Mamabadger56

This is a movie that actually made me laugh out loud, frequently - and that's a rare thing. The subject matter is often dark, or simply sad, but the banter is hilarious, the superficially depressing subject matter providing background for fun, zany, harshly satirical dialogue. There is also a warm and optimistic personal growth story that emerges from the cast of bitter or dysfunctional characters and their storyline - particularly the central character, Maria.

Maria, believably played by Mariana Mazza, is a complete failure, an unemployed woman of 30 who lives with her terminally ill mother, and has no ambitions beyond a vague hope of becoming an actress - her comically awful audition for a TV commercial demonstrating her lack of talent in that area. Things begin to change when she applies to work as a substitute teacher, and is assigned to a class, where her sharp, vulgar, outspoken manner appeals to the students, and Maria gradually begins to find herself and recognize her own potential.

This is a largely dialogue-driven film. The amusingly scathing remarks by the overworked principal about her high school students, interactions among the students themselves, and Maria's talks with friends, are consistently caustic and funny. The family interactions are warm, but also brutally honest and full of sharp quips and dark humour. This is particularly true of Maria's relationship with her mother: their charming ability to speak freely and without boundaries is both funny and a little shocking, particularly when talking about the mother's imminent death. The family's grief following her death is strikingly genuine.

The film follows Maria's slow and awkward development into a more confident and capable person, through a series of mishaps and errors in judgment, ranging from stupid to borderline illegal. The high school students' problems, and Maria's efforts to help, are presented in a decidedly unsentimental way, and success is never guaranteed, making the story's positive aspects more realistic than usual. It is a genuinely enjoyable underdog success story, which stands out for its distinctly harsh, funny script.

I saw this unusual movie at TIFF, where it was presented in the Wavelength category - which is to say, experimental film. I'd be the first to admit I'm not well versed in the art of film, and some of the more avant-garde examples might well go over my head. This one is definitely avant-garde. That being said, it seems to me this movie missed the mark.

It's filmed in an interesting way, almost entirely close-ups of hands working on restoring or replicating various kinds of antiquities, artifacts, and in one case an elephant's tusk, using techniques from clay moulds to 3-D printing. The tusk images are preceded by beautiful close-ups of an elephant's craggy face, its eye. Voices in conversation music, workroom sounds can be heard but the people themselves aren't seen, only their hands and the items they're replicating.

The problem is, the film seems to be trying to make a point, but it doesn't even begin to come across through what is seen and heard. It could be intended as an observation about the real as opposed to the imitation, or the original vs the dupicate. It could even have something to do with conservation, relating to the images of an elephant and tusk. I see no way of knowing what the film is trying to say.

Director Jessica Rinland has a knack for presenting intriguing images; the film actually holds the attention longer than it should without a dramatic plot or discernible theme. I found myself cheering her on, hoping the movie would become less obscure. I suspect she could be an impressive filmmaker if she could bite the bullet and make her message clear to the average viewer.