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In The Best Heart Attack of My Life, Ariel confronts more than a medical crisis—he battles an outdated masculine stereotype that no longer fits. A middle-aged ghostwriter trapped in emotional and physical decline, he represents the archetype of a lost, self-destructive man once glorified in media.

Unlike dramatic antiheroes from past narratives, Ariel’s challenges lack glamorous veneer. His personal struggles—divorce, self-neglect, fading purpose—stand exposed, compelling him toward an unavoidable personal reckoning.

His relationship with Concha, a passionate flamenco dancer, deepens this exploration. While Ariel remains stagnant, Concha embodies pure energy and resistance against societal expectations. Their connection transcends typical romantic ideals, rooted instead in shared weariness with prescribed social roles.

The series explores television’s evolving gender representations, subtly challenging traditional narratives about intellectual male characters. Still, by maintaining Ariel as the central focus, the story poses a critical question: Does it truly subvert established patterns...

Following Nicole Kidman’s “Babygirl,” another psychologically complex erotic thriller arrives at one of the fall festivals. Unspooling in the Discovery Section at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Argentine thriller “Linda” puts a sexy and mysterious maid inside a household where she wrecks emotional havoc with the family she’s serving. Immediately the tables are turned and her mystique attracts everyone and gives the upper hand. At the center of filmmaker’s Mariana Wainstein, is an alluring yet reserved performance from Eugenia “China” Suárez as the eponymous enigmatic beguiler.

Linda enters the story as a temporary replacement for an injured maid, who’s her cousin. This is a Buenos Aires family of four, equally divided by gender as mother, father, daughter and son. The minute each of them lays eyes on Linda, their whole body language shifts and it becomes crystal clear that they are transfixed. Sure she’s...

Coy and smoldering attraction simmers in Argentine director Mariana Wainstein’s debut feature, “Linda,” which sees its world premiere in Toronto as part of this year’s TIFF Discovery program, showcasing debut and sophomore films from emergent global talent. The festival runs Sept. 5-15.

Produced by Argentina’s Pampa Films and co-produced by Bourke Films and Spain’s Gloriamundi Producciones, the narrative follows Linda, played by Eugenia “China” Suárez (“Alternative Therapy”), freshly employed as a housekeeper by an otherwise milquetoast family. Well-off and distracted, they move around in a tightly wound haze until she slowly coaxes their latent dreams and desires to the surface.

“It’s a film that explores family dynamics, a theme that captivates many. With a dedicated cast committed to this task, we’ve managed to create a narrative that not only entertains but also invites reflection on the importance of family relationships in our lives. Each...

Laura Citarella’s lengthy romantic conundrum refuses to tie up its many loose ends but her film-making language ensures that cult status beckons

Laura Citarella’s movie is a coolly unhurried four hours-plus, split into two parts of around two hours each; it is from the same producer, in fact, as Argentinian auteur Mariano Llinás’s legendary 13-and-a-half hour film La Flor. Compared with that, Trenque Lauquen – whose title means “round lake” and is a city in Buenos Aires province – is a mere cine-haiku; but it is still a domestic epic, a giant puzzle, a whopping solutionless mystery and a meandering shaggy dog story with a hint of Borges or As Byatt’s Possession. And Citarella might have mixed these influences with Lynch or even David Robert Mitchell’s divisive noir Under the Silver Lake. Yet for all its deadpan charm, there is something here which I couldn’t quite make friends with,...

Beta Cinema has sold the North American rights for “Adios Buenos Aires” to Outsider Pictures, which plans to release the charming comedy drama in spring 2024 throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The multiple audience award winner has also sold to Argentina (Cinetren), South Korea (Challan), Israel (Nachshon Films), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais), Switzerland (Xenix Film Distribution), Bulgaria (Beta Film) and former Yugoslavia (Discovery). Spafax has picked up selected airline rights.

“Adios Buenos Aires” is directed by German Kral and was inspired by the real tragic events that shook Argentina in late 2001 when the government’s sudden freeze of all bank accounts, known as the “Corralito” in Argentina, led to huge protests, resulting in the downfall of the government.

The film starts in Buenos Aires in November 2001. Argentina is embroiled in crisis, with the peso plunging deeper and deeper. Julio Färber, the charismatic bandoneon player of the Vecinos de Pompeya, a five-piece working-class tango band,...

Laura Paredes as Laura in Trenque Lauquen. Laura Citrella on writing with her star: 'It was great, because I had a partner to whom I could talk every day about the film and who also was the main character' Photo: El Pampero Cine Laura Citrella’s Trenque Lauquen - which opens today (April 21) in New York before screening elsewhere in the US - is the sort of work you can kick back and relax into. Her story, which runs across more than four hours and two films, takes viewers not only on a journey into multiple stories through the consideration of a single life but also on a walk across a cinematic landscape, from historical romance to mystery drama and something altogether more fantastical.

The story is driven by, though not always centred upon, Laura, a botanist who is collecting orchid samples in Trenque Lauquen - a real place in Argentina.

Laura Paredes in Trenque Lauquen.Fittingly for a film tracking a botanist along her quest for an ultra-rare flower, Laura Citarella’s Trenque Lauquen unfurls like the network of a rose, each of its myriad tales unveiling and spilling into the next. Stretched across 250 minutes, split into twelve chapters, and divided into two parts, the film is a maze of forking paths, the cinematic equivalent of a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, who hovers above it as an essential touchstone. This is, after all, a Pampero Cine production, the Buenos Aires collective that spawned Mariano Llinás’s 2018 epic La Flor, another sprawling multi-genre pastiche that looked to the rhizomatic writings by Borges and other Río de la Plata scribes for inspiration. Back in 1969, together with director Hugo Santiago and fellow writer Adolfo Bioy Casares, Borges co-wrote Invasión, a portrait of a fictional city, Aquileia, under an endless siege. Modeled on Buenos Aires,...

“Survival needs preparation.”

Star Wars prequel star Hayden Christiansen stars alongside Harvey Keitel in a new sci-fi action thriller called The Last Man, and today we have the first trailer for it for you to watch.

It seems like it’s been awhile since we’ve seen either of these actors in a movie, and now they’ve popped up in an interesting one together.

The story follows Kurt Matheson (Christensen), “a war veteran with Ptsd (post traumatic stress disorder) who perceives that the end of the world is coming. After establishing a relationship with a dubious Messiah (Keitel), he leaves his normal life and begins the construction of a shelter underground, training himself, in an extreme way, at the cost of losing everything and making people believe he is insane. When he also believes it, something extraordinary happens”

The film was directed by first time director Rodrigo H. Vila,...

"We must prepare for the worst of humanity." Lionsgate has launched a trailer for an indie sci-fi action film titled The Last Man, which is pretty much the opposite (in every way) from this year's film The First Man. From director Rodrigo H. Vila, the film stars Hayden Christensen as a war veteran with post traumatic stress disorder who perceives that the end of the world is coming. After establishing a relationship with a dubious Messiah, he leaves his normal life to begin the construction of a shelter underground and trains himself, in an extreme way, at the cost of everything in his life. When he also believes the Messiah, something extraordinary happens. The cast includes Harvey Keitel, Liz Solari, Marco Leonardi, Fernan Miras, Justin Kelly, and Rafael Spregelburd. While I am always curious about new sci-fi, this looks like one of those throwaway, forgettable action flicks that no one will ever watch.

Female-empowerment comedy “Sin Rodeos” (“Empowered”), the recent Spanish hit from “Torrente” star-director Santiago Segura, is proving there’s an audience for feminist-tinted comedies in a machista world.

Starring Maribel Verdú, and released by Adolfo Blanco’s A Contracorriente Films on March 2, “Empowered” bowed in the No. 2 spot at the Spanish box office for a final $5.5 million box office take, making it the third-biggest Spanish release to date in 2018

Also starring Rafael Spregelburd (“The Man Next Door”) and with a cameo from Segura, “Empowered” has been licensed via sales shingle Film Sharks to Australia/New Zealand (Palace Pictures), Italy (Colorado Films) and Argentina and Uruguay (new distributor Digicine).

Also closed: Colombia and Peru (Cinecolor Films), Central America (Wiesner Distribution), former Yugoslavia (2i Films) and Taiwan (Av Jet). The U.S., France, Greece, Turkey, Russia and China are under negotiation, Rud added.

The five “Torrente” saga comedies, which have grossed an aggregate €79.9 million ($90.1 million) in Spain,...

The day is almost here. Tomorrow, Venice Film Festival audiences will be the first to experience Lucrecia Martel‘s “Zama.” It’s the director’s first feature since 2008’s “The Headless Woman,” and one we’ve been eagerly awaiting. And now, a few more clips provide a new peek at the unique experience the filmmaker is bringing to the table.

Read More: Venice Film Festival: 13 Must-See Movies

Based on the novel by Antonio Di Benedetto, and starring Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Lola Dueñas, Matheus Nachtergaele, Juan Minujín, Mariana Nunes, and Rafael Spregelburd, the film follows a bureaucrat who patiently awaits a better appointment by the king, even as he watches others around him move on to better placements.

Continue reading ‘Zama’ Clips: Meet A Man Without Fear In Lucrecia Martel’s New Film at The Playlist.

"A lot of people think that the world is coming to an end. I don't think it... I know it." An official trailer has arrived online for a pre-apocalyptic, action, sci-fi movie titled Numb, at the Edge of the End. This stars Hayden Christensen, who hasn't appeared in much since Star Wars, as a war veteran with Ptsd who perceives that the end of the world is coming. It's kind of hard to figure out what exactly this is about - it seems like an odd mix of genres and post-apocalyptic tropes, with a gang of weirdos and a bearded prophet and Vr goggles. I actually think Harvey Keitel looks pretty damn cool with that big white beard. The cast also includes Marco Leonardi, Justin Kelly, Liz Solari, Rafael Spregelburd, and Raymond E. Lee. This doesn't look good, but I will admit I'm curious to see more. Maybe there's something to it?...

Spam

Written by Rafael Spregelburd and translated by Jean Graham-Jones

Directed by Samuel Buggeln

Presented by The Cherry Arts

Jack, Brooklyn, NYC

April 14-30, 2016

Making a performance look easy is very difficult, but the fantastic new production of Argentine playwright Rafael Spregelburd’s intricately-constructed Spam makes it look effortless. Spam, making its English-language première in a translation by the City University of New York’s Jean Graham-Jones, probes some of those boundaries and spaces between appearance and reality, especially where language is concerned. Mario Monti (Vin Knight) is a linguistics professor with an ethically questionable relationship to the work of one of his thesis students and a case of amnesia from a head wound. As the play unfolds, both he and we come to understand more about how he ended up living in a hotel room in Malta, trying to hawk Chinese-manufactured talking dolls on the beach for...

A film critic turned filmmaker seems intent on confirming negative stereotypes about critics… and that’s before his movie gets truly unpleasantly smug. I’m “biast” (pro): I’m a film critic

I’m “biast” (con): not a huge fan of rom-coms

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Former film critic Hernán Guerschuny makes his debut as screenwriter and director with The Film Critic, a movie that appears intent on confirming all the negative stereotypes about film critics, up to and including the one that we are all wannabe filmmakers. Víctor Tellez (Rafael Spregelburd) is a grumpy, elitist critic for a Buenos Aires newspaper — the Internet doesn’t seem to exist in this world — who holds popular movies in disdain, reserving the worst of his ire for the risible clichés and utter predictability of the romantic comedy. I can’t say I entirely disagree with...

It may be true that Argentinian filmmaker Hernán Guerschuny was formerly a critic, but his innocuously agreeable meta rom-com does nothing to dispel the myth that it's a job only for self-important, cine-hating blowhards keen to sharpen their knives and sink careers. (We'll take offense so you don't have to.) Professorially bearded curmudgeonly reviewer Víctor Tellez (Rafael Spregelburd) rules the Buenos Aires blurb roost, imagining his days as an art film with internally narrated asides in French. His disdain for crowd-pleasing formula is so patronizing (When Harry Met Sally should've started unhappily after the last kiss, he believes) that his own corporate-interested editor condemns him as a "terrorist of taste." He's annoyed by his teenage niece'...

An intriguing premise doesn't quite pan out as Carl had hoped with The Man Next Door...

Starting with a bang, The Man Next Door is about just that. A successful designer has a massive and wonderfully designed studio apartment for a house, in which he lives with his wife and daughter. He lives a happy life, that is, until the next door neighbour decides to create a window which looks straight into his home.

The film starts with a two shot split right down the middle, one dark and the other light. We see a sledgehammer smashing into the dark side over and over again relentlessly. Soon the white side starts to crumble, and soon the exterior of the wall falls off. Before long, bricks start falling through, and we see the idea of the film come to light.

Leonardo (Rafael Spregelburd) isn't happy about this, and so he shouts...

With filmmakers from Iraq, Bolivia, India and out of all places, Greenland, it's no wonder that many of the filmmaker names selected in Sundance's 2010 edition World Cinema Dramatic Competition are drawing a blank stare. Among those that we do know we find Taika Waititi returning to the festival (after the little seen charmer Eagle vs. Shark) with a set in the 80's pic called Boy, and David Michod will be coming to the festival as the scribe for Hesher, and as the the writer-director of Animal Kingdom starring Guy Pearce. - With filmmakers from Iraq, Bolivia, India and out of all places, Greenland, it's no wonder that many of the filmmaker names selected in Sundance's 2010 edition World Cinema Dramatic Competition are drawing a blank stare. Among those that we do know we find Taika Waititi returning to the festival (after the little seen charmer Eagle vs. Shark) with a set...

Sundance released their slate for 2010. It includes:43 documentaries on the Middle East12 films about friends who 'discover' something33 movies about people you've never heard about1 comedyHopefully the lineup this year is strong but it doesn't look that way compared to last year. Last year we had Push (Precious), that Lil Wayne documentary that never went anywhere, Mystery Team which might make my top ten, Moon, Mike Tyson documentary, Cold Souls. Just so much last January that was excellent. I hope I don't go out therer and freeze my tail off just to see...I don't know, a documentary about a former Pakistani prime minister or something silly like that.Here's the lineup so far: Premieres To showcase the diversity to contemporary independent cinema, the Sundance Film Festival Premieres section offers the latest work from American and international directors as well as world premieres of highly anticipated films. Presented by Entertainment Weekly.

I feel a special bond with the Sundance Film Festival. Not because I’ve been there, but because the guy in charge of it this year, John Cooper, shares my name. Because we share this bond, I feel that I’m able to take license in referring to the man as Coop for the rest of this article.

For the annual event held in Park City, Utah from January 21-31, thousands of films are submitted and screened — this year, 3,724 films were viewed by the festival’s ten programmers. I wonder when they slept.

Coop has high hopes for the festival as a whole:

“We may even be going into a golden age for independent films, in that the technology will make it possible for the films to be made and for audiences to see them. The industry is going through a major evolutionary stage right now, there’s no doubt about that,...

Sundance released their slate for 2010. It includes:43 documentaries on the Middle East12 films about friends who 'discover' something33 movies about people you've never heard about1 comedyHopefully the lineup this year is strong but it doesn't look that way compared to last year. Last year we had Push (Precious), that Lil Wayne documentary that never went anywhere, Mystery Team which might make my top ten, Moon, Mike Tyson documentary, Cold Souls. Just so much last January that was excellent. I hope I don't go out therer and freeze my tail off just to see...I don't know, a documentary about a former Pakistani prime minister or something silly like that.Here's the lineup so far: U.S. Documentary Competition This year’s 16 films were selected from 862 submissions. Each film is a world premiere. Bhutto(Directors: Jessica Hernandez and Johnny O'Hara; Screenwriter: Johnny O'Hara)—A riveting journey through the life and work of recently assassinated Benazir Bhutto,...

The Sundance Film Festival has unveiled the lineup of films playing in competition from January 21 through January 31, 2010. The early fest typically debuts some of the best films the year has to offer, like 2009’s Precious, (500) Days of Summer, and Moon.

I’m bummed I won’t be in Park City, Utah next month because the lineup looks great, and these are just the films playing in competition. Here’s a few that stood out to me:

The Allen Ginsberg trial film Howl starring James Franco, a documentary by Alex Gibney (a truly great filmmaker) on Jack Abramoff, Mark Ruffalo’s directorial debut Sympathy for Delicious, a doc about Joan Rivers, the directorial debut of “How I Met Your Mother” star Josh Radnor titled Happythankyoumoreplease (I wrote a glowing script review of it here), Hesher with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natalie Portman, and Blue Valentine starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.

I...

Sundance Film Festival 2010 is a little over a month away and that means we can now bring you a list of the competition films that will be playing. Here you go boys and girls… enjoy!

Documentary Competition

“Blue Valentine” – Directed by Derek Cianfrance, written by Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis, a portrait of an American marriage that charts the evolution of a relationship over time. With Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman. “Douchebag” – Directed by Drake Doremus, written by Lindsay Stidham, Doremus, Jonathan Schwartz and Andrew Dickler, in which a man about to be married takes his younger brother on a wild goose chase to find the latter’s fifth-grade girlfriend. Features Dickler, Ben York Jones, Marguerite Moreau, Nicole Vicius, Amy Ferguson, Wendi McClendon-Covey. “The Dry Land” – Directed and written by Ryan Piers Williams, in which a returning U.S. soldier tries to reconcile his experiences overseas with his life in Texas.

Photo: Sundance Today the Sundance Institute announced the films that will be in competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in both the U.S. and International dramatic and documentary categories. The festival will run from January 21-31 in Park City, Utah. There are a few changes this year as there will be no opening-night picture and the festival will take select festival films to eight cities during as the fest plays out.

Last year notable films such as this year's major Oscar contenders Precious and An Education debuted at Sundance 2009 as did audience and critical favorite (500) Days of Summer.

As for this year's crop I have highlighted a few titles among the list below in red, but I have primarily done so considering the names attached to the pictures not necessarily based on any advanced buzz I've heard around any of the films. Names to look out for include Ryan Gosling,...

The Sundance Film Festival is where some of the great films of the year will get their first viewings, and if you don’t believe me, here’s just some of the great films this year that made their debut at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival: Precious, World’s Greatest Dad, Big Fan, Bronson, Moon and even (500) Days of Summer, which I didn’t care for but made a big splash.

The festival is where buzz starts happening and now Sundance has released the list of which films will be in competition for 2010. Keep in mind that there are plenty of other films which play out of competition and can be just as great. But some of the big names fighting for the crown are the Allen Ginsberg obscenity trial film Howl starring General Hospital’s James Franco, Hesher starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo’s directing debut Sympathy for Delicious,...

And the first announcement is upon us and includes quite a few movies we've already reported on.. What does that include?

The incredible looking Estonian drama The Temptation of St. Tony for which we got the exclusive trailer on a while ago. It's by Veiko Õunpuu who did the incredible Sügisball and I'm greatly looking forward to seeing this.

From Spencer Susser, the director of the incredible zombie short I love Sarah Jane comes Hesher, his first feature which stars Jgl!

David Michôd's Australian thriller Animal Kingdom which stars Guy Pearce.

From Taiki Waititi, director of Eagle vs Shark comes Boy which we previously reported on, but then it was known as The Volcano.

Full list after the break!

U.S. Documentary Competition

This year’s 16 films were selected from 862 submissions. Each film is a world premiere.

Bhutto (Directors: Jessica Hernandez and Johnny O'Hara; Screenwriter: Johnny O'Hara)—A riveting...