Rating: 3.5/5
Criterion Challenge 2022 (Retroactive) | 1/52 | Year I Was Born (1988)
Ivan left Pepa, writing that he never wanted to see her again. Pepa mopes around the house, unsure of what to do.
We cut to Ivan doing a Spanish dub for Johnny Guitar. His smooth voice has a romantic quality to it. The boss gets mad because Pepa isn’t there doing her dub.
She has to do dubs alongside Ivan’s words, reflecting her current situation. After passing out, she goes home.
She puts sleeping pills in her shake, ready to end it all. But starting with setting her bed on fire, she keeps running into obstacles that keep her from going through with it.
The film explores women structuring themselves and their aesthetic for men and how it fails. The sets have an artificial, highly saturated quality, especially Pepa’s apartment. It is womanhood as envisioned by a gay boy who read his mother’s fashion magazines.
The story moves at an unusual pace. It kicks into gear in the third act — before that, it’s a little like a hangout comedy.
The emotional beats are earnest and feel genuine — most of the characterization is flat, so it’s hard to find an emotional in with the characters.
Overall, I liked it — I didn’t find that connection that could excite me, but I was engaged for most of it.
** Stray Thoughts / Spoilers **
- They dub a movie where the priest gives the bride a condom just to be safe
- Thank you for smoking sign in the mamba cab
- Mother of the killer role, then a laundry commercial based on that character
- Woman dancing naked in the window
- Ivan’s first wife is villainous because she went to a mental hospital or something??