Juntos

Saw this film at the Munich Filmfest where it was described as a minimalist gem, an artistic masterpiece. I would describe it at pretentious and comatose inducing. The film consists of around ten loosely connected scenes each of which in their own right would be acceptable as a short before the main feature. But together your are left wondering what is the point, where is the narrative.

The film revolves around Gabino, Luisa and Paco, a couple and roommate, their runaway dog and failing household appliances. Scene after scene where very little happens. A five minute scene as a character walks away across a moor, another scene featuring full frontal nudity where Gabino washes himself. Five more minutes eating tacos. A film with no beginning, no middle and no ending.

Were this a film studies University Project then I could accept that the long single cut scenes and composition were there to tick the examiners boxes. But this should never make it beyond the classroom. I guess the same people who look at a painting of a few coloured boxes and call it a masterpiece may think the same of this. But to me this was a pointless 73 minutes of my life which I will never get back.

Juntos is gorgeous, a film about three youths living together in an apartment in Mexico City during the Summer. They lose their dog companion and have problems with their appliances. It sounds like nothing, but the director does various clever things like using the broken appliances to give the viewer various hot and cold sensations that carries one into the movie's reality. The cast and crew work together to create a film that is beautifully intimate. We find out what it feels like to be young and feeling a bit underwhelmed and abandoned, and yet still having each other. It's a film where you feel almost in bed with the characters. The content is in the really lush unmannered camerawork and in the splendid non verbal acting. Eventually we go out on a nice walk to find the doggo.

Peak slow cinema that will hopefully one day be rediscovered by more people than just lil' ole me.