters and Ariel becomes the center of everything when he has to attend a trial for being a witness to a case of bullying towards a classmate. This character is the director when he was a child. All Ariel and his classmates want is to have a good summer before the trial. What we see is the typical case of marginalized young people trying to move forward despite the difficulties. The film deals with fairly common themes of adolescence and involves some things about Judaism. Ariel has quite peculiar classmates who are only there to add some humor to the film. Coper is the classic obese child and also has an attraction to Felman's mother. This is the typical joke of a young man who has an attraction to the mother of one of his friends. Something that has been seen in American Pie and although it is not a very used joke, it works. The Russian is a kind of young version of Stifler who likes to brag about sex. This character gives some humor to the movie and is that young man who likes to address these issues to prove his manhood. Of course, he is just a show-off and seems to be attracted to his maid. The latter is something that should have been addressed a lot because it would have served the comedy of the movie, but it was only used as something minor. A subplot that could have contributed a lot is that of Natalia and Felman. This young man with glasses does not stop following Natalia because of the love he feels for her and Natalia always rejects him for being clumsy. The interesting thing is that Natalia has a conflict with her own community because she cannot stand living in that land and just wants to live outside like any other girl. Her friend Ruthi tells her that she cannot live like other girls or find a boyfriend on her own because of her Jewish ancestry. Thus, Natalia is forced to choose only two suitors from her community. This subplot would have worked perfectly as a second plot, but it is discarded halfway through the film. Nothing more is known about Natalia and Felman afterwards and they are left out of the film. David and his girlfriend Romina have a relationship that as a subplot does not contribute much, but they had something interesting that would have contributed as well. Grandfather Mollo warns David about the risk of marrying a Jewish woman. He says that the mothers of young men establish a friendly relationship with the brides to advise them on how to control the future husband. This is somewhat reminiscent of the episode of the series Married With Children, where the Argento family suffers a curse in which the sons are forced to marry a woman who is exactly like Monica in every way. Mollo concludes his talk with something that suggests that the lots in which these communities stay are part of a social stratification not very different from that in Germany.

All of the above shows that Cara De Queso has a lot of good ideas, but they were not fully utilized. They were not even able to give it a completely satisfactory conclusion. The most correct thing would have been for Ariel's other classmates to be present at the trial so that the ending would be more intriguing. By not doing that, the film ends in a rather empty way and the truth is that by not knowing how to take advantage of the good ideas they had, the film does not become memorable apart from the Sergio Denis scene. It is not surprising that many who have seen this film to the end have ended up feeling that they were just wasting their time. In conclusion, Cara De Queso is a film that could have worked as a good teenage comedy-drama and I wish they could have taken better advantage of the ideas they had. It is not one of the worst films in Argentine cinema because it has a couple of good things and some funny moments, but that does not save it from being one of the most forgotten films. My final rating for this film is 6/10.