25 Watts

I'm from Uruguay and movies here are not so good. But this year five uruguayan films have been made. One of them beat a record in the box-office. But the best of that five films, was "25 Watts". With only 200.000 dollars, Rabella and Stoll (writers and directors of the film) wrote an exellent screenplay and direct the movie in a memorable way.

The story is about three boys that dont do nothing but they have lot problems in the job, with studies, and other things like that. The result is an exellent "opera-prima", a first prize in the Rotterdam Festival, a first prize of best opera-prima in the Coral Awards and a pre-nomination to the Goyas Awards.

For me the best uruguayan film of the year and the history.

25 Watts might do something it wasn't meant to do -- and that is portray a boring day just as it should be portrayed: boringly. Although at times having wit and comedy, one cannot help but feel that somewhere between the script and the subtitles the true entertainment was lost.

Although this film contains a lot of original and interesting camera work combined with a pleasantly artistic depiction of daily events, it is only at the cost of excitement. The scenes which one finds to be most exciting are the scenes one finds to be the shortest. The scenes that portray pure boredom seem to always be the longest.

Although the general idea behind it and the hard work put into it may seem good, in the end it is overshadowed by the general boredom. Although it was interesting, it was not entertaining. Although it kept my attention, it did not terribly enthrall me. In the end, the zany characters and moments of excitement do not cut it and leave something lacking.

Saturday, early in the morning. Leche, Javi and Seba wander around the neighborhood with nothing much to do. They drink beer, smoke, talk about girls. 25 watts shows us a day in the life of these three young inhabitants of Montevideo. They spend the day trying to escape from boredom, facing the twists and turns of love, interacting with friends and other picturesque characters from the "barrio" that share moments with them. So we get to see a paranoid delivery man, a weird video club owner among other strange and funny characters. The acting is very good, all the cast. This film was shot in b&w 16mm and then blown up to 35mm. It has a grainy look, which adds certain raw atmosphere to it. It is Stoll and Rebella's first feature film.

Certainly, one you should check out.

I hope this film will be the first of a large number of pictures. Making pictures is not common in Uruguay, and filming it in black and white is less common. This film show you how our country is, but without showing you the typical things, the touristic part (beaches, squares and so on), something that appears in almost all the uruguayan films. I recommend it, it´s one of the best films I have ever seen.

This film depicts an average day in the life of three young men in Montevideo (Uruguay) in a very funny way.

The adventures of these guys are bound to entertain you even though, or more likely because they are adventures on a tragically small scale. Even when our heroes are bored a few laughs are just around the corner. The array of sympathetic, hilarious and strange characters that crosses the screen is so colorful I almost forgot that I was watching a film in black and white.

And besides that, the realism that comes to your screen is a refreshment in the Hollywood-dominated world of film.