El Planeta

This is a very good film. I haven't looked up the background of the filmmaker but i really do hope she makes more movies. There is a lot of depth and sweetness here, edged gently by the grittiness of tough living and struggles in our world today. But mainly there are many delicate touches of an idiosyncratic, personal vision that reaches your heart and goes about playfully but also doesn't lie about hard things.

This film is beautiful and stylish, witty clever and funny but I don't think a dark comedy, as one reviewer called it here is an apt title, I think it meant to be a satire but because it's so funny and elegant most of its barbs end up feeling like tickles. So we chuckle or laugh when we should've moved uncomfortably in our chairs hiding our faces with shame.

The other fault it has is a failure to build real human characters. Both of the leads come out as made up creatures, especially so the mother that doesn't create even the slightest empathy to her plight. The daughter, who's being played by the film's writer-director Amalia Ulman does get a fair share of character building moments but every time we start developing any empathy for her the film takes a step back and alienates us from her again. So we may laugh and chuckle but I think that's not the emotions the film aimed for. In fact I don't think that's the emotions the film should've aimed for.

This film was fantastic for so many reasons. First off, as a director she chose restraint where most American films (much indie film included) are afraid to do so. Many moments spoke for themselves and she didn't fall into the trap of needing them to be neatly tied or revisited.

She was not afraid of silences and visual poetry, which my wife and I enjoyed immensely.

For anyone lucky enough to have lived in Spain (we lived there and in Argentina for many years, seeing the effects of economic crises up close) it is clear that there is no forced attempt at dark comedy here - the combination of economic crises and rigid bureaucracy forces thousands to emigrate and leaves hard working, decent people in insanely complex isolation with no way out. Extreme choices result. Sometimes a little laughter is essential to survival in those situations! Through the small simple world she creates (undoubtedly on a very tight budget) she portrays this brilliantly.

And her Mom?! It appears this is the only acting she's ever done and she was fantastic!

Thank you, Amalia! We loved it.

A mother and daughter each do their best to fail upwards after being abandoned by the family patriarch. They do so with humor and grace. Beautifully shot in digital black and white, the washed-up backgrounds of post-recession Gijon, Spain tell their own story through a dry, saline sense of time and warmth. For fans of nouvelle-vague, Miranda July. The fullest expression of director/star Ulman's artistic vision to date.

Clever, stylish and subtle, El Planeta made me wish more indie movies got made today! We need such vantages into the world