MAGIC GLOVES
aka LOS GUANTES MaGICOS

Year: 2003
UK: NFT
Cast: Gabriel Fernandez Capello, Valeria Bertuccelli, Fabian Arenillas, Susana Pampin, Cecilia Biagini, Diego Olivera, Leonardo Azamor
Director: Martin Rejtman
Country: Argentina
Language: Spanish (English subtitles)
UK: 90 mins
UK Release Date: 13 August 2004 (Limited Release - London)

Synopsis

Martin Retjman's rightly acclaimed film (it made several year's-best lists in America last year) is yet another winner in the remarkable series of movies that have recently been emerging from Argentina. An engagingly dry comedy, it concerns a motley but very credible group of characters in Buenos Aires - a down-on-his-luck tax driver, his ex-girlfriend, a musician and his wife, an air-hostess, a dog-walker and a number of others - who all get acquainted by chance, then become involved in various addictive fads, pastimes and get-rich-quick schemes, from health spas and pharmaceuticals to pornographic filmmaking.

But this is not only a very funny film; since its wry humour is set against the meticulously drawn backdrop of a grey, almost insular and timeless Buenos Aires; the comedy frames a refreshingly unsentimental study of a society at the crossroads, trying to reinvent itself as it stumbles from crisis to crisis, with confidence barely dented let alone dashed. There are fine performances all round (with Gabriel 'Vicentico' Fernandez Capello especially good as the hapless cab-driver), some very droll sight gags, and an admirably laconic but illuminating script. Its subtle intelligence, quiet assurance and consistent inventiveness make for very enjoyable viewing.