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FILM REVIEW: RAGE

Jose Maria (Gustavo Sanchez Parra) in Rage.

Jose Maria (Gustavo Sanchez Parra) has a nasty temper. The moment someone says or does something harmful to him or someone he cares about, he lashes out in a violent rage. (He has a killer punch to boot.) But before the violence erupts, you can see the anger intensely boiling in Jose Maria’s eyeballs. It is as if Jose Maria is attempting to kill his foe simply with his gaze, but director Sebastian Cordero’s third film steers far, far away from the supernatural (such as laser beams shooting from people’s eyes).

This is around the time that I should warn you: Do not let the Dario Argento-esque title fool you, Rage is an intensely über-realistic character study, not a horror film. What Rage studies most carefully is the perception and treatment of Latin American immigrants working in Spain. (Get it? Race/Rage. Anyway...) Jose Maria is a “spick” construction worker and his new girlfriend Rosa (Martina Garcia) is a beautiful young housemaid. They both hail from South America and because of their lack of European citizenship their social status is not much higher than that of animals or slaves. They do the work that the xenophobic Spaniards do not want to do. Men like Jose Maria are expected to be manual laborers with no other role in society while women like Rosa are treated merely as sexual objects. Illegal immigrants are only allowed to exist when they are needed for work, otherwise they are to remain out of sight yet they are a necessary component of the capitalist machine. (This is not all that dissimilar to the perception and treatment of illegal immigrants in the increasingly xenophobic U.S.)

Barely scraping enough income together to survive, Jose Maria sleeps on a bunk bed in a cramped space with six other immigrants while Rosa lives in a quaint secluded room in her employers’ -- the Torres family -- mansion. When Jose Maria loses his construction job and finds himself on the run from the police, he hides in the shadows of an unused section of the Torres mansion. No one, including Rosa, has any clue that Jose Maria is inside the mansion. Forced to live out of sight from everyone, Jose Maria becomes a literal manifestation of society’s perception of illegal immigrants. Jose Maria evolves into a rat-like creature (figuratively, of course), scampering down to the kitchen to scour for food any moment the house is temporarily vacant, taking more significant risks when his hunger grows too intense. (Even his bowel movements are done clandestinely in plastic bags.)

Adapted from Argentine author Sergio Bizzio’s novel, Cordero’s characters are incredibly well-developed and multidimensional. Every choice of action made by Rosa and Jose Maria makes perfect sense within the context of the narrative. We experience their incredible desire to become normal members of society, to experience love and respect, to start a family. Even the Torres family members are more than just uptight and oppressive bourgeoisie. Their decisions are not restrained by class or economics, they reason just like real people.

Unfortunately, all of this focus on character development and realism slows Rage down to a near crawl. Rage has the makings of a fantastic thriller and while I respect his stylistic choices, there could have very easily been some climactic tension if Cordero only opted to pick up the pace every once in a while.

A scene from Even the Rain.

Collective colonization

By John Esther

Director Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal), producer Costa (Luis Tosa) and their Spanish crew have just arrived in Cochamba, Bolivia to make a film about Columbus' arrival in the Americas during the late 15th century. An examination in racism, religious hypocrisy and resistance, the film within the film of director Iciar Bollain's Even the Rain takes an unflattering view of the Spanish crown's gold crush in the 16th century.

While on location, the local "Indians," many of whom are involved with the film at significantly lower pay than their Spanish counterparts, are involved in a struggle with powerful forces (back by foreign corporations) over the local water supply. The locals have virtually no rights to the point they are prohibited from collecting the rain.

If making an epic historical film were not daunting enough, the local struggle threatens the film, the filmmakers' safety and the filmmakers' ideas about what it means to make a film about historical oppression while contemporary oppression is surrounds you and what it means to make a film about an oppressed people of the past without oppressing people of today.

Written by oft-Ken Loach collaborator, Paul Laverty (Bread and Roses; Looking for Eric) Spain's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film swirls on a wide range of levels and topics. The film about a film or films (someone is shooting a documentary on the making of the film) thoroughly analysis the limitations and possibilities about making films to address (adjust?) social injustices, whether they are past or present, and that film is never the same as reality, regardless of accuracy, yet this is being illustrated in a film.

Highly recommended.

(Even the Rain screens Jan. 7, 6 p.m., Palm Springs Regal 9; Jan. 08 10 a.m., Palm Springs Regal 9. For more information: http://www.psfilmfest.org)

Why be normal?

By Don Simpson

At 34 years of age, Daniel (Pablo Pineda) is the first student with Down syndrome to obtain a university degree in Europe. After graduation, Daniel is hired by the Disability Services office of Seville, Spain. It is his first job and just another rung on Daniel’s ladder to normalcy. Daniel almost immediately starts working on the next rung, marriage, after landing the job, falling for a chain-smoking and boozy peroxide blond co-worker named Laura (Lola Dueсas). The question remains, can a “normal” woman fall in love with a man with Down syndrome? Or should Daniel just “Fall in love with women [he] can get”?

Daniel explains at one point during the film that he has advanced beyond most individuals with Down syndrome because his mother (Isabel Garcнa Lorca) started talking to him at a very early age. As Daniel grew older his mother realized that he was actually understanding her and they began having discussions about philosophy, politics, etc. (Daniel's parents are intellectuals who love and trust him implicitly.) Eventually Daniel was assimilated into Seville’s school system and progressed all the way to and through college.

Raised, essentially, as a “normal” person, Daniel is unsure of where his normalcy ends. How assimilated into Spanish society can he possibly become? Is normalcy something that is worth aspiring to? (When Daniel confesses to Laura that he wants to be her boyfriend because she makes him “feel normal," Laura retorts "Why would you want to be normal?") Is Laura, a nymphomaniac who abandoned her family for undisclosed reasons, any more normal than Daniel?

Me, Too also features a very intriguing subplot: a love story between Down syndrome lovers Pedro (Daniel Parejo) and Luisa (Lourdes Naharro). Should they be allowed to date? To marry? Most importantly, should they be allowed to have sex?

It is definitely worth noting that Pineda -- like Daniel -- is the first student with Down syndrome in Europe to obtain a university degree, so he is essentially playing a fictionalized version of himself in Me, Too. Pineda’s heart-wrenching performance as Daniel is nothing short of amazing.

Me, Too turns the popular understanding of Down syndrome on its head. Co-writers and directors Antonio Naharro and Alvaro Pastor effectively question the presumed abnormalcy of people with Down syndrome all the while pondering whether normalcy is all it is cracked up to be. As a society we might be able to root for Daniel’s quest for normalcy, but are we comfortable with the possibility of Daniel becoming more than just friends with Laura? And how does that differ from Pedro and Luisa’s relationship? Is there a line to be drawn? If so, where do we draw it? With a college diploma?

For better or worse, I continuously pondered throughout the course of Me, Too whether or not a film like this could ever be created in Hollywood. Is the United States ready to accept a “normal” Down syndrome lead character? More importantly, how receptive are audiences in the United States going to be to Me, Too? This is a groundbreaking film and I really hope that audiences at least give it a chance.

A Spanish Woman without Piano fading to gray.

Nights in Madrid

By Don Simpson

In this New Lights Competition selection, director Javier Rebollo and his regular co-writer Lola Mayo tell the story of a bored housewife (Carmen Machi) who, upon bedtime, dons heavy makeup and a black wig as she heads outside to wander the streets of Madrid with suitcase in hand – she cannot sleep because there is a constant buzz buzz buzz in the drum of her ear.

Reminiscent of Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot, we observe her aimlessly walking for a majority of the film (in high heels, no less) as she witnesses the most mundane facets of Madrid’s nocturnal activities to its most absurd. Adding another layer to the aimlessness, the story coincides with the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

(Woman without Piano is scheduled to screen Nov. 1, 4 p.m., at Mann Chinese Theater, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. For more information: 866/AFI Fest; www.afi.com)

FILM REVIEW: RAGE

PSIFF: EVEN THE RAIN

FILM REVIEW: ME, TOO

AFI FEST 2009: WOMAN WITHOUT PIANO