Movie Review #1: Sidewalls (Medianeras)

Sidewalls, originally titled Medianeras, is a drama-rom-com from Argentina. Set in Buenos Aires among a jungle of apartment buildings of all sizes and architectural styles, Sidewalls immediately feels different from what has become expected from romantic comedies the World over. It feels like something fresh from the outset and with its snapshots of Buenos Aires’s cityscape it’s as if you’re flicking through a magazine of the city itself, seeing the cracks in the walls of its towering buildings, graffiti adorned office blocks, billboard decorated residential units. It nods at the viewer and says “we want to show you behind the fresh paint” and it does just that. It shows the cracks in the buildings, like I said, but it also shows the cracks in the people it displays on screen as well. It shows the emotional fragility of men and women in a way seldom seem in movies advertised as “rom-com’s”.

Directed by Gustavo Taretto, who had previously only directed five short productions, this debut feature length picture shows a great talent in the forty-seven year old man behind the lens. His style is easy on the eye but with the numerous scenes of fleeting photographs you wonder if the mans true passion lies within that type of camera rather than the film camera. Still, it is different and gives the narrative something extra. There are also a couple of short moments of animation during the film which took me by surprise and added intrigue to what this director is capable of. The mixture of techniques could become overwhelming if not kept under control, but luckily, said control is maintained.

The story, ah yes, almost forgot about that. The concept is quite simple actually. One man, one woman, they live in apartments one street apart, they are damaged, antisocial, lonely and open to fixing those things if only they could do so by doing nothing about them. They pass one another on the street and in the swimming baths with no knowledge of one another and the common traits they share. It’s a story about lovers yet to meet really.

Javier Drolas plays the part of Martin, the toy collecting, comic book reading, internet obsessed depressive who owns a small white dog and lives on one side of the street. Over that street lives Mariana, played by Pilar Lopez de Ayala (who has broken into English speaking movies recently, starring in Intruders with Clive Owen, FYI). Mariana is a window dresser who strives to be a successful architect, she’s also obsessed with the internet, also fairly depressive and, like Martin, hopes to one day find the missing piece to her puzzling life.

There are moments in Sidewalls where I felt like the characters history should have been dipped into more to give them that extra bit of depth and flavour, a little more reason to their only-slightly explained reclusive-ness. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing that this isn’t done, but just something I would have enjoyed. It is this gap in explanation though that gives the viewer the respect we’ve seeked in films about relationships and love, respect that we can fill in those gaps and make conclusions independently.

I will end the review by saying that I’ve never been much of a fan of romantic comedies or films about love because there always seems to be something in many of those movies that tends to ignore certain grey areas of life. I like to see things I can relate with and characters that aren’t perfect. Sidewalls treat me to a relationship film that played with the grey area and portrayed a more realistic run of characters.
Enjoyable, fresh, funny, different.

RATING – 8/10