Review: "Valentín"
My Spanish teacher and then one of my classmates recommended the movie "Valentín".
It's set in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the 1960s. And it's about a boy who lives with his grandmother and dreams of becoming an astronaut, in spite of his bad vision, cross-eyes, and Argentinian citizenship. (Why, yes, that was foreshadowing in my last post.) And he doesn't just dream. He studies, he builds rockets, he practices wearing space boots, he practices holding his breath as long as possible.
He is also fascinated with romantic relationships and asks everybody questions about how they work. He's charming, honest, and makes friends easily. So it's fun hanging with him throughout the movie.
The movie is about him being assertive. He makes friends with the musician across the street even though his grandma is suspicious. He tells his dad's new girlfriend the truth when he decides he likes her too much to lie. Later, he tracks her down when he wants to confront her. He looks for a way to get medical care for his grandma when she needs it. He looks for a way to have a home of his own when his grandma can't take care of him anymore.
The movie reminds me a little bit of "About a Boy" because it's also about figuring out about how to live life. And it reminds me a little of "Dead Poet's Society" because it's about taking action to get what you want, only it works out better in this movie. In the end he says you try things and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Fortunately, they mostly do work for him.
This movie is in Spanish, available with English subtitles. Many Argentinians have an Italian background, so I've heard their accent sounds a little like Italian, and I did notice that at times.
The subtitles were missing in some parts. From what I could tell, those parts weren't essential to the story, but I would like to watch this again when I know more Spanish. I could understand the boy's accent pretty well, though I had trouble with Grandma's.
I recommend this movie and give it 4 stars out of 5, maybe more.
(Three posts in one night? This can happen when you try to sleep with a stomach reminding you that you've eating too much chocolate babka in one day and a brain reminding you that you've experienced a lot of interesting media recently.)
It's set in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the 1960s. And it's about a boy who lives with his grandmother and dreams of becoming an astronaut, in spite of his bad vision, cross-eyes, and Argentinian citizenship. (Why, yes, that was foreshadowing in my last post.) And he doesn't just dream. He studies, he builds rockets, he practices wearing space boots, he practices holding his breath as long as possible.
He is also fascinated with romantic relationships and asks everybody questions about how they work. He's charming, honest, and makes friends easily. So it's fun hanging with him throughout the movie.
The movie is about him being assertive. He makes friends with the musician across the street even though his grandma is suspicious. He tells his dad's new girlfriend the truth when he decides he likes her too much to lie. Later, he tracks her down when he wants to confront her. He looks for a way to get medical care for his grandma when she needs it. He looks for a way to have a home of his own when his grandma can't take care of him anymore.
The movie reminds me a little bit of "About a Boy" because it's also about figuring out about how to live life. And it reminds me a little of "Dead Poet's Society" because it's about taking action to get what you want, only it works out better in this movie. In the end he says you try things and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Fortunately, they mostly do work for him.
This movie is in Spanish, available with English subtitles. Many Argentinians have an Italian background, so I've heard their accent sounds a little like Italian, and I did notice that at times.
The subtitles were missing in some parts. From what I could tell, those parts weren't essential to the story, but I would like to watch this again when I know more Spanish. I could understand the boy's accent pretty well, though I had trouble with Grandma's.
I recommend this movie and give it 4 stars out of 5, maybe more.
(Three posts in one night? This can happen when you try to sleep with a stomach reminding you that you've eating too much chocolate babka in one day and a brain reminding you that you've experienced a lot of interesting media recently.)