The main strength of this film is it's simplicity. Without being too convoluted, the film has an interesting and entrapping story. Despite the simplicity of the actual narrative, the movie is surprisingly deep and stratified, as proved by the way the story is written to analogously follow the five protagonists , one of many themes during the movies being how all boys that age go through very similar situations and feelings. The story itself is quite original, and feels, to the viewer, very realistic. The feelings each character has really hit home, and even though some situations seem a tad far-fetched, it all fits into the atmosphere of teenage anxiety and drama, and awkward feeling of not knowing how to react to some situations.
This is a movie that when you see it, you feel the complexity, you don't have to re-watch it five times to finally catch all the clues to understand whats going on. This simplicity is very refreshing allowing the viewer to simply absorb and enjoy the core of the movie.
Basically, this movie is an easy watch that brings the viewer back to the beginning of the teenage years by creating a illusion of simplicity and awkwardness.
6.5Plot summary
A group of five friends around thirteen years old begin to understand that life is not simply about riding bicycles, playing soccer games, or, if they can, enjoying the summer. Guido works under his father's orders and is sometimes rewarded with a beating. Damian is an adopted child and, as such, suffers from an identity crisis that typically marks the teenage years. Matias is left outside his own house every night by his hateful parents. Alejo discovers that his mother has a lover and that women have desires and men have their failures. Esteban is the goal-keeper of the football team and, as such, has the central role among his friends. Esteban draws his generosity from his family. With their hormones kicking in due to reaching puberty, the boys become curious about women and begin to have sexual desires, yet they still have to deal with their parents and families. They begin to spend time outside a women's hairdressing salon. The five boys yearn to grow older faster and dream about a place outside of their small town.
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A very simple yet touching film
Good characters, very poor story.
There are a lot of movies about the beginning of adolescence. Probably, the most famous is Rob Reiner's "Stand By Me". "Buenos Aires 100 Km." is not a bad movie: the main problem is that the plot is too scarce. The characters are well-build: you can feel identify with them and you can return to that age. But that's it. The movie is only a look to five kids becoming teenagers. We don't have surprises, we don't have very deep moral... That's the big difference between this and Rob Reiner's film, or the Italian "Io non ho paura". The photography and edition is fine, the sound is a bite fair. The performances are quite good, specially the one of Juan Ignacio Perez Roca. The aesthetic that the director Pablo José Meza used is the appropriate to generate that village climate (calmness, empty, loneliness, distant). My conclusion: If you want to remember that time of your life, it is a possible choice (specially for Argentinian people). If you want an adventure with boys becoming adolescences, you are in the wrong way.
Life in the Argentine countryside
I wouldn't disagree with the previous comment by a fellow Argentinian, but I think that beyond the scarcity of the script I'd rescue from it the director's attempt to show how life can be so different 100 Km away from the big city. The entire plot is quite predictable and extremely simple, and it almost end up in being a movie for nostalgic. However, I'm still thinking it is a good go to portray Argentine life outside the Argentina's "common subjects for foreigners" (Buenos Aires, Desaparecidos, Tango, Football and Patagonia) and to make good cinema without falling in the easy trading side of it. This and other recent somewhat independent films make some resemblance with the Italian Neo-realism of 1955-1965, possibly not that shinny or innovative from the direction's point of view but yet remarkably good scripts, and performances: Pure form of art achievable with limited budget.