Review of 25 Watts

25 Watts (2001)
8/10
Slackers from Uruguay
7 August 2008
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.
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