El autor

This entertaining drama will seem really funny for those who are also writing and procrastinates when there are no new ideas in mind. The concept - one house but different connected stories are nothing new, but it had its tensions and twists!

Altogether, failed intellectual, old puma, immigrants and grumpy chess player keeps the viewers clueless about the outcome.

The Motive (2017)

A great concept drives this relatively low key Spanish movie with a small time crime underpinning it. Original called the Author (El Autor), it's about a wannabe writer, Álvaro, who is increasingly desperate to write a really good novel. It doesn't help that his wife has meanwhile just written one, leaving him behind for another man. So Álvaro realizes he lives in a boring world with no inspiration and he has to contrive excitement. By messing with the personal lives of his neighbors in an apartment building. This gets fun and messy fast. All of this sounds great and it needs a better film to pull it off. Better direction, snappier dialog, and faster editing. There is also some obviousness to the way it is filmed that makes it kind of drab, in some cases, or contrived. (One example-when eavesdropping on his neighbors, we can see their shadows perfectly cast on a wall he is watching, something that is so fake and unlikely it undermines the general mundane feel of the rest of the film.) Still, I watched it all with a certain patient interest. Álvaro is played by Javier Gutierrez, a Spanish actor who is not quite a "leading man" type in the Hollywood sense, and he gives his character drive without making a caricature out of him.

Good movie and nudity is generally ok for me but in this movie contains unnecessary nudity which is disturbing. But I always admire that Javier Gutierrez is an excellent actor.

Typical Spanish movie that reveals the darkness of humanity. The twist in the end is a little rush but the whole idea of the story is still very intriguing to me. 7 stars for the story and 2 stars for Javier Gutiérrez's great acting.

Great spanish movie, all the actors are amazing!!!