Mochila de plomo (2017, Dario Mascambroni)

In Mochila de plomo (Packing Heavy) the drama unfolds slowly. We follow a group of youngsters in a minor city of Argentina. In the night the play soccer, drive home and frolic. Then they go home. We follow Tomás. He hides as he sees his mother drive away with a man. The home is very untidy, unwashed dishes are heaping in the sink. In the morning he cannot find clean clothes. Without breakfast he goes to school, where he is suspended. Too many times he didn't attend classes. Furthermore he didn't wear the school uniform. As he is free, he is loafing through the town. He rings the bell of an auntie, but doesn't stay for food. His mother is stil sleeping when he comes back. Tomás steals money and some cigarettes from her purse. He gets a new, fashionable haircut, then he is involved in a fight and runs away with his best friend Pinchón. At the river they smoke and later they try to shoot with a gun. We learn that Nenino, the man who was responsible for the death of Tomás' father, is released from jail. At the sports club there is going to be a BBQ. Tomás might want to shoot the man. Tomás is eager to learn more about his father, but everybody seems to be unwilling to talk about him. A man at the club house says, that he was the best soccer forward ever. Tomás also visits the house of his grandfather, who says that Tomás' father was involved with bad company. Maybe her was a thief also. At least - 10 minutes before the film finishes - Tomás finally has the encounter with Nenino - aiming at him with the gun.
The absence of grown-ups in this film is striking. The kids are just doing what they like. Adults are not a part of their lives. They only come home for sleeping. The kids also have their own laws and norms.
Packing Heavy is for people who like to follow ordinary life situations that are narrated in an unspectacular manner. Although there is obviously not happening a lot, the potential drama keeps my interest alive.The calm camera work lets us follow the protagonist, as it were participate in his life.
Notes: This text is identical with a review on IMDb. As I am the author, I feel entitled to publish this text here also.
IMDb lists this as a 2018, but the closing credits say  that it is from 2017.

Extra Terrestres (2016, Carla Cavina)

A film from Puerto Rico is a rare view in this part of the world. The critics seemed to be positive, so why not give it a chance? Extra-Terrestrials seems to be told with the conventions of telenovela in mind. There is a plot with a bundle of subplots, but not all are developed properly. There are also rough editings and fast clippings which a viewer of soap operas might like, but which went on my nerves after some time.
So what's this about? Teresa works as astrophysicist. She is about to marry Daniela and now she wants to break the family tradition of secrets and lies, but she finds herself very fast trapped in the old family conventions. But it is tough to find the kairos for truth, as there are plenty of problems at home. Her father's poultry farm has serious problems, as some gringo laws jeopardize the future existence of the farm. What is going on exactly remained unclear to me. It was like having missed some episodes and stepping into the middle of something. - Teresa's nephew shares Teresa's love for science. The boy is portrayed with solidarity, only at the end he is, however, converted to a ridiculous figure in a plot development that did not support the plot in any way. (As far as I can it remains a family secret who is the father of the boy.)
There is also Teresa's sister, Andrea, who is to marry somebody who is interested in banking, but may go into government. She is, however, having an affair with a handsome mechanic.There is also someone called Junior, an olderd brother (probably) an completely undeveloped figure.
So there is plot enough, but in my opinion too little focus on what I consider the main plot.
At odd moments Cavina throws in some stunning 3D-animations of planets, time lapses and eagle views. These could serve to give structure to the film, but thet are just there - in my view for no particular purpose.
So, though there is some good material the film suffers from a hopelessly messed-up script. Pity.
6/10

Los versos del olvido (2017, Alireza Khatami)

Another film from LA Mostra 2017 that was made available to film lovers anywhere. I feel happy that even here I can be close to one of the major festivals of the world.
This is about an old man working in a morgue. He has a good memory, but cannot remember names. Consequently all characters don't have names in this film. After demonstrations in the city, the military raids the morgue to dump shot protesters there. They threaten the old man to be silent.
Later the military fetches the corpses, but they forget one. The old man wants to give her a proper burial.
The film passes very slowly. The old man walking from one place to another, waiting and watching. There is an additional level of magic realism that includes a flying whale.
5/10

Leonera (2008, Pablo Trapero)

This is a sort of Orange is the New Black, but not with the voyeuristic male viewer in mind. Trapero went to real prisons and filmed with real inmates and not in rebuilt sets in a studio. It's rough and raw, not slick and polished as the US serial. And while I got tired of the US personnel, I felt that I wanted to know more about the destinies of the people in this film.
Julia might or might not have killed her boyfriend; the clues are vague, the statements contradictory, the memories distorted. There was another man in the flat. Julia's boyfriend might have had an affair with that man. Many things remain in doubt. Anyway, Julia is pregnant and in jail she gives birth to a boy. Her mother arrives. She wants to take care, at last she takes away the boy. Julia wants to have custody again. When she is granted  a guarded trip outside to see her child, she profits from the occasion and flees to Paraguay.
A simple story, contemporary social realism, but without preaching and agitating.
9/10

Pelo Malo (2013, Mariana Rondón)

I found this in a list of overseen and underrated film. A sort of Boyhood from Venezuela! Amazing!!
Junior lives in a slum disguised as housing project in Caracas. The dying Chavez is in the background, iconic blends of religion and socialism in the background. Junior is different. He wants straight hair and become a singer. His mother is not too happy with that. Father is absent, but there is a grandmother. There is also another baby, probably from another father. The mother is unemployed and willing to get back her job by almost any mean.
Junior is different, at least he sees himself as different. His mother, Marta, even consults a doctor to inquire what to do if her son was gay. The last pictures of Pelo Malo restore the norms  of mainstream, however - the titles leave a bit of hope.
Junior is not going to have an easy life in that society. Rondón's film is observing, like a documentary, without any sentimentality and without any accusations. Junior (Samuel Lange Zambrano) and Marta (Samantha Castillo) give great performances. A sad, but still life-confirming life that should have wider circulation.
9/10

Don't be curly in a straight world.

Become straight-haired is Junior's highest wish.