The Mexican film industry has been able to take advantage of streaming platforms to adapt, and even innovate, its cinematographic products, with the aim of supplying a new audience that has similarly learned to consume films outside the cinemas. In a country where nearly two hundred films are produced each year, and half of them do not make it to theaters, the emergence of digital distribution spaces emerges as an unavoidable and necessary alternative, but also as an object of debate; What kind of online content is the one that should be available? Should it be equal to what is offered in traditional distribution spaces? What is the responsibility assumed by these spaces for the national film offer?
Directed by Joseduardo Giordano and Sergio Goyri Jr., The Sleepless Club tells the story of Danny (Cassandra Ciangherotti), Santiago (Leonardo Ortizgris), and Estela (Alejandra Ambrosi), three frustrated young adults who share their sleeplessness, dreams and failures in a small mini-market where they meet every night.
Although it is unusual for a production to have more than one director, the result is far from justifying this creative commitment. Despite there are characters with clear conflicts, none of them is developed concretely, the film lacks a real climate moment, and most situations lack an outcome that leads to a satisfactory conclusion. To all this is added the fact that Giordano and Goyri Jr. themselves served as scriptwriters, giving them a largely untapped authorial freedom.
From the cast is perhaps Ciangherotti the most remarkable, that between her role as shy, resigned, and sad looking mother, as she executed in '' Timeshare (2018) '', and this movie, where she becomes a rebellious, bitter, and artistic cashier, she demonstrates her talent for mutation in front of the camera while embodying her character with masterful skill. Unfortunately, this actress is left behind by the script, which for no reason decides not to explore the dramatic possibilities of the enigmatic blue haired girl.
The biggest challenge for national productions at the moment is not how to make more movies, but how to get more movies to be seen. The diversification of the ways of watching films should also imply a diversification in the themes and their narrative proposals, otherwise only the old production models would be reaffirmed, without any discourse that favors the new platforms or question the films made under traditional schemes.
