It’s rare to find, or at least it’s hard for me to find good comedies that are also what is said to be a good movie. Comedies that as a rule, it is understood, seen what we have seen, we consider to be good for their ability to make us laugh, either alone or accompanied. Or if possible, in both cases. Often even without taking into account how high or low the percentage of successes is, of course unless it could have given us (too much) embarrassment. Seen like this (or any other way), ‘Scoundrels‘ You could say that it’s a good comedy that is also, as far as it goes, a good movie… within what it proposes, which is nothing more than making us have a good time. What Daniel Guzmán achieves with his second film as screenwriter and director, what is said to be a playful comedy made between friends that is mostly funny, and at times also funny as well as always distracted. Things happen at all times, in a very lively and constantly moving film. With a fairly elaborate story that avoids resorting to formulas that make us feel what is usual in our country: That we are watching an extended episode of some television blood sausage. The but, there always is, is that this kind of Spanish version of the American comedy type ‘Resacn a Las Vegas’ is starring a certain Joaqun Gonzlez (and his family). I mean, yes, but at the same time, not entirely. The intentions are understood (and accepted): This Joaquín González not only interprets himself, but is also the basis of the project, in what can well be considered a stimulating reinterpretation of the biopic concept. Now, neither he nor his family are actors and although they may be somewhat funny (when they are understood), next to Luis Tosar or Guzmán himself their reality becomes a stiff falsehood, weighing down the good disposition of everything (and of all) others. Even so, it is enjoyed, much more than with ‘Camera Café, the film‘, the failed translation to the big screen of what time has turned into a television classic. Ernesto Sevilla tries to wrap things up, and on a formal level the film looks quite good as a homemade imitation of Javier Fesser’s cinema. But at a narrative and plot level it is a disjointed and capricious chaos where all the characters come and go without anything mattering. Except of course Arturo Valls, of course. Everything revolves around the aforementioned, in a film that seems designed to be able to mount a nice trailer. In doses of 30 minutes like those of ‘Chapter 0’, the style of Seville, Joaqun Reyes and Miguel Esteban could hold on and endure. But a feature film is something more serious than a sum of sketches with a clearly low success rate in terms of wit and good taste. A feature film that also hardly takes advantage of the best resource of the series: its choral spirit. He takes little advantage of it, or wastes it, implying that he has not assumed it so that he can go free. An unnecessary question requires a firm and forceful answer to be relevant. However, this expansion of the world of ‘Camera café’ depends so much on the residual condescension of the good memory of what was (but was not) that it looks like a 45-year-old footballer trying to play basketball while pretending to be 25. Or a joke of drunkards counted the day after. To be continued… By Juan Pairet Iglesias
@Wanchopex
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