Grandes mentiras

I saw this film at the Cannes Film Festival. It was looking for international distributors after opening number 1 in Spain.

While it is far from a perfect movie, this is on par with 'Kids' and 'Skins'. I remember back to when I first saw Kids - and had similar feelings. This time, I am older and wiser (for instance, I cringed when they repeatedly had sex without condoms and the female characters claimed to be taking the pill.. as if the skanky guy didn't have one or more diseases), but many of the consequences were real.

Leave your parents at home. This one is strictly for you and your friends & lovers.

The film is a hyperactive, coke-dusted collage of youth hedonism, sex, bisexual confusion, MDMA-fueled decisions, and-most memorably-Ana de Armas's body.

Let's get right to the scene. De Armas plays Carola, a young woman navigating love, betrayal, and a wardrobe that clearly lost a bet. In what might be the film's most gratuitous-and therefore most unforgettable-moment, Carola corners her friend's boyfriend in a nightclub bathroom, pulls down her her top, and whispers, "Suck my breasts." He obliges. Passionately. Then they have sex right there inside the stall, amid flashes of strobe lighting and dramatic guilt monologues. All while Carola breathes through her regret: "I feel terrible...betraying her like this." They both get a kick out of this confession.

Now, let's be clear: Ana de Armas is a walking supernova. Even in a film this messy, she has a presence you can't look away from- all pouty lips, hypnotic eyes, and the kind of topless screen magnetism that short-circuits plot logic entirely. The camera worships her-and honestly, it should. Her nude scenes, especially in this bathroom encounter, are filmed with the kind of reverence usually reserved for confessionals or sunrises.

But the film? It's chaos. Characters jump from partner to partner like horny chess pieces. Emotions change mid-sentence. The soundtrack seems curated by a teenager with unlimited Red Bull. There's potential here-moments of raw vulnerability, explorations of toxic youth culture-but it all gets lost in a haze of over-acting, under-writing, and scenes that feel less written than dared.

If you're here for coherence, look elsewhere. But if you're here for Ana de Armas writhing topless while wrestling with guilt mid-thrust, congratulations-you've found your cinema.

The movie is just six years old, but does feel a bit dated already. It's not how the people party or their relationships they have (or don't have for that matter). It's the fact, that social media has changed almost everything and it feels weird not seeing an effect of that in the movie, which makes it feel almost more dated than some movies from the 90s or even 80s.

The story this tells (or stories, because it involves a lot of people) also might feel like a TV movie of the week for some. One that has quite a lot of nudity in it of course, but still. It's decent with the telling and the characters get the time they need to develop. The drama feels real too. It's not as bad as the rating here would suggest, but it's not really a great movie either

This film did not bore me one single second. It has a great cast of handsome, young, talented actors. The script is delightfully irreverent and at times refreshingly comic. Visually, it's fast paced, and we move from iridescent scenes in da club, hands in the air dancing to anthems, to sleazily snorting cocaine in the toilet cubicles, or heedlessly taking home dodgy young studs for a one night stand. Yes, it's that type of movie: sex, drugs and club life, Spanish style (they're no prudes, and I like it).

But there's more to it than that. Within this promiscuous hedonist environment, people are trying to find a match for their desires. The storyline where one guy (Mario Casas) is secretly in love with his best (straight) mate (Yon Gonzales) is particularly well done. The film is anything but shallow. People writing this film off, because of its themes, are shallow.

The soundtrack is a joy as well.

Located somewhere in the east coast of Spain, the movie tells the typical story of a group of youngsters and their experiences with drugs, sex and rock&roll. Although mainly focused on the life of two close friends, the film ambitiously tries to extend the script to a variety of secondary characters and their daily life full of drugs, clubbing and above all sex, lots of sex.

The movie fails miserably from the very beginning. It is not just slow, it is boring, predictable, and the story lines weak and poorly developed. The film is nothing but a succession of sex scenes divided by short periods of horrible dialogues and awful acting. Don't get me wrong, I am fine with the sex as long as there is something else there to be told in the story, but this is clearly not the case. So what do you get? Well, a bunch of pretty faces and nice butts surrounded by horrible acting and worse direction. The soundtrack is equally bad, apart from the noise from the club scenes, the music is annoying to the extreme of not being able to understand what the characters are saying. Somebody should tell this director what a volume control is, and that when a viewer realizes the existence of a soundtrack the music has been badly chosen.

So summarizing if you are looking for a movie with a good script and well developed story lines go somewhere else. On the other hand if you like sex, naked bodies and full front nudity this one is for you. Combined with the horrible acting and even worse script it would make a great addition for the soft porn section of blockbusters.