Arrebato

Iván Zulueta, the madman responsible for Los Brincos' Contrabando album art wasn't just into art; he was mainlining the stuff. His debut flick, "Arrebato", isn't just batting its eyelashes at the medium; it's a full-on, drug-fuelled ménage à trois, a wild ride that transports you straight into Zulueta's transgressive cinema.. We're talking about a movie that flips the bird to narrative rules, opting instead for a glorious, unhinged freefall.

Our dubious hero on this descent into chaos is José (Eusebio Poncela), a horror director whose sunken cheeks and nicotine-stained fingers are a testament to his chosen lifestyle of editing cinematic garbage between heroin power naps. He tumbles headfirst into the bizarre world of Pedro (Will More), a peculiar acquaintance who drops a bombshell in José's mailbox: a confession tape, an audio diary charting Pedro's ever-deepening, almost vampiric love affair with film itself.

From that moment on, it's a tight, airless journey where reality and hallucination start doing a dizzying dance. A relentless tide of heroin pulls José and his on-again, off-again squeeze, Ana* (Cecilia Roth), deeper into its clutches. Zulueta shoots this like someone who's stared into the abyss and found a movie camera. Every frame practically oozes. The camera practically salivates over José's veins as he ties off. Pedro's homemade films hiccup and sputter, punctuated by jarring flashes of red-like celluloid actually bleeding. There's sex, but it's all clammy skin and fumbled attempts at connection. A threesome in an elevator that feels less like an erotic fantasy and more like a macabre dissection.

Pedro isn't just filming; he's striking a Faustian bargain. The camera sips his time, his sanity, his very life force. By the time the credits roll, he's not just behind the lens; he's become the lens. José, of course, follows suit. Because what is addiction, really, if not trading your mortal coil for a sublime, fleeting rush? Zulueta knew this intimately; he was deep in his own addiction when he brought this beast to life.

Ultimately, "Arrebato" delivers a truly singular and unforgettable experience-a straight-up Lynchian odyssey through the darkest back alleys of cinematic obsession. It's where the camera itself morphs into a hungry, vampiric entity, draining the very essence from anyone brave enough to fall under its spell. When it all clicks-when Pedro's flickering films and José's dissolving face meld into the reel-it's more than just cinema. As one character so eloquently puts it, perfectly capturing the film's twisted heart: "All my life, it was like a huge wank without cum."

Arrebato by Ivan Zulueta is a wonderful, strange movie. The desire and the magic of cinema full the screen. This extremely beautiful film describes clearly the darkness state of things, the joy and pain of living, taking drugs, being and loving the cinema. A little big jewel to feel.

Writing this review after watching movie just now. It was a slow,bizarre, unexpected and confused thrill feeling in the end.

Up to 1 hour 30 minutes, i was wondering what is the movie about. Last 30 minutes was making sense or a story or screenplay.

It was a kind of slow paced mystery,supernatural and finally let u guess movie.

I felt good but not a mystery or thriller or supernatural genre.

It is food for movie critics and movie lovers( I am not Either)

Good one but not for Mystery/Thriller entertainment lovers.

Obviously, you will receive a surprise from this enrapturing film due to strange denounement and secondary characters. Slowly in the begining, it justifies that scenes during the film while you get catch for the story unconciously. Special mention to the work of Will More, a curious actor who didn´t work in cinema never more, only little appearances on TV series. Correct performance of Eusebio Poncela but he is better actor now, the same to a young and inexpert Cecilia Roth. Definitely you have to see this movie and think about it during hours before you beat the insomnia that the film could produce. Very disturbing.

From initial ridicule (despite the official recommendation as a quality feature) to flat-out praise, it took more than twenty years to realize the seminal influence of this film on Spanish production, from Almodovar onwards. It draws many influences from the Warhol-esque New York underground scene but has tremendous scenes.

Whoever wants to understand what Betty Boop was all about, must see Cecilia Roth dance scene, it is fabulous.

Contains a lot of drug addiction references, which should be seen as an analogy to the addiction to capturing moving pictures and watching them. The only way for a film director to get rid of the latter is to dissolve into the industry.