An Exercise In Nonsense

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This very low budget Uruguayan movie, shot in black and white, and somewhat reminiscent of the films of Jim Jarmusch, tells the story of the aimless adventures of a group of men in their early twenties in Montevideo. None of them studies, a few of them held to crappy jobs, and their success with women is, much to their chagrin, virtually nil. There is not much to do for them but to kill time around the city with various antics. This is shot not as a drama, but as a comedy, which seems to me to be the right decision. If there is a theme to this movie (and this is clearly not a "message" movie) is the lack of meaningful projects for the youth of Uruguay (particularly its males). A useful comparison is with an Argentine movie called 76-89-03, but that film was more corrosive and politically incorrect, and therefore was far more controversial. The directors, Rebella and Stoll, made another film a few years later, Whisky, that it was more polished and mature, and dealt with the hopelessness not of the youth of Uruguay but of its middle aged people. Soon after Whisky, Rebella killed himself with a shotgun, so we don't know whether he would have graduated to a major or important director. A good film, overall.

I rented this movie, interested in seeing what influences this South American team of filmmakers had taken from the slacker genre which, in particular, Richard Linklater made a cult genre with the 1990 release of 'Slacker.' But just as Slacker was to me one of the most boring films on the planet, so too is 25 Watts, which offers absolutely no variation and nothing new in the genre. This is a film that, just like its American influence, is just as though you and your friends were so completely bored and walked around doing really nothing and vomiting inane conversations at length. I wouldn't think anyone would find it particularly interesting for me to do this in real life. So what's the fascination with it as it is replicated into a genre of film? If you have been impressed with these cult films, before, however, then you'll probably enjoy 25 Watts. I imagine that most of the rave reviews for this film on IMDb did come from people who can stand watching hours and hours of this kind of pseudo-intellectual crap.

I hope this film will be the first of a large number of pictures. Making pictures is not common in Uruguay, and filming it in black and white is less common. This film show you how our country is, but without showing you the typical things, the touristic part (beaches, squares and so on), something that appears in almost all the uruguayan films. I recommend it, it´s one of the best films I have ever seen.

Saturday, early in the morning. Leche, Javi and Seba wander around the neighborhood with nothing much to do. They drink beer, smoke, talk about girls. 25 watts shows us a day in the life of these three young inhabitants of Montevideo. They spend the day trying to escape from boredom, facing the twists and turns of love, interacting with friends and other picturesque characters from the "barrio" that share moments with them. So we get to see a paranoid delivery man, a weird video club owner among other strange and funny characters. The acting is very good, all the cast. This film was shot in b&w 16mm and then blown up to 35mm. It has a grainy look, which adds certain raw atmosphere to it. It is Stoll and Rebella's first feature film.Certainly, one you should check out.