Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The_late_Buddy_Ryan Vintage coming-of-age drama from Argentina, though it's largely set in Spain. The setup is quite promising: Martin, an Argentine screenwriter who lives in Madrid and a distant, withholding dad if there ever was one, reluctantly takes charge of his 19-year-old son, Hache (pron. "Aché," the equivalent of "Junior"), after the latter unwisely mixes whiskey with a street drug called "dog" and ends up in the hospital. Martin, solitary and self-absorbed by nature, seems to be at a loss, but Martin's friend and collaborator Dante, a hedonistic gay actor, and Martin's clingy, coke-addled girlfriend Alicia (the fabulous Cecilia Roth of "All About My Mother") are delighted to have a handsome new playmate. Trouble comes (for the characters—and the viewer, IMHO) when the scene shifts to a luxurious villa in Almería, in the south (not unlike the modernist pueblo where Bardot and Michel Piccoli hole up in Godard's "Contempt"). An evening of drinking, doping and cynical philosophizing, presumably for the benefit of the directionless young Hache, has tragic consequences that seemed, to me at least, both predictable and contrived. Despite a charmingly redemptive final scene in which Hache finally comes into his own, the film never recaptured my attention after that. A couple of our Spanish Facebook friends really talked this one up; part of the problem may be that the subtitles can't keep pace with the dialogue, which, in these melodramatic final scenes, just comes off as pretentious and banal

Howard Schumann An aging film director returns quickly from Madrid to Buenos Aires when he learns of his nineteen-year old son's drug overdose. When summoned to the boy's bedside, Martin believes his son has tried to commit suicide, although the facts are unclear. What is apparent, however, is that the director (Frederico Luppi), known only as Martin, has distanced himself from his family, hiding his emotions to those who looked to him for support: his son, his mistress Alicia (Cecilia Roth), and his gay actor friend Dante (Eusebio Poncela). Potentially melodramatic, Argentinean director Adolfo Aristarain's (A Place in the World) Martin (Hache), handles the material with skill and intelligence and, while the dialogue often sounds like tedious psychodrama, impeccable performances by Luppi and Roth make Martin extremely watchable.Juan Diego Botto is Martin's son, known as Hache (Junior) or Jay in the English subtitles. Though quite intelligent, Jay does not work or go to school and his only interest seems to be playing the guitar. Feeling unwanted by both parents, rejected by his girlfriend, and thinking that he has let his father down by underachieving, he resorts to a potentially lethal combination of drugs and booze that almost end his young life. Martin is persuaded by his ex-wife to take Jay back to Madrid though he is leery of having to once again assume the responsibilities of fatherhood.Taking on a new project, he soon leaves for the south of Spain to find film locations, leaving Jay with Dante and his girlfriend Alicia, both heavy drug users. Soon, Dante and Alicia meet Martin at a seaside resort, hoping for a new sense of intimacy. It is soon clear that not much has changed. Martin refuses to give of himself, distancing the people around him with outbursts of anger and cynicism and the result leads to tragedy. The conclusion, however, is a bittersweet reminder that transformation can come instantly once difficult choices are faced.

hamletkronprinz On this movie,or IN this movie is not the acting-intense-and it is not the dialogs-piercing-or the camera,filming,sound,etc.techs..It's the everyone watching and missing,quiet in guilts of no participation,like the Eusebio Poncella's Dante playing a Russian revolutionary remarks as he stops acting in the play in the film and sacrifices his career for some much urgent and realist play to the benefit of his protégée. What this movie is calling to watch is not its own show,but a reaction from the silent,passive,inmature in all of us.Egoist parent,petrified males,desperated women,flashed out gaybombs,and scared youths,not to be any of these ways but the opposite,our gentler selves. Our own movie to make,is compared to this one,like the messaged one by the boy of the title to his "profesional" father,the gone losing... A great mirror on a shattering real World.Seldom so well done the real duty of a Play.As Dali used to say,a piece of Art must not only entertain but must definitely provoke disturbing.

Juan I love this movie, what more can i say?!.Some people say that this is a theatrical film because of its dialogues and locations, and i think it´s true, but what´s the matter?. In fact i think it´s like a Greek tragedy with all the kind of characters you can imagine: Dante (good chosen name) is the pleasure, Martín is the fear , Alicia is the emotion, and Hache is the doubt. And here they are mixed in Spain at the end of twentieth century.The performance is simply wonderful. Cecilia Roth (All about my mother) is splendid and what can i say about Federico Luppi who is one of the best actors in Spanish language that exists. I can imagine nobody except Eusebio Poncela as Dante. Juan Diego Botto is quite good.But the best thing in this movie are dialogues. They are really deep and make you think about many things in your life, especially when you are in the age of Hache, and you don´t find ways to mature. And film helps you to take account that many people is not as mature as they are supposed to be - for example Martin father -, and other many people is not as crazy as they are supposed to be - for example Dante-. There are phrases in this film that i know by memory and i use with my friends when we are joking. There are many interesting thoughts about love, loneliness, family, money, sex, drugs, and, of course, life.See it when you are sad.