Gabriel Garcia Bernal

Some years ago I went to see "Y tu mama tambien" when it came out in theaters and liked Gabriel Garcia Bernal's acting. He was really good at portraying friendship laced with jealousy. His Spanish is clear and easy to understand, or it could be that I just have a preference for Mexican pronunciation. I wanted to see more of his movies and went to a small video shop to see if I could find some, and here's what they had.

Dot the i was a disappointment. First of all it was in English which made Bernal's acting seem like crap. I had no idea he even spoke English, but he should stick with indie Spanish-speaking films. The movie relied too much on pulling everything together during the last 30 minutes, so for the first half I was wondering where they were headed with this and what was the point of the movie. I did like how it ended, but I felt bored too much of the time in the beginning.

Vidas Privadas ("Private Lives")had a terrible title in Japanese that made it sound like a porno - "Buenos Aires Nights"ブエノスアイレスの夜. I was so glad to see both Bernal and Cecilia Roth, who I fell in love with after her amazing performance in Todo Sobre Mi Madre, which happens to be one of my all-time favorite movies. I'd never heard of this movie before and was thrilled to find complex characters so emotionally distraught by their past experiences. Cecilia Roth is great for the strong female character role, who obviously has major psychological trauma. You find out about her past little by little, which creates a good pace.

Bendito Infierno was pretty good, and has a totally different title in every country which seems only natural for a movie filmed in 3 languages (French, English, Spanish). "No News from God" in Spain, "Don't Tempt Me" in English, and the awful title "Welcome! Heaven" in Japanese. I like the premise and found it humorous that English is the language used in hell. I showed this one in school and there wasn't enough class time to finish it - the kids hate me for turning off the video during a climactic scene 15 minutes before the end. I have the same gripe that Bernal speaks too much English, and the movie reminded me that Penelope Cruz was a much better actress when she stuck with indie Spanish films. I like the world this movie creates and how heaven and hell are earth-like places.

There were a few others that were already rented out so I'll have to go back some other time.

A little comment about phones . . . last week I wrote that cell phones dropping into toilets happens pretty often. Just yesterday someone told me that hers dropped into the toilet at work, and getting it fixed cost the same as getting a new one. Beware of toilets!