In addition, El Cuco, the new film starring Belén Cuesta, has premiered in Málaga Premiere Official Section Out of Competition.
The 26th edition of the Malaga Festival has come to an end, and upon entry has been in charge of closing a Official Section that this year has been loaded with talent and a variety of genres. Besides, the cuckoothe ‘thriller directed by Mar Targarona Borrás, has been the title that has closed the section Malaga Premiere.
‘Upon Entry’, an unpretentious game that catches you
The Official Section of the contest in competition has been closed by the interesting debut of Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez, who co-direct the film starring Alberto Ammann and Bruna Cusí.
The tape follows Diego, a Venezuelan urban planner, and Elena, a contemporary dancer. They are both a couple and live in Barcelona, until one day they decide to move to the United States with their approved visas to try their luck professionally and start a new life on the other side of the pond. However, when they arrive at the Newark airport where their next flight to miamithe situation is complicated for both.
The direct ones have used only a waiting room and a small room to develop the entire plot of an hour and a quarter of footage. The funny thing about small, single gaps on a tape is that it can go terribly wrong or be all a success. In the case of upon entry It was the latter, clearly.
The strenuous interrogation that its protagonists have to go through is one of the keys to the script that makes the viewer Can’t take your eyes off the person being questioned and the agents who ask them the questions. But, these questions, beyond fulfilling a routine order, little by little reveal the life of each one and, above all, some hidden truths that both are unaware of the other.
Question by question, test by test, you also feel how the room is getting smaller and you share the suffocating sensation that Diego and Elena are living. Upon Entry is an unpretentious film where he shows that in the vast majority of times less is more.
‘El cuco’: good idea, poor execution
Lights and shadows in the Mar Targarona proposal. A horror film that begins with good sense but gradually deflates. We are not, far from it, before a debutante, the filmmaker knows very well the rhythms of suspense. Under the umbrella of his production company Rodar y rodar, he has promoted the careers of Juan Antonio Bayona and Oriol Paulo -among others-, now two well-known Spanish directors specializing in psychological terror. But in her new feature film as director, the cuckoohas so much hits like misses and in the end it results in the waste of an idea with a lot of potential.
Belén Cuesta and Jorge Suquet play a couple with problems preparing for the arrival of their first child. Looking for some peace of mind, they decide to exchange their house with a nice retired couple who lives in the German Black Forest. They will soon realize that they are neither as charming nor as innocent as they seemed.
Years ago, Cuesta was one of the faces of Spanish comedy, but for years now she has broken that dynamic and has proven to be an all-round performer. She did it in The Infinite Trench and repeats it again in the cuckoo. Next to her is Suquet, who in recent years we have seen in All the Times We Fall in Love, Those in the Last Row and Mother’s Love. Now she signs this horror tape quite rightly. The problem is not, therefore, in its two protagonists, but in a narrative that could have been more subtle and less extravagant.
Targarona presents an original and engaging premise that really manages to grab the viewer’s attention. The tape immediately gets into flour and takes the protagonists to the house where they are going to live their particular nightmare. that’s when the movie begins to engage. The tension that is created in that incredible mansion works, the unexpected appearances, the dynamics between the couple and the element of pregnancy, which gives it an extra dose of anguish. For a moment, it seems that ‘Saw’ is going to throw morality and is going to teach the characters of Cuesta and Suquet a lesson for their bad habits -smoking, drinking, being unfaithful, selfish…-, but what counts is a supernatural fantasy that doesn’t quite fit. He throws overboard that ‘son of a bitch’ so fresh from the first part to take another path that is quite lukewarm
