Instintos Primitivos

Being a fan of Ricardo Trogi's work (Quebec-Montreal, Smash), and having heard rave reviews about his upcoming film, I rushed to the multiplex to see his new film. I came out disappointed. I still enjoyed parts of it because I like movies that mock relationships, however, I cannot believe that three (not one, but three) writers who spent a couple of years preparing this project would come up with something so shallow. One thing that really bothered me is that the female characters are just accessories. And considering that women are more complex than men, it would have been interesting to explore their point of view (why they want babies so much, how they handle being a mother, etc.). But I guess Trogi & co. don't understand women very well since the female characters were so sketchy.

DIALOGS... That's what it takes. At least it's a big part of the credibility a movie can offer. And this one has it. We, québécois, suffer of one major handicap when it comes to movies: we have to do a movie where all the characters are going to talk with a french (from France) accent, 'cause it's gonna be international, it's gonna be huge, it's gonna represent what we are...

Bulls*** Horloge Biologique speaks the same language I use with my friends, speaks the same language I use in bed with my girl. This detail gives so much more reality and credibility to the characters that you're connected with them from the start.

Beside the language, there's the story. Boy, the script writers and director simply ask this question: what is it with men (from 25 to 35, i would say) in the 2000s? Where do we go? And mostly why the hell do we have to go somewhere in the first place, when staying right here feels just fine? A real funny movie with a dramatic (and quite unexpected but highly efficient) twist.

Not a pretentious non credible piece of crap like Maman Last Call (using France french), but a real, real look on what is going on with us, males.

go see it.

It's good.. it's definitely worth seeing but not as interesting for me as Québec-Montréal. Probably because the subject matters in the later hit closer to what I am living as a single male in his late twenties. If you go see it, I highly recommend you go with your significant other and with a bunch of other people both men and women because it's bound to bring up some interesting conversations after the movie in the same way Québec-Montréal would.

My only complaint about the movie is it's stereotypical representation of men's unfaithfulness toward their girlfriends. While it's true that men are statistically more likely to cheat on their girlfriend, the movie portrays all the main women characters in it as saints, which gives off the (false) impression that unfaithfulness in women doesn't happen often enough to be worth pointing out. I don't think it was the director's intention to imply that all men are a certain way (implicitly bad) and women another way (good). But since ALL the girlfriends in the movie are morally irreproachable and all the men are so prone to succumb to their baser, morally dubious, instincts I got out of the theater feeling that it's gender characterizations weren't quite fair and even a little sexist. Of course, it also doesn't help that all but one of the male characters are too blatantly moronic for me to identify with. I guess there are a lot of men like that but (sadly) the majority of them are not likely to be the ones to go see the movie.