Latin Wave 7

Short, Bald, Fat — and universal: Colombian director Carlos Osuna seeks commontruths in animated movie

Gordo, Calvo y Bajito (Short, Bald and Fat) is animated in the rotoscopetechnique that Richard Linklater used to make Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly.

At first glance, Carlos Osuna’s Gordo, Calvo y Bajito (Short, Bald and Fat) seems out of place at a Latin American film festival. Speaking for myself, I go to an Argentine or Chilean or Colombian (as is the case here) film looking for some exoticism, or at least a notably different way of looking at the world than my own. But Antonio (Alvaro Bayona), the short, bald, fat man of the title, is about as exotic as last night’s Hamburger Helper. And his plight—a lack of self-confidence and fear of life—seems to me far more typical of northern Protestant climes than of the land of magical realism. But what do I know?

This in fact is one reason why Latin Wave is such a valuable festival. Bogotá is far from the swamps and jungles of Gabriel García Márquez, so for me to assume that everything from Colombia should somehow reflect his work is absurd. But, come to think of it, Antonio is all wrapped up in solitude.

“In France they said this film must be about France. Russians said it must be about Russia. But it’s funny because I was trying to tell the most Bogotano story I could.”

Actually, director Carlos Osuna gets this reaction all the time. “In France they said this film must be about France. Russians said it must be about Russia. But it’s funny because I was trying to tell the most Bogotano story I could.”

That was not the only surprise I got from meeting Osuna. Antonio’s pain and isolation are so deeply felt that they seem autobiographical, but Osuna is a good-looking, slim young man with a luxurious head of hair. He laughed when I made this observation, as if he’d heard it many times before as well. “I know. I’m not fat, bald, or short.”

But he said the story did have some autobiographical underpinnings.

“When I was a student in high school I wanted to be a rocker. There was a guy a few years older than me who was a big time rocker, so I modeled myself after him in every way, until I lost my sense of who I was. It made me think about questions of identity, and how people look at each other.”

The film is animated in the rotoscope technique that Richard Linklater used to make Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. That is, an actor does his or her work, then an animator draws over the image. Antonio is depicted as bone-white here, and the rotoscoping definitely adds to the viewer’s perception of his pain.

“I thought it was the best way to show his inner life,” Osuna agreed.

The film itself is something of mixed bag. Antonio plays a little like George Costanza without the humor, and at times I felt unhappily trapped in his world. But it’s impressively made, and certainly an eye-opener about life in Bogotá.

The film opens shortly in Colombia. Is Osuna excited?

“I’m terrified,” he said, in apparent sincerity. “I’m a pessimistic person.”

These are qualities that he successfully projected onto his character.

Gordo, Calvo y Bajito (Short, Bald and Fat) will be shown at 3 p.m. Sunday. Director Carlos Osuna will be in attendance. For details, click here.

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Movie Review

Dakota Fanning-led The Sun Never Sets needs more direction

Photo courtesy of Independent Film Company

Dakota Fanning in The Sun Never Sets.

The movies of writer/director Joe Swanberg have always been an acquired taste, as he prefers to give his actors a loose framework of a story and let them improvise most of their lines to give the films a more natural feel. Sometimes that approach can yield great results, and sometimes — as in The Sun Never Sets — it can result in addled and maddening storytelling.

Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is in her early 30s and at a crossroads in her life. When a friend announces she’s pregnant, she starts to re-evaluate what she wants, including her two-year relationship with the older Jack (Jake Johnson). Although they love each other, their disagreements on having more children and extracurricular activities call their long-term viability into question.

Jack, not wanting Wendy to settle, encourages her to explore her options where they live — Anchorage, Alaska — telling her he’ll be waiting should she strike out. What he doesn’t expect is that Wendy’s ex-boyfriend, Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), has returned to the city, giving her an attractive alternative. The three engage in a love triangle that proves frustrating and confusing for both the participants and the viewers.

What works best about the film is its location in Alaska, which rarely gets showcased in movies, and even more rarely in the way it is here. The story takes place in warmer months, and Swanberg gives his characters multiple opportunities to be outside, showing off Anchorage’s harbor, surrounding mountains, and seemingly vibrant city life. The subtle but effective way Swanberg frames various scenes makes the landscape enormously appealing.

It’s too bad, then, that the story never measures up to its surroundings. Too often Fanning, Johnson, Smith, and others seem to be grasping for their next line, unsure of what they want their character to do or say next. That lets their scenes mimic real conversations, but you might not realize how much you want scripted dialogue until you see actors trying to come up with their own in the moment.

The larger issue is that there’s no consistency from scene to scene about where the plot is heading. The characters of Wendy, Jack, and Chuck are extremely wishy-washy about their desires, with each of them vacillating back-and-forth in just how much they want to be with each other. Depending on your experience, this may or may not be true to life, but watching it is excruciating and not enjoyable or romantic in the slightest.

As actors, Fanning, Johnson, and Smith are talented and interesting, with each capable of connecting with viewers in different ways. But working in improvisation is a different beast, and only Johnson — who has worked with Swanberg multiple times — seems truly at home. A few others, like Debby Ryan and Anna Konkle, do well in the format and maybe deserved bigger parts.

Swanberg has proven in the past that his method of filmmaking can be insightful and entertaining, but that is not the case here. In The Sun Never Sets, his hands-off approach is a detriment to the flow of the film and the story as a whole, resulting in an experience that is far from what most viewers will want to go through.

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The Sun Never Sets is now playing in select theaters.

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