my loneliness has wings
★★★★
Direction: Mario Casas
Performers: Óscar Casas, Candela González
Production: Spain, 2023. Thriller
Mario Casas is like an elite athlete, a cinematic athlete with a lot of gym behind him, always at the service of the big screen. Disciplined, methodical, persistent, austere in statements to the press. His debut as a director shows that he has taken good note of the way of doing things from each and every one of the filmmakers with whom he has worked, and particularly David Victori, director of the remarkable No matarás, whom he surpasses only with the opening sequence in the night club. Mi soledad tiene alas is therefore a self-reflexive film in which, filming his brother Óscar, the protagonist, Mario Casas could be filming himself. We are talking about an almost perfect hybrid, and I would say the most original, of the overtly juvenile cinema that made him famous, such as the superhit Tres metros sobre el cielo, and the tougher, adult and social thriller that has able to star in the second part of his career, especially from the excellent Group 7.
There remains a certain naïve poetics of the first part, synthesized in the title, which manifests itself in the impossible love story (between Óscar Casas and the debutante Candela González, his girlfriend in the real world, a discovery), but at the same time intriguing; to the theme of the talented young man who aspires to fulfill his dreams, and in some not very subtle symbols of graffiti aesthetics, such as the wings themselves.
It takes the best aspects of the thriller, a realistic look at the neighborhood – none other than La Mina, in Sant Adrià – that seems to come from within, without a hint of sensationalism or bourgeois condescension. It should be noted that he co-wrote the film frec a frec with the Belgian actress Déborah François, who was precisely discovered by the Dardenne brothers, the prestigious leaders of the most incorruptible social cinema, to star in El niño a few years ago.
There's also the greatness of focusing on petty criminals, a trio specializing in jewelery break-ins (special mention to Farid Bechara, another discovery). Mi soledad tiene alas is, in short, a film as effective as it is surprising, which does not lose sight of the TikTok audience of the multiplexes to whom it owes its creator and which in no case should be penalized for this, because it is formidable
