Perpetuum Mobile (Nicolas Pereda, 2009): Canada/Mexico
Reviewed by Byron Potau. Viewed at Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, Ca. as part of the 2009 AFI Film Festival.
When the festival announcer introduced director Nicolas Pereda’s Perpetuum Mobile he made a point to mention how prolific Pereda has been, this being his second feature film this year, however, this may be what has led to this film’s biggest shortcoming which is its paper thin story. There is not even enough happening here to fill half a film and it has the sense that the director struggled just to stretch the film to feature length.
Gabino (Gabino Rodriguez) is a twenty four year old man living with his mother. He has a part time job with his friend Paco as a mover of which we see a few scenes of him working and a few of him not working. His mother nags him incessantly, not that he does not deserve it as he is frequently lazy. It seems he and his mother have a routine of waiting for his brother to come over on the weekend, but he never seems to show and their mother makes excuses for him since he is the one with a nice job and a college education.
Other than the aforementioned, there is very little plot to speak of and an inordinate number of scenes of characters waiting quietly for other characters to arrive, usually to no avail. Much of the film consists of mundane situations, trivial and sparse dialogue, and what is worse, a lingering camera that does not know when to stop recording. By letting the camera run for ten to twenty seconds after the scene is effectively over (often after the characters have left the room) director Pereda probably adds an extra fifteen minutes to his film which, it is my guess, is the point. He adds another five to ten minutes by inexplicably including a particularly boring scene twice, the second time being the second take of the scene.
Pereda also falls in love with shooting the back of the heads of his characters as he follows them around in close up struggling to keep the camera in focus. He employs this shot so often it is like he just learned it and spent half the film trying to perfect it.
It is obvious the film lacks enough plot for a feature and it is simply torture watching it try to stretch itself into one. Maybe next time Pereda can just make one film in a year, preferably one where something happens.
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You’re currently reading “Perpetuum Mobile (Nicolas Pereda, 2009): Canada/Mexico,” an entry on Student Film Reviews
- Published:
- 11.05.09 / 12am
- Category:
- AFI Filmfest 2009, Films
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