Purely Joyful Movie!

not horrible nor great

A Brilliant Conflict

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Starts slow, not really impressive, but after a while it gets where it suppose to! Fortunately for me I speak Spanish, so I was able to capture the "cultural-mood" that many times is so important, and the best part is that I didn't give up on the film! (Originally I started watching it dubbed in English, and it was "killing" the narrative) The atmosphere goes from being irrelevant to be quite suspenseful, and the characters are extremely convincing, each one of them reflecting what all of us really are, different minds, and for better or worse unprepared for what it may be an apocalypse's real scenario, and this is why the bad reviewers couldn't grasp, a smart and well developed argument. Two weeks ago I lost power; I found a flashlight and several candles, but no matches! And that is where I identify with Coco (Daniel Hendler), and I waited and my mood was the same as if there was light, but what if electricity has never come back? What if things go from bad to worse and I don't have a choice but going berserk on my neighbors or them on me?The easy unpredictability of a person is one of the most important arguments of this obviously low budget movie, and regardless of that, becomes more impressive than a multimillion production; the witty, the irony, the moody the bitchness, the black humor, everything adds up to deliver without sexual or raunchy situations, and this is something that every filmmaker should consider, is about the real moviegoers, and not the airheads, and adding up a great actor such as Federico Luppi, ("Pan's Labyrinth", "Machuca", "The Devil's Backbone", "Men with Guns", "Cronos"), is a great bonus, as always no spoilers, but my opinion to those who did not like it is: watch the whole thing, or give up on good movies and stick to the Transformers franchise!

This exciting, low-budget Argentine film by Nicolas Goldbart revolves a young couple, Coco (Daniel Hendler) and Pipi (Jazmin Stuart) living in a small, high middle class apartment complex in present-day Buenos Aires City. Suddenly, the whole edifice where they live is under quarantine due to a strange high-mortality epidemic that affects the lungs of its victims. Thus, Coco and Pipi find themselves prisoners of their own apartment. The same goes for their colorful neighbors. All residents, the local sanitary authorities declare, must remain in their apartments until the quarantine is over. None knows how long would that be. Soon food supplies start to run short. Internet is down; so is television. Things take a turn for the worse and the disease becomes a global pandemic. Authorities everywhere –we learn-- are overwhelmed in a matter of days or perhaps weeks. As millions of thousands of people begin to die worldwide, a state of complete chaos and anarchy follows. A maximum stage alert (Phase 6) is declared by the World Health Organization. Yet things get even worse. The apartment complex mirrors society as a whole as the desperate and paranoid neighbors start making alliances and turning on each other with deadly intentions . . .

20 minutes in, bad enough. Smart one minute and stupid the next describes the pregnant girlfriend...unbearable. Maybe if I was fluent in Espanol I would rate this higher, but despite language it still has the same idiotic character flaws of pieces of crap like Halloween. "OMG, why would I think rationally in a situation such as this?" Because your in a B-flick that, if I had to guess, got decent ratings because it's not in English. A kind of "Well, they don't know that the 'I'm stupid and your stupid but somehow we will live' plot is stupid." I recommend the first 20 minutes and ask...are you irritated yet? But, hey, I can't truly bitch because I couldn't make it that long. So, allow me to offer up this suggestion, If you enjoy READING clichéd and just plain shitty stories then this movie may be for you. I found that having to read the Spanish didn't distract me one bit from the stupidity of the plot.

I saw this film as part of the "Imagine" film festival 2011 in Amsterdam. The story gets very close to a post-apocalypse situation. An apartment building is quarantined due to an unnamed disease. Apart from the initial appearance of health care personnel, and some helicopters we see and hear circling above the building, there are no interactions with the outside world. What we see happening is completely contained within the apartment building.Initially I was afraid that the story would focus too much on the seven month pregnant couple with their internal struggles, tensions and mood changes. I was relieved that this was not the case at all. Dramatic developments came from interactions with various kinds of neighbors. Most of them were to be considered potentially hostile. This is not unusual when it comes to survival issues, harvesting food and weapons, and suspecting others from spreading the disease that started the quarantine.When leaving the theater, I gave an "excellent" score for the public prize competition. As an after burner, the film makes you think how you and your neighbors would act in such a situation. It gives an extra meaning to the name of this festival.