Review of “Delinquents”, by Rodrigo Moreno
By Diego Patel
Release Date 26-10-2023
Rating
Posted on 24-10-2023
– After two collective films at the dawn of new Argentine cinema (Bad times and rest), Rodrigo Moreno made his debut with a 100% promising film of his own as Custodian (2006), which followed Mysterious world (2011), Raymond (2014) and the documentary Regional town (2017). After 6 years of absence and after overcoming a complex production that has been interrupted several times due to the pandemic, the most ambitious, dangerous and fascinating feature film of his entire career finally arrives, a changing and mutant story that travels through different genres and styles.
– After its premiere at Cannes and after a successful tour of festivals, the Argentine actor for the Academy Award for Best International Film arrives at 32 theaters across the country.
Criminals (Argentina-Chile-Brazil-Luxembourg/2023). Written and directed by: Rodrigo Moreno. Cast: Daniel Elias, Esteban Bigliardi, Margherita Molvino, Germán de Silva, Laura Paredes, Mariana Schoud, Gabriela Saidon, Cecilia Rainero, Javier Zorro Sutton, Lalo Rotaphiria, Iyer Said, Fabian Casas, Agustin Toscano and Adriana Eisenberg. Photography: Inés Duacastella and Alejo Maglio. Editing: Manuel Ferrari, Nicolas Goldpart, Rodrigo Moreno, Art Direction: Gonzalo Delgado and Laura Caligiori. Voice: Marcos López da Silva and Roberto Espinosa. Production companies: Wanka Senny, Rizoma Films, Jack Content, Les Films Fauvis, Giraffe Films and Punta Colorada de Cinemas. Distributor: Mako Cinemas and MUBI. Running time: 187 minutes. Theaters (first week): 32 (Multiplex Belgrano, Cine Arte Cacudelivia, Sala Lugoones, Cinemac Palermo, Cinmark Puerto Madero, Hoytes Apasto, Cinépolis Recoleta, Cinépolis Hosay, Shopplay Belgrano, Atlas Patio Bolrich, Lorca, Hoytes Unicenter, Hoytes Quilmes, Shoplay Norcenter, Multiplex Pilar, Cinema Adroji, Municipality of Quilmes, Cinema Paradiso de la Plata, Uniósén de Tandil, Paseo Aldrí de Mar del Plata, Sinis del Paseo de Mar del Plata, Hoytes Patio Olmos de Córdoba, Cordoba Gallery, Hoytes Rosario, Cinépolis Rosario, Rosario Gallery, Cenmark Mendoza, Cinépolis Mendoza, Cinema Center Mendoza, Hoytes Salta, Pico de General Pico and Renzi de la Panda, Santiago del Estero).
Here is an extensive interview with director Rodrigo Moreno
After three hours of overtime, the final credits for Criminals, which is divided into phase I, Phase II, Phase III and Phase IV of filming that began in December 2018 and ended only in September 2022. Some technicians are repeated, but many have changed (for example, two cinematographers, Inés Duacastella and Alejo Maglio, appear). However, due to its derivative, transformative and uncategorical nature (we can say that many films coexist in one film) and because of this (miracle) charm of cinema, Rodrigo Moreno turned the most winding and problematic production of his career into the most successful and stimulating cinematic work.
What at first glance looks like a plagiarism movie (and a kind of unofficial remake of Barely a criminal, by Hugo Frigonez) and then turns into a poem by Buenos Aires with the imprint of the seventies that refuses to die with Astor Piazzola playing in the background, to a love story (a romantic triangle that we only know to some extent), to a prison drama with a literary touch, to the rural vein and then the meditative with footage reminiscent of the Iranian cinema Abbas Kiarostamy and the cinema of the Iranian Abbas Kiarostami A day in the countrysideby Jean Renoir. To a story with the spirit of the mysterious new French liberation, to the structure of cinema within the cinema (there are some secondary characters that are in the middle of an eternal fire like Moreno), to Reltato with noir touches typical of the French rereading of the genre by Henri-Georges Clozot and Jean-Pierre Melville and to a tale even with elements typical of the West with horses and treasures hidden under the rocks.
If the reader is rightly wondering at this point whether Criminals It works, it flows and it has logic, the answer is definitely yes. Some may be more seductive on one side than the other, but Morino’s new composition is always a visual and narrative delight with a director unleashing it. His imagination, talent and passion for film (and literary and musical).
In Always Fun, several of the main characters are anagrams: Roman, Ramon, Norma, Morna … The actor himself can play two characters, as in the case of the great Germán de Silva, a del Toro, head of the bank branch, but also Garincha, Cabo of the prison unit. The protagonist (in principle) is Morán (the character of Daniel Elias has the same surname as Jorge Salcedo in Barely a criminal), treasurer since “always” of the Social Cooperative Bank in the heart of downtown Buenos Aires. From his privileged arrival at the treasure vault, he takes $650,000 on the eve of a long weekend. Because that’s what he and Roman (Esteban Bigliardi) will earn all their lives until it’s time to retire.
Moran commits theft alone, But then he meets Roman at the Imperio pizzeria in Chacarita and there he makes him an irresistible offer: to take care of his money during the three and a half years he will spend in prison (because he plans to immediately turn himself in and confess his guilt) and then divide the loot. This is just the beginning of an unpredictable film and a labyrinth, a story about (against) the system in which it will look Where is freedom?, a classic Babu blues from 1971, as a dominant idea and even a declaration of principles.
That in one of the first scenes his mother Adriana Eisenberg (actress) Sweet Silver, Crane World and Broken hugs), that the weeping security guard is Eyre Said, which includes the presence of Fabien Casas reading to prison inmates a long and beautiful part of Major salt flatsby Ricardo Zelarian, that there must be an explicit tribute to The money, by Robert Bresson, the fact that the screen appears in several split (and at the same time animated) clips showing the heroes in parallel is only some of the praises and passions that Moreno allows for himself and gives us, a director who seems to have overcome the challenge of such a prolonged absence with a great film that constitutes one of the most anticipated returns (with glory) of national cinema in recent times.
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