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    At the Arthouse

    Bardem shines in intense, New-Age fuzzy Biutiful

    David Theis
    Jan 30, 2011 | 8:38 am

    Director — and now also writer — Alejandro González Iñárritu has a lot going for him in his new film, Biutiful.

    Specifically, he has the services of the perhaps the most charismatic and gravitas-blessed actor at work today, Javier Bardem. And Bardem really does give his all in creating his character, Uxbal, a Barcelona low-life who serves as a middle-man in funneling illegal immigrants towards exploitative jobs. And then one day he finds out he has terminal cancer. I wanted the movie to end faster than it did mostly because I didn’t want to see Uxbal/Bardem suffer any more.

    González Iñárritu can also count on the camera skills of his frequent cinematographer, Rodrigo Prieto, and on his own powerful visual sense to create grippingly atmospheric tableaux on the mean streets of Barcelona. But, famously, he’s missing his old comrade-in-cinema, the writer Guillermo Arriaga. The two fell out after Arriaga clamored too loudly for recognition as co-creator, with González Iñárritu, of their films Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel, and you do feel Arriaga’s absence.

    Biutiful is superbly acted, even heroically in Bardem’s case, and is so visually dark and intense that it makes Barcelona look like hell on earth. But it’s also morbid and New Age-fuzzy.

    The film doesn’t have the multiple intersecting storylines that some critics accused Arriaga of leaning on too heavily. If anything, the plot is too clear. At the beginning of the film Uxbal gets his death sentence—prostate cancer that he couldn’t be bothered to take care of in time — and by the end of the movie the sentence is carried out.

    González Iñárritu will never be accused of subtlety. The bulk of the film shows Uxbal putting his life in order, in a painfully fumbling way, as he tries to secure a future for his two young children, and perhaps even for his estranged wife. But as if that weren’t story enough, González Iñárritu also has Uxbal being a sort of medium, able to communicate with the recently dead. (Clint Eastwood beat him to the punch with Hereafter.)

    The film’s really strong scenes deal with the here and now, especially with the relationship between Uxbal and his estranged, bipolar wife. (You get the feeling González Iñárritu wrote this script with WebMD minimized on his screen.) They are very bad together, but the way Uxbal experiences her sufferings in his own flesh and spirit is very moving.

    But at the end of the day, when — SPOILER ALERT — Uxbal is wandering around the afterlife, it’s not clear what all the angst adds up to. Maybe González Iñárritu thinks that’s how life will look from the other side, and we’ll wonder why we ever took all our suffering so seriously. I wound up asking the same thing about this film.

    Arriaga’s first solo film, The Burning Plain, bombed out. I wish he and González Iñárritu would patch up their very nasty divorce. He appears to be the more tough-minded writer and creator of story.

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    news/entertainment

    Movie review

    Nerdy teen comedies make a comeback with new movie Summer of 69

    Alex Bentley
    May 9, 2025 | 10:45 am
    Sam Morelos and Chloe Fineman in Summer of 69
    Photo courtesy of Hulu
    Sam Morelos and Chloe Fineman in Summer of 69.

    There was a trend in the late 2010s/early 2020s of bawdy comedies featuring teenage female protagonists, including Blockers, Booksmart, and Yes, God, Yes. Those types of films seemed to go by the wayside in recent years, but they’re making a comeback with the new film Summer of 69.

    Abby (Sam Morelos) is a high school senior and video game streamer who has had a crush on her classmate Max (Matt Cornett) for her entire childhood. When she learns that Max has recently broken up with his longtime girlfriend, she’s determined to make her move. With advice from a confidant that Max likes a certain sexual position, Abby sets out to learn as much as she can about it, including hiring a stripper, Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman), to help her.

    Coincidentally, Santa Monica is facing a situation where the club at which she works, Diamond Dolls, will be closed if the owner doesn’t come up with $20,000 in a week. Abby, who comes from a well-to-do family, seems to offer the perfect solution, and so the two agree to a week of lessons for that amount. Naturally, all sorts of complications arise, as well as the two women forming an unexpected bond.

    Written and directed by Jillian Bell, with help from co-writers Jules Byrne and Liz Nico, the film is both suggestive and innocent at the same time. For all of the talk about sex and innuendo, having the nerdy and inexperienced Abby at the center of the film ensures that the story remains relatively chaste throughout. That includes scenes at the strip club, where Bell makes the choice to show almost no nudity.

    Most of the humor of the film stems from Abby’s lack of experience, highlighted by her having “sexual” fantasies about Max that never actually get to the sex part. The juxtaposition between Abby and Santa Monica is also used for laughs, although Bell and her co-writers make sure to include a side story for the dancer that makes her into a three-dimensional person.

    What ultimately makes the movie succeed is the way it keeps its characters relatable. Many high school films feel the need to play into a bunch of stereotypes, but those are kept to a minimum here. Instead, Bell upends expectations by delivering honest - sometimes to a fault for the characters - dialogue that acknowledges the spectrum of sexual realities for high schoolers, a version that differs from insatiable horniness of some other teen comedies.

    Morelos, one of the stars of Netflix’s That ‘90s Show, makes for a charming lead, someone who can convincingly take her character from awkward to confident over the course of the story. Fineman, best known for her current stint as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, complements her well, showing her comedic prowess in a number of physical scenes. A supporting cast that includes Nicole Byer, Paula Pell, Alex Moffat, and Natalie Morales keeps the energy level high.

    Despite its titillating title, Summer of 69 is much more sweet than naughty. Like most coming-of-age movies, it’s about a girl who’s trying to figure out where she fits in the world. The answers she finds aren’t always the ones she was expecting, but in the best possible way.

    ---

    Summer of 69 starts streaming on Hulu on May 9.

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