Malos habitos (English Title: Bad Habits)
2007 – Mexico (Spanish)
Food and rain are the two major themes that dominate this first feature from award winning ad director Simon Bross. In nearly every scene someone is eating – and in nearly every scene it is raining. Though thin on plot, a powerful creation of mood through deft visuals delivers a compelling viewing experience.

A doctor turned nun strains to change the world through food depravation.

An obsessed mother hardly eats to keep her figure, while her chubby daughter huddles over contraband chocolate cake behind a locked bathroom door. While the father takes up an affair that mixes sex and food with a full figured student. The deeper theme, it seems, is that while food is necessary, attempting to gain solace from either too little or too much of it comes with grave long-term consequences.

OVERALL SCORE: 69 out of 100

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Loren Cass
2006 – United States (English)

Directed by 24 year-old Chris Fuller, Loren Cass is an unwavering depiction of hopeless youth. I’ve always enjoyed the nihilism of Bret Ellis’ fiction in which the rich, beautiful characters futilely attempted to fill their lives with enough glitz to compensate for the lack of substance. And we all are familiar with adolescent characters who move through the world in a state of delusion – believing their lives’ “drama” to be worthy of the name. The characters who inhabit Loren Cass, though, gain zero joy from anything (including a great deal of random sex).

Neither do they strive for glitz, nor do they acknowledge the existence of anything worth caring about. What is it that causes this state of hopeless? I’m not sure.

The artistry of the film is impressive, with many still shots and extremely sparse dialogue. The effect is disjointed and collage-like, lacking any standard sense of story arch. For an art film fan this fact is not an indictment, but the following question is: If the characters don’t care, and if the film’s perspective fails to portray underlying virtue of life they are overlooking, why should the viewer care enough to watch?

Overall Score: 65 of a possible 100

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Drama/Mex
2006 – Mexico (Spanish)

Allow me to start this review with a disclaimer: I saw director’s Gerardo Naranjo’s first feature, Malachance, at the 2004 Cinevegas, and I was simply blown away. As perhaps a commentary on how my taste syncs with the public’s, Malachance failed to find either big screen or DVD release. So I entered Drama/Mex with high expectations. Again, Naranjo displays an impressive command of the film-making process – deftly handling every type of scene. The film’s primary theme, that superficial drama of typical lives buries the greater truths of our character, is a thought provoking and noble premise. One, though, which fell short for me when, dig as I might, I failed to unearth any compelling truths beneath the surface of these characters. Leaving the theater, I felt like a man who had popcorn for dinner - albeit, one who will anxiously accept the director’s next dinner party invitation.

Overall Score: 67 of a possible 100