Mentiras y gordas

I saw this film at the Cannes Film Festival. It was looking for international distributors after opening number 1 in Spain.

While it is far from a perfect movie, this is on par with 'Kids' and 'Skins'. I remember back to when I first saw Kids - and had similar feelings. This time, I am older and wiser (for instance, I cringed when they repeatedly had sex without condoms and the female characters claimed to be taking the pill.. as if the skanky guy didn't have one or more diseases), but many of the consequences were real.

Leave your parents at home. This one is strictly for you and your friends & lovers.

Located somewhere in the east coast of Spain, the movie tells the typical story of a group of youngsters and their experiences with drugs, sex and rock&roll. Although mainly focused on the life of two close friends, the film ambitiously tries to extend the script to a variety of secondary characters and their daily life full of drugs, clubbing and above all sex, lots of sex.

The movie fails miserably from the very beginning. It is not just slow, it is boring, predictable, and the story lines weak and poorly developed. The film is nothing but a succession of sex scenes divided by short periods of horrible dialogues and awful acting. Don't get me wrong, I am fine with the sex as long as there is something else there to be told in the story, but this is clearly not the case. So what do you get? Well, a bunch of pretty faces and nice butts surrounded by horrible acting and worse direction. The soundtrack is equally bad, apart from the noise from the club scenes, the music is annoying to the extreme of not being able to understand what the characters are saying. Somebody should tell this director what a volume control is, and that when a viewer realizes the existence of a soundtrack the music has been badly chosen.

So summarizing if you are looking for a movie with a good script and well developed story lines go somewhere else. On the other hand if you like sex, naked bodies and full front nudity this one is for you. Combined with the horrible acting and even worse script it would make a great addition for the soft porn section of blockbusters.

The movie is just six years old, but does feel a bit dated already. It's not how the people party or their relationships they have (or don't have for that matter). It's the fact, that social media has changed almost everything and it feels weird not seeing an effect of that in the movie, which makes it feel almost more dated than some movies from the 90s or even 80s.

The story this tells (or stories, because it involves a lot of people) also might feel like a TV movie of the week for some. One that has quite a lot of nudity in it of course, but still. It's decent with the telling and the characters get the time they need to develop. The drama feels real too. It's not as bad as the rating here would suggest, but it's not really a great movie either

To start of with the possessives: I think the movie is well shot, it looks good. But it pretty much stops there.

There is no progress what so ever. Things happen because they happen. There is no sense of progress to the story. And you feel like you are watching event after event take place. So you end up watching these girls and boys take drugs, drink and of course have lot's of sex.

I think I counted 6 sex scenes, placed around the movie, so whenever the viewers think about turning of the film or walking out of the theater, they think that the sex scenes will capture your attention. And for many, it does exactly that. Teens having sex in the toilet of nightclubs.

If you are looking for a good film, look somewhere else. if you want to see teens have sex, well... try porn or this film.

An ordinary story of sex-minded people , dealing with brainless youthful full of perversions and vices , being made without solvency. A youth group is preparing for what the summer of their lives will be, including secrets, lies , sex, confusion, mayhem and especially great night party. Most teenagers are not aware that once you starts this journey of initiation, you can not turn back, and often the lies will become increasingly large, and sometimes love means to hurt. The movie talks upon the misfortunes of a group of friends at their eighteen to twenty years old , seeing lustfully by the opposite sex , including homosexualism , lesbianism and drug addiction.

¨Mentiras y Gordas¨ attempts at a certain truthful approach to the phenomenon of drugs, but none of this gives off credibility and, most importantly, honesty . And it doesn't because there are no characters here, there are just sex that Menkes and Albacete photograph with obvious delight in search of lascivious appealing , and, naturally, the most profitable scandal. The film is a boring and disgusting drama with numerous sex scenes, lacking clarity and sharpness enough . And of course , there's very bad taste , being the extreme when the continuous suggestive sex happens . This young drama is cheesy and gross-out , though it has some atractive but brief moments here and there . The film is an embarrassing and absurd mess , the plot is ridiculous and monotonous and is formed by depictions of the different couples , quite disagreeable and graceless . Often, there is a lot of crush present, most notably in scenes which take place in the nightclub, but it is also obvious in other darker scenes in people's apartments. Skin tones are a little warm in these darker locations too. Colours in the lighter locations, like the bar where Paz/Miriam Giovanelli works, are a lot better. Details vary from very good , to mediocre, with some facial close-ups showing excellent minute details such as chapped lips, and errant strands of hair , and other strong close-ups that most have come to expect . There are some steamy hot scenes which will rejoice the rogue aficionados to these kinds of things . The picture takes part of the large group of films that confidently filed in the sub-genre of grittiness known as Sexy-Grit. This is an annoying Spanish version of other films with no soul or originality. This is more or less the usual American young guys such as Kids' and 'Skins' , but in a Spanish style , and following a similar vein to 'Y Tu Mama Tambien' . Unfortunately, it has none of the warmth or charm of the aforementioned slice of Mexican film-making. This is basically lots of sweaty, Spanish youngsters taking drugs and having sex with each other, while at parties, where they tell lies . But neither the players , nor the filmmaking seem to be nice , and the storyline is utterly embarrassing. A below average film with plenty of dirty, sweaty characters, someone having sex in a seedy toilet cubicle, someone having sex in a seedy alley, lots of drug action, and someone having an overdose . Silly and exaggerated acting by a known cast in their beginnings including as follows the male sex-symbol Mario Casas, Yon González , Hugo Silva, Ana Polvorosa, Alejo Sauras, Marieta Orozco, Miriam Giovanelli , Asier Etxeandia , Maxi Iglesias, Esmeralda Moya, Elena de Frutos and the future Hollywood actress and Oscar-nominated Ana de Armas .

The motion picture was lousily directed by Alfonso Albacete and David Menkes. They're well known as directors and writers , specially known for Atómica (1998), Más que amor, frenesí (1996) , Entre vivir y soñar (2004) , Solo Quimica (2015) , La novia de América (2023) and Sobreviviré (1999) and Mentiras y gordas (2009) . Rating : 2.5/10, Inferior youthful drama . It's essentially rubbish, though it's gritty rubbish, the Sexy-Grit genre deserves better.