Here are two short reviews of films playing at the European Union Film Festival, happening at the OAG’s Alma Duncan Salon until Nov. 29. Check out our festival preview here.
Ramona
Still from Ramona. Photo provided by EUFF.
Andrea Bagney’s Ramona is a Spanish romantic comedy and love triangle (filled) to the brim with equal parts lovableness and awkwardness. After commiserating about shared anxieties and climate change, married Ramona falls for romantic stranger Bruno, who turns out to be the director of a movie she is auditioning for. Filmed mostly in black and white, Ramona is stylistically reminiscent of Frances Ha blended with the free-spirited character study of The Worst Person in the World. On occasion, Bagney’s monochrome lens transitions to colour when actress Lourdes Hernández delivers her audition monologues with dazzling earnestness. Much of the feature’s charm is saddled in the first quarter of the film, where the characters’ idiosyncrasies and humour are on full display, prompting laughter from the OAG audience. However, it eventually gets buried as the drama develops. Overall, Ramona is an elegantly quirky film, especially for a debut work.
The Man with the Answers
Still from The Man with the Answers. Photo provided by EUFF.
Stelios Kammitsis’s The Man with the Answers is a Cypriot drama and road film exploring self-discovery into young adulthood. Two young men in their twenties meet while travelling through Germany. At first, the pair appear like unlikely companions; Victor is a guarded introvert, and Matthias is a spontaneous extrovert. Throughout their car journey together, they develop a sweet bond that quietly blossoms into a romance. While exploring a 2SLGBTQ+ narrative, Kammitsis also captures stunning landscapes of Cyprus and Greece with an eye for colour. The film is told with a unique tenderness that slowly unfolds and deepens as the plot develops. Like most road films, the best gems of this feature lie in its meandering turns and not its destination. On occasion, the story zags a little too slowly for my taste. But more generally, it’s a sweet tale of the treasures that can be found when taking the chance to go outside your comfort zone.
