By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.25
Director: Gaspar Antillo
Starring: Alejandro Goic | Eduardo Paxeco | Jorge Garcia | Luis Gnecco | Lukas Vergara | Millaray Lobos | Vicente Alvarez
Original language title: Nadie Sabe Que Estoy Aquí
Country: chile
Year: 2020
Running time: 91
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10728764/reference
Toni says: “This debut feature from Chile’s Gaspar Antillo deserves Buried Treasure consideration and for Use Of Music In A Film. It is a well-made small-town story about a man recalling his past of being bullied for his appearance, in spite of his spectacular voice. He exists in a sort of self-imposed exile on a remote sheep farm, dreaming of better days. A simple yet unusual plot (which I won’t spoil) leads to a redemptive, slightly surreal climax. The original musical theme will stay with you afterwards.”
Michael says: “This Chilean film has a pretty interesting premise and some talented filmmaking, but ultimately falters due to a slightly over-dramatic screenplay and performances that could have been a shade better. Memo is a recluse, hiding away on an island with his uncle, working to help tan sheepskins for commercial sale. Memo is withdrawn, doesn’t speak much, and suffers from severe obesity. There seems to have been some sort of trauma from his childhood, and we quickly learn that he is blessed with a phenomenal singing voice, and as a child, was recorded and was being considered for a career as a young pop superstar… or rather, his voice was. Entertainment bigwigs didn’t think the stout, cherubic Memo had the look to accompany his vocal talent to the top, so they brought in Ángelo to look the part while dubbing Memo’s voice into the performance. Ángelo’s career took off, and Memo was shoved into the background, all due to his father’s greed. Soon after a tragic event caused Memo’s father to send him away to the island with his Uncle where he stayed quietly working for years, until a young woman delivering goods to the island meets the reclusive Memo and starts to slowly draw him out.
Julie says: “Okay, that is a harsh rating for this film. I liked this much more than a 2.5!
“I’d give it 4 cats for all the positive things Michael said below.
“The quasi -mystical parts were way cool. There is one really really funny thing that if you blink you’ll miss it right near the end when he leaves the studio that is attached to his actions during the quasi mystical moments.
“I felt like they cut or skipped several scenes but left in enough so that it was clear what had transpired. So at times it was a bit uneven in flow yes.
“Memo’s female friend reminded me so much of the character in THE SHAPE OF WATER!
“I thought the ending of this was infinitely less silly than THE WHISTLERS which was ridiculously silly!
“I played back the second to last scene when I was done with the movie and noticed I had missed a few things the first time, that when added made it less over the top and also more meaningful. In one case, I just missed something that was said, in the other case, the extra meaning came from something extremely interesting regarding the subtitles I discuss below:
“This movie defaulted to English so it was only at the end when I went back to double check that yes indeed it was dubbed in English and I listened to some of it in Spanish in particular the singing to see if any of that were different. Then I went back to English but had the English subtitles on. What is interesting (since this was Netflix and (not lazily closed captioned like Amazon movies all seem to be now), but actually subtitled) that sometimes the words did not match. They were edited so that a couple of uses of the word shit were left out and other minor things were just rewritten (or dubbed not matching the writing!) But what was super interesting was at one point there was silence (perhaps muffled voices then not sure now) and at the same time the subtitles in English explained something that sort of changed the interpretation of things and the feeling I got at the end as what Memo did was more meaningful than I originally thought, and not at all over dramatic. One could have figured that out without the explanation, but first time I around I didn’t and I interpreted things differently and this might be where Michael was thinking things got silly. Then Mimo did the really really subtle funny thing ! I had to rewind and watch that a few times!”