The Other Way Around

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Alan W Based on a phrase by his father, the Oscar-winning director of Belle Epoque, Fernando Trueba, that couples should celebrate separations instead of unions, (and then he cameos as the father who coins that phrase which inspires the main characters to do exactly that) director Jonas Trueba has, in collaboration with his two leading actors, Vito Sanz & Itsaso Arana, given us here a delightfully meta, very cinema-literate non-rom-com in which Sanz's Alex and Arana's Ale decide to throw a party for their friends and family to celebrate the end of their 14-years relationship. The bulk of the film then involves Alex and Ale informing their various friends and colleagues, in the same repetitive, parrot-like fashion, and the perplexing reactions they receive from them, ranging from enthusiastic approval to denials and total dismay. Infused with a very dry sense of observational humour, with highfalutin influences from Kierkegaard to Ingmar Bergman, it's also a very self conscious and aware film that constantly remind you of the existence of the camera; while a self critical and mocking tone permeates the film, especially when Ale, who happens to be a filmmaker, is seen working on a film that looks awfully like the same one we're watching. In a blatant case of having one's cake and eat it too, it purports to be a linear as well as a circular and discursive film where characters do not grow and an open-ended ambiguous ending underlines its European arthouse sentiments. Intriguingly experimental, this is an enchantingly mischievous and spirited film that's nothing like anything I've seen before in this genre. The Spanish title translate to: you'll get back together, and that's about as sentimental as this film wishes to get. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/25/24 Full Review Read all reviews

The Other Way Around

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