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Review ‘Piggy’ (‘Cerdita’) | Sundance 2022 – The Hollywood Reporter

By Michel Franco After Lucia is a grievous drama about the horrific consequences of juvenile bullying, its grim manifestations almost as startling as its tirelessly inhuman depiction. The breathtaking brutality of Carlota Pereda’s film debut, Piglet, a Mexican-produced rival in 2012. Expanding on the award-winning 2018 short of the same name by the Spanish writer-director, this unsettling psychological drama focuses on the drenched horror genre. Its bloodthirsty, extreme genre never conceals the feeling that social commentary about violence and abuse comes from very real and personal locations.

The eerie atmospheric setting is a small community during a sweltering summer in the Extremadura region bordering Portugal in southwestern Spain. “This town is full of bad guys,” the village’s protagonist (Carmen Machi) hisses, seemingly unremarkable. She’s not wrong, but she’s not exempt from that fee either.

Piglet

Key point

Return on investment fell sharply.

Location: Sundance Film Festival (Midnight)
Cast: Laura Galan, Richard Holmes, Carmen Machi, Irene Ferreiro, Camille Aguilar, Pilar Castro, Claudia Salas
Director and screenwriter: Carlota Pereda

1 hour 38 minutes

Her teenage daughter Sara (Laura Galán) is moody and lonely. She disappears into the music in her headphones while grudgingly helping in the butcher shop run by her father (Julián Valcárcel) and watching the cool kids mingle on the street outside with the mix. of indignation, fascination, and longing. Every glimpse Sara scrolls through the social media feeds of mean girls her age reveals her shameless insensitivity about her excess weight, the reason for the callous nickname that provided the title for the film.

The incident that set the film in motion was one of shocking mental and physical abuse. Sara went to the village pool early in the morning hoping no one else was around. There is only one cunning stranger (Richard Holmes) there, finishing his swim as she undresses and prepares to enter the water. But before the weightless cooling down could happen, three girls appeared and started mocking her. One of them, Claudia (Irene Ferreiro), holds back, perhaps hinting at a past friendship. But the others, Roci (Camille Aguilar) and especially the obnoxious ring girl Maca (Claudia Salas), are ruthless.

The unseen violence was further enhanced when the bullies snatched Sara’s backpack, clothes and towels and fled, leaving her staggered home, crying and traumatized, with only her bikini covering her body. . Three local boys in a passing car add to her terrifying ordeal with their own cynical taunts. But Sara momentarily struggles with her own grief as she witnesses her tormentors from the pool being kidnapped by the stranger who had witnessed her harrowing experience. He sat still in his truck just long enough to toss her a towel and exchange a complicit look before driving away with a bloody Claudia seen through the back window, begging. help.

Pereda drew on her own experience as a gay teenager, an outsider who frequently transferred schools, became a target of bullying, and was both a silent witness to others’ abuse, and terrified at the same time. Scared for his own survival, he did not dare to speak up.

With a mixture of compassion and indignation, she observes how even a basically nice person like Claudia can be forced by peer pressure to put her conscience aside. The script also notes how factors such as weight make people feel free to judge – one village woman, after hearing Sara being mocked, mumbled, “She’s actually quite fat”, while another The grocery store clerk sternly warns her against buying certain unhealthy snacks, reminding her that if she eats them, she must live with the consequences.

The film reflects the damage that stigma can do to vulnerable teenage psyches, pointing to the harsh treatment Sara received from her childhood and emphasizing her isolation. even in her family – from her astute mother; her crass father, from whom she inherited her body type; and her naughty little brother.

While still shaken by her ordeal, Sara resolved not to say anything about what she had seen, refusing to open up to her friends, cooperate with police or talk to the parents of the dead girl. story, causing a clash between Claudia’s desperate mother (Pilar Castro) and Sara’s. Her silence carries a sense of contentment at first, but gradually morphs into guilt as the other locals turn deadly. Sara’s feelings are further complicated by her sexual attraction to the stranger, who continues to interact with her, initially in subtle ways. But she finally lets go of her passive helplessness and repression, embracing her rage in a climax of powerful, vivid violence that is not exploitative.

Machi is wonderful as Sara’s mean mother, always devoted to protecting her despite being unsympathetic. But it was Galán who made the film. She’s fascinating in the character’s gradual transition, from a shy young woman almost muted by social anxiety – yearning for invisibility in a body and a town that doesn’t offer her. – to a ferocious banshee covered in mud and blood and angry tears. The determination on her face as she emerges from the chaos of the final act shows that although Sara has served her justice – and not without remorse – she will also have her part to play in the outcome. suffering of her tormentors, whatever the cost.

Cinematographer Rita Noriega shoots at a fitting 1.33:1 aspect ratio, emphasizing Sara’s solitude in a vast wasteland. The look was raw, sweaty and earthy, and the place felt enveloping. Camera movement and use of music are minimal in the early stages, growing darker and more agitated as the tune turns into full-blown horror and Sara moves towards her intricate calculation in the hidden place. hiding in a stranger’s slaughterhouse. Piglet is a bruised character study, without a neat and tidy redemption arc; Its emotional depiction of bullying and how much it makes you feel uncomfortable.

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