A film like 'Blue Valentine' could learn a lot from a film like 'Lake Tahoe.' Whereas that film tries to give us a sympathetic side to its characters through dialog, this film gives us that same emotional investment through pure and simple film making. The film has no pretensions. The teenage Juan (Diego Catano) is depressed. Why? At first, we don't know. The watchful eye pieces together clues throughout the excellent 81-minute run time, and by the end, a careful viewer knows Juan's plight down to a T and completely falls in love with his character and the relationship between him and his brother (Yemil Sefami).
Juan's day is only made worse when he crashes his car into a telephone pole and has to spend most of the day looking for the distributor. Along the way, he meets a kung fu devotee (Juan Carlos Lara II), a beautiful teen mother (Daniela Valentine), and a crotchety old mechanic with a wonderful soft spot for animals (Hector Herrera). These characters are not just quirk for quirk's sake. They are quirk for Juan's sake.
If you are a person who enjoys watching three-dimensional characters interacting in a beautiful place, then director Fernando Eimbcke ('Duck Season') has made the perfect film for you. The perfect balance of comedy, tragedy, and character study is 'Lake Tahoe'. Eimbcke also inserts a kind of treatise on film making in this movie in a strange and thrilling way. This movie will be remembered because it is minimalist without being mini-brained.
I would recommend this film to everyone I know.
Juan's day is only made worse when he crashes his car into a telephone pole and has to spend most of the day looking for the distributor. Along the way, he meets a kung fu devotee (Juan Carlos Lara II), a beautiful teen mother (Daniela Valentine), and a crotchety old mechanic with a wonderful soft spot for animals (Hector Herrera). These characters are not just quirk for quirk's sake. They are quirk for Juan's sake.
If you are a person who enjoys watching three-dimensional characters interacting in a beautiful place, then director Fernando Eimbcke ('Duck Season') has made the perfect film for you. The perfect balance of comedy, tragedy, and character study is 'Lake Tahoe'. Eimbcke also inserts a kind of treatise on film making in this movie in a strange and thrilling way. This movie will be remembered because it is minimalist without being mini-brained.
I would recommend this film to everyone I know.