With February the last of the award season contenders arrived, Hitchcock ★★½ and Flight ★★½ have finally reached British shores with their huge promotional display. However those big Hollywood productions are overshadowed by three smaller films that can easily be considered among the best of the year. Having to choose one of them, by a very narrow margin, ‘No’ ★★★★★ is our recommended film of the past fortnight.
Pablo Larraín’s final instalment of his recent Chilean history trilogy is also his finest. Lightening the tone from the grim sleaze of his debut ‘Tony Manero’ or the sombre ‘Post Mortem’, the director has chosen a feel-good comedy for his account of the elections that put an end to Pinochet’s bloody regime, after the dictator driven by growing international pressure agreed to a democratic referendum for the Chileans to decide if they wanted him to stay in power.
The depiction of those events, told from the point of view of the advertising creative who shaped the campaign for the negative vote, is incredibly engaging and works in many different levels; as a comedy; as a political thriller and as a thoroughly researched narration of recent history. Visually the clever mix of techniques makes the film even more rewarding. Some of it, shot imitating the typical eighties image coming from video tapes; plus real and faux documentary footage and commercials. Gael Garcia Bernal brings the star power needed to ease its way for international audiences. Nominated for the Foreign Language Oscar and four Rober Awards, including best picture; ‘No’ is not be missed.
Fierce competition in the arthouse scene comes this week from Japan and Hirokazu Koreeda’s charming urban children’s story ‘I Wish’★★★★½.