Saturday, June 29, 2013

Aberya (2012) NYAFF 2013 or 90 minutes I will never get back

I've no idea what to say about this film except that I really don't like it. I mean I REALLY don't like it.

The plot of the film has an American boxer who's parents come from the Philippines going to the country of his parents birth. We watch as he has elliptical and off kilter discussions with the various women he dates, as well other people he encounters including a drug dealer he comes across. He also sees cameras everywhere and talks to them as if he was on a TV show.

Told mostly in close up or in close in shots that give no sense of location, this film goes off on it's merry way toward what end I have no clue. And when I say it's in close up I mean it. Faces and not much else fill the frame for much of the running time. For example the boxer and one his girl friends go to a dance club. We get maybe one or two shots of a couple of people dancing, and then its just close ups on the pair as they talk.  I'm reasonably sure that most of the film could have been shot in a small room with just the actors switching places in front of the camera. Events happen off screen that we never really see.

Who's idea was this and can we hurt them? Better yet can we make them watch the film they have thrown out into the unsuspecting world?

This either means something to the director or is a giant put on.  I found it's almost two hour running time almost unendurable. This is inde cinema at its worst. This is pretentious twaddle. I can't and won't say a good word about it.

God help anyone going to see this Monday afternoon.

(A digression- and what the hell is this doing playing at 1 in the afternoon? with apologies to the programmers I have to ask- Who's fever dream was it to schedule this in the afternoon. As much as I hate this film I could have understood if this got a midnight slot but in the afternoon? Really?)

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