TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "VIAJE"
The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, runs April 15th-26th and features hundreds of features, documentaries, short films, and special events all throughout downtown New York City. The ArtsWire Weekly's three featured reviewers Mateo, Derek, & Chrisena are hitting the festival and bringing the reviews right to you! What you should see and what you should skip...
Random meetings happen everyday. Two people, who under normal circumstances, would never have met, run across each other's paths and something sparks. Something in both of them. A connection. There's been countless films made on this subject but what makes Paz Fábrega's film VIAJE so unique is how simply it's told, and with so much honesty and heart. Kattia Gonzalez and Fernando Bolaños star as Luciana and Pedro, two strangers who meet in a hallway at a booze filled costume party near the end of the night. Pedro introduces himself and then suddenly, drunkenly, tries to kiss her. She turns away and leaves, but after a moment has second thoughts and thinks, "What the hell..." Their kiss turns into the two of them leaving the party together and beginning a night that will reshape both of them.
What strikes you immediately is just how natural the film feels, and how natural the two leading actors are with each other. It often feels like we're interrupting something, that we've actually stumbled upon private moments of two people magnetically connecting to each other. The taxi ride they share on the way to Pedro's house is hilarious and charming as they banter about watching their friends have kids and how they should have kids with other people but continue to date each other and it's completely spoiled by their driver who takes their joking serious. The next morning as they wake up is beautiful and feels like every moment grows organically, never feeling scripted or rehearsed. Gonzalez and Bolaños are ridiculously great here, funny, sexy, and charming within each moment. The cinematography by Esteban Chinchilla is gorgeous; the sunrises with a poetic glow, the distant glow seeming to be a painted picture. Paz Fábrega, directing from her own script, breezes through the story with a masterstroke of a seasoned pro. Shot in stunning black and white and including a naturalistic score by Alajandro Fernandez, Viaje is the romance we've been waiting for. It's funny, romantic, sexy, beautiful, and when the pain eventually comes it's earned. I only hope more filmmakers take note from Paz. She's the real deal. THIS is how you spell romance.
VERDICT: MUST SEE
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Paz Fábrega STARRING Kattia Gonzalez and Fernando Bolaños CINEMATOGRAPHY BY Esteban Chinchilla
Playing as part of The 2015 Tribeca International Film Festival. For tickets & schedules: http://www.tribecafilm.com
MATEO MORENO recently won a bet on who could hold their breath the longest underwater. He won the bet, having beat local loudmouth Jimmy "Thunderbird" Thomas with a record breaking "fourteen minutes." True, part of that time was him unconscious and the other part was him being revived, but he still counts it, and is now $20 richer. Take THAT Thunderbird! He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.