Film review: 'Football Stories'
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Since this is a Chilean film, the football of the title refers to what North Americans call soccer, the subject of the short tales that make up Andres Wood's debut feature.
Although minor in terms of subject and execution, "Football Stories" (Historias de Futbol) is an engaging effort that was an audience-pleaser at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. The film, amusingly divided into sections dubbed "First Half", "Second Half" and "Overtime", presents three vignettes relating to the sport.
In the first, a young player on a minor-league team is offered a bribe by a professional gambler to not score any goals in a big game. In the second O. Henryish tale, a boy wins a neighborhood soccer contest but as a result finds that he must give up his soccer ball, his most prized possession. The final segment is an amusing look at a hunky soccer fan who finds himself the object of attention by two middle-aged sisters who use their television as an enticement. Although he is only interested in watching the championship game, by the end of the tale everyone, from the Chilean team to each of the sisters, has managed to score.
The slightness of the stories is nicely offset by director Wood's assured and entertaining style, not to mention the utterly natural performances by the entire cast. Although there is an occasional straining for madcap humor (the young children engage in an extended belching contest; the hunky fan falls off a roof while trying to fix an antenna, etc.), in the whole the picture is genial and charming and nicely demonstrates the obsession this sport breeds in South America.
"Football Stories", which should do nicely on the festival circuit, is also valuable for its showcase of a country whose films have not been exposed much on these shores ("Johnny 100 Pesos" is a recent effort that comes to mind).
FOOTBALL STORIES
(Historias de Futbol)
Roos Nortesur Pictures
Director: Andres Wood
Screenplay: Andres Wood, Rene Arcos
Producer: Andres Honorato
Executive producer: J.J. Harting
Cinematography: Igor Jadue-Lillo
Editor: Andrea Chignoli
Music: J. Miguel Miranda, J. Miguel Tobar
Color/stereo
Cast: Maria Izquierdo, Elsa Poblete, Manuel Aravena, Daniel Munoz, Ximena Rivas, Pedro Villagra
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Although minor in terms of subject and execution, "Football Stories" (Historias de Futbol) is an engaging effort that was an audience-pleaser at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. The film, amusingly divided into sections dubbed "First Half", "Second Half" and "Overtime", presents three vignettes relating to the sport.
In the first, a young player on a minor-league team is offered a bribe by a professional gambler to not score any goals in a big game. In the second O. Henryish tale, a boy wins a neighborhood soccer contest but as a result finds that he must give up his soccer ball, his most prized possession. The final segment is an amusing look at a hunky soccer fan who finds himself the object of attention by two middle-aged sisters who use their television as an enticement. Although he is only interested in watching the championship game, by the end of the tale everyone, from the Chilean team to each of the sisters, has managed to score.
The slightness of the stories is nicely offset by director Wood's assured and entertaining style, not to mention the utterly natural performances by the entire cast. Although there is an occasional straining for madcap humor (the young children engage in an extended belching contest; the hunky fan falls off a roof while trying to fix an antenna, etc.), in the whole the picture is genial and charming and nicely demonstrates the obsession this sport breeds in South America.
"Football Stories", which should do nicely on the festival circuit, is also valuable for its showcase of a country whose films have not been exposed much on these shores ("Johnny 100 Pesos" is a recent effort that comes to mind).
FOOTBALL STORIES
(Historias de Futbol)
Roos Nortesur Pictures
Director: Andres Wood
Screenplay: Andres Wood, Rene Arcos
Producer: Andres Honorato
Executive producer: J.J. Harting
Cinematography: Igor Jadue-Lillo
Editor: Andrea Chignoli
Music: J. Miguel Miranda, J. Miguel Tobar
Color/stereo
Cast: Maria Izquierdo, Elsa Poblete, Manuel Aravena, Daniel Munoz, Ximena Rivas, Pedro Villagra
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 11/14/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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