With the 40th (and my first-ever) Chicago Latino Film Festival now in the books, it’s time to take a look at what I screened. The event featured films from 28 countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Europe, along with a number of other nations that provided financial and production support. Regrettably, however, based on what I saw, I was largely disappointed with this event, which has given me pause to think about whether I will attend again next year.

So what went wrong? Of the four films I watched, three of them left much to be desired. (In the interest of full disclosure, I had originally been scheduled to attend six showings but had to miss out on two of them due to illness.) Perhaps it was my fault by selecting the wrong pictures to begin with. Or perhaps the event needs better, more selective programming, at least in light of what I saw. All of the screenings I attended were also bogged down by the showing of film shorts in advance of the main features, all of which, in my opinion, were pretentious and laughable, coming across like lofty student film projects employing a sense of phony erudition and trying my patience for why I showed up at the theater in the first place.

Over the years, I have watched many fine films from the nations featured at this event, especially Argentina, Brazil and Chile, countries whose works were prominently featured at this festival. However, I can honestly say that, with one exception, these were not among those releases. I’m going to have to think about this festival before deciding to make a return visit.

Here’s what I watched and what I thought about them:

“The Bubble” (“La burbuja”) (Argentina) (3.5/5); Letterboxd (3.5/5), Imdb.com (7/10), TMDB.com (7/10)

Web site Trailer Festival site

In times of widespread duress, there’s no telling what lengths we’ll go to in order to survive. That’s what an Argentine family is forced to do when a national pandemic strikes that affects all manner of everyday life, things we take for granted like utility service, fuel supplies and even grocery availability. Fortunately, they’re in a relative “bubble” of safety on a remote family ranch, to which they came for a visit to care for the ailing family patriarch. However, when all hell breaks loose, they’re in no position to return home to Buenos Aires – a blessing in disguise in some ways, but a curse in others, especially when trips to a nearby town to acquire supplies become fraught with dangers. Director Miguel Angel Rocca’s latest tells a tale of conditions familiar to most of us, mirroring the logistical and psychological difficulties we all underwent not that long ago. It vividly depicts those circumstances, capturing the emotional toll they took on us at a time when it seemed like there was nothing we could do about them, particularly when they turn out to be even worse than we ever thought. The family’s story is reasonably well told, though it does have a tendency to become somewhat melodramatic at times, with a need for editing and better efforts when it comes to the placement of comic relief (not to mention better subtitle work). In all, though, “The Bubble” also serves as a reminder to not accept everything we hear at face value and that it’s indeed possible to be deceived even under the most trying of situations, a lesson that one can only hope we’ll remember if ever faced with a scenario like this again.

“The Apartment” (“El apartamento”) (Paraguay) (2.5/5); Letterboxd (2.5/5), Imdb.com (5/10), TMDB.com (5/10)

Web site Trailer Festival site

Those familiar with my writing know that I’m not much of a fan of horror films, though I have been somewhat encouraged by the emergence of “smart horror” releases in recent years – scary movies that seek to do more than just try to see how high they can get the body count by film’s end. So I was naturally intrigued by this debut feature from writer-director Michael Kovich Jr., which tells the story of a man (Bruno Sosa Bofinger) who unwittingly finds himself imprisoned in his own apartment, with massive chains covering his front door from the inside. Based on its impressive trailer, the picture suggests that it’s going to provide viewers with more than what they typically expect from such fare, thanks in large part to its stylish production design and gorgeous black-and-white cinematography. Regrettably, however, “The Apartment” doesn’t live up to that potential, mainly because its narrative is wholly predictable. It doesn’t take long to figure out what’s going on here (I called it after about 10 minutes into its 1:27:00 runtime), and that kind of predictability is, for me, the cardinal sin of filmmaking, no matter how elaborately the production may be dressed up. As a consequence, the film limps along with tedious pacing and tiresome redundant sequences, clearly padding a story that ultimately doesn’t have much substance going for it. It also suffers from an excess of scenes featuring graphic depictions of domestic violence, material that could have easily been scaled back without losing any meaningful impact. The bottom line is that this disappointing release represents a missed opportunity to help elevate a genre very much in need of new life. Instead, we’re left with an offering stuck in an old mold, despite an attempt to use upgraded aesthetics to make it more than it is. And there’s nothing frightening in that.

“Prison in the Andes” (“Penal cordillera”) (Chile/Brazil) (2/5); Letterboxd (2/5), Imdb.com (4/10), TMDB.com (4/10)

Web site Trailer Festival site

When right-wing Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was ousted from office in 1990, five of his henchmen (fanatical military officers charged with doing the autocrat’s dirty work) were sentenced to incarceration for terms totaling hundreds of years at a special “prison” at the base of the Andes Mountains. The facility was far more comfortable than a typical penitentiary, where the now-aged egomaniacal inmates enjoyed comparatively more freedom and privileges than what typical prisoners experienced and where the guards were more like domestic servants than corrections officers. While the residents often complained about their accommodations – far less lavish than what they were accustomed to – they had it relatively easy given what they had done and were now being “punished” for. In fact, in many respects, they still called the shots, despite the presence of supposed state authorities overseeing their “confinement.” Director Felipe Carmona chronicles the unconventional circumstances of the inmates and staff in this fact-based account of their waning days “behind bars,” circa 2013. However, their story is anything but easy to follow, featuring a narrative that’s all over the map with little coherency connecting the various segments and story threads. Conflicting cinematic styles (including some that are almost surreal in nature and others that are downright silly, such as a sequence shot in the style of an old-time black-and-white silent movie), along with themes that seldom feel fully fleshed out, seriously bog down the overall flow of the story, leaving viewers more confused than enlightened by the time the credits roll. Admittedly, as a picture made for Chilean audiences, there likely are a number of nuanced elements whose significance becomes lost in translation, but, even setting that consideration aside, “Prison in the Andes” simply is not well assembled as a cogent cinematic offering. I’ve seen more than my share of Chilean movies over the years, including a variety of releases related to the Pinochet regime during its heyday and in the aftermath of its fall from power, but this muddled release definitely isn’t one of them.

“Long Time No Sleep” (“Hace mucho que no duermo”) (Argentina/Colombia) (1/5); Letterboxd (1/5), Imdb.com (2/10), TMDB.com (2/10)

Web site Trailer Festival site

It’s true what they say about not being able to judge a book by its cover – or a movie by its trailer or description. Such is the case with writer-director Agustín Godoy’s debut feature, a trainwreck of a film that makes virtually no sense from start to finish. As a sort of screwball comedy (a term I use loosely) in which multiple characters are trying to get their hands on a mysterious locked backpack, the film follows them as they relentlessly pursue one another throughout the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires in a race to get the goods. In some ways, it loosely follows the narrative format of comedy classics like “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (1963) or “What’s Up, Doc?” (1972) only with a lot less skill (or humor, for that matter). Its plot line features a collection of disjointed elements that feel like they were dumped into a spaghetti bowl and thrown against the wall to see what would stick (most of which doesn’t). Carrying the story are an equally mismatched assemblage of characters, including an insomniac office worker (hence the title, I suppose) who frequently and inexplicably begins speaking in rhyme, a quirky Tarot card reader who doubles as a security guard when not cluelessly following her stream of consciousness impulses, a band of inept mob mules and a mysterious woman simply known as the Duchess who appears to be the intended recipient of the backpack. In telling this story, however, the movie is all over the map with plot developments, most of which don’t relate to one another and are lazily connected by endless (and I do mean endless) sequences of characters running from one another throughout the streets, parks, landmarks and industrial areas of the city. I’ll admit that this makes for a rather comprehensive and nicely filmed travelogue about Buenos Aires, and it features a reasonably engaging, well-edited opening sequence, but that’s about all this woefully sorry effort has going for it. Under no conditions should you waste your precious time on this hot mess.

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