In Simón Mesa Soto’s “A Poet,” Oscar Restrepo is a failed Colombian author who retains a photograph of the creator José Asunción Silva above his mantle. Silva died at age 30, and even Oscar would admit his personal profession could be lots higher if he had died younger, too.
Mid-aged in Medellín, Oscar is unemployed, divorced and residing together with his mom . His case isn’t one in every of misunderstood genius, both. Oscar is vulnerable to self-made catastrophe. A extra profitable good friend, Efrain , calls him “a strolling drawback.”
“You’re a poem,” Efrain tells him. “A fairly unhappy one.”
However within the pantheon of sad-sack protagonists, Oscar is a triumph. Rios, a nonprofessional actor who squints behind thick glasses and whose arms cling stubbornly low from his hunched shoulders, creates in Oscar a determine of farcical perfection: a tortured artist, equal elements comedy and tragedy.
There’s little that’s lyrical or stunning about Oscar’s life. It is a man who, on a uncommon go to to his teenage daughter , asks if he can borrow $10. On the similar time, Oscar is a stout believer within the grandest beliefs of artwork. Give him a drink, or a microphone, and he’ll quickly be rhapsodizing concerning the energy of “poesía.” For somebody one step from the gutter, he’s comically excessive minded.
However it’s been many years since he was revealed. He declares: “I’m a poet.” His sister corrects: “You’re unemployed.” But Oscar manages to land a job educating at an area highschool. The scholars principally snicker at him, however Oscar believes one, a soft-spoken younger girl named Yurlady , reveals super potential. Redemption for Oscar is, possibly, at hand.
Yurlady, herself, doesn’t have any actual literary ambitions. However Oscar, resolving to mentor her, helps her apply to Poetry Viva, a workshop for younger writers run by Efrain, a smooth-talker acclaimed for his social points writing. He’s the central foil to Oscar — a pompous however savvy achiever who urges Yurlady to not submit her easy from-the-heart poems however one thing about racism or poverty that may win over liberal-minded European judges.
On this, Soto’s movie is an ironic allegory about artwork worlds past poetry. “A Poet” premiered eventually yr’s Cannes Movie Competition, successful an award within the Un Sure Regard part. Soto first broke out in Cannes with a prize-winning brief in 2014. Within the intervening years, as a Colombian filmmaker, he’s absolutely encountered some stereotypical expectations. The movie business would little question be extra welcoming to, say, a cartel story from Soto then a Medellín-set, Woody Allen-like farce about an unsuccessful poet.
However whereas “A Poet” may remind you of another movies — one could be Wire Jefferson’s “American Fiction” — it’s, like Oscar, steadfastly its personal factor. Filmed on grainy 16mm, it’s even tough and soiled across the edges, as if the film is sporting its protagonist’s garments.
But when Soto’s movie is free and gritty, its satire is remarkably exact. It is a farce of inventive life the place the one pure inventive intention is a joke. Success belongs to hypocrites like Efrain. Yurlady’s working class household sees solely an opportunity for cash. However Oscar, for all his foolishness, is at the very least uncompromising. He is unsuitable about nearly every thing, besides what actually counts.
“A Poet,” a 1-2 Particular launch in theaters Friday, is unrated by the Movement Image Affiliation. In Spanish with English subtitles. Operating time: 124 minutes. Three and a half stars out of 4.
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