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Sublime
R1 - America - Cinephobia Releasing Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (25th July 2023). |
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The Film
 Silver Condor (Best First Film): Mariano Biasin (winner), BA Audiovisual Audience Award: Mariano Biasin (nominee), Best Original Soundtrack: Emilio Cervini (winner), Best Original Song: Emilio Cervini (nominee), Best Sound: Gaspar Scheuer (nominee), Best Screenplay, Original: Mariano Biasin (nominee), Best Casting Direction: María Laura Berch (nominee), Best New Actor: Martín Miller (nominee), and Best Film: Mariano Biasin, Juan Pablo Miller, and Laura Donari (nominee) - Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards, 2023 The closest of friends since childhood, teenagers Manu (Martín Miller) and Felipe (Teo Inama Chiabrando) both live very different lives in a small coastal town. Manu's mother (Carolina Tejeda) works away from home and worries about keeping house while his father (The Good Intentions' Javier Drolas) builds guitars in the garage and tries to keep a close relationship with Manu and his sister (Emma Subiela). Felipe lives with his mother but has little in the way of a functional relationship with her. Both find escape from their domestic lives in music and the band they have formed with classmates Mauro (Facundo Trotonda) and Fran (Joaquín Arana). The pair build a shag van out of a wreck Manu's father has left abandoned in the woods, and it looks like Manu will be the one to christen it with classmate Azul (Azul Mazzeo) but Manu is no longer in the mood when his view of the van roof above him includes a Polaroid of Felipe. Manu attempts to pursue his relationship with Azul when he learns that Felipe is interested in Iara (Candela De Carli). When Felipe confides that he wants to break up with Iara, however, Manu finds it harder to deny his attraction to his best friend. When Felipe becomes interested in Fran's singer cousin Sol (Agustina Midolo), however, it might be Manu who destroys their friendship irreparably. The debut feature of director Mariano Biasin, Sublime favors realism and naturalism to an almost absurd degree that very little actually happens on the surface level. Conversations meander as the characters lack the words to express how they feel, realistically resorting to belching in each others faces and "your mom" jokes when things get too uncomfortable. All Manu can convey to his father is that Felipe "troubles him" and how stressful it is feeling "this shit" to which is father, in the film's most profound scene asks "what's wrong with feeling something" as if he realizes more so than Manu's mother who constantly tries to engage him how much effort Manu and the others put into not feeling things. The romantic turn in Manu's interest in his friend is underplayed, so it makes total sense that Manu's reactions are misdirected at others and on things the pair treasure. Throughout the film, the pair are working on a song. Felipe comes up with the melody and the da-das the unwritten lyrics while Manu starts filling in the words ("Nothing will change" is as comforting as it is damning). The song seems very much a traditional heterosexually-oriented love song, but the lyrics actually express suppressed and unrequited longing on Manu's part and a gradual understanding and acceptance on the part of Felipe. During the climactic scene where the band perform at a party, Biasin, the actors, the composer, and the sound mixers are able to convey how lacking in meaning the lyrics sound sung by Fran, how lacking in depth the music sounds with just Felipe playing guitar and Mauro on the drums, and then how Manu's bass suddenly gives the song a full-bodied sound and conveys just how incomplete both the band and the two friends are without one another. Although a bit overlong for its understated approach and perhaps rather cliched in the context of Argentina's well-circulated current crop of LGBTQ+ cinema, Sublime does hit some of the right notes for the patient viewer. 
Video
Digitally-photographed, Sublime's dual-layered progressive, anamorphic 2.39:1 widescreen presentation is true to the look of the film, combining crisp close-up detail with deliberately shallow-focused peripheries, most evident in shots in which Manu wanders through his house wearing earphones to muffle out family conversation. 
Audio
Audio options include Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo tracks, and the film is predominately front-oriented in its focus on dialogue and long stretches of silence; however, the surrounds come to life during the music rehearsal and performance sequences. Optional English subtitles are free of any obvious errors. 
Extras
Extras start with an audio commentary by director Mariano Biasin and actor Martín Miller with both speaking English and recorded separately. Biasin has the most substantial input, revealing that the project started with the title and was built upon an earlier award-winning short film, how the film's development was waylaid by COVID, and how only Trotonda knew how to play the drums while the rest of the cast members had to learn to play for the film. Miller discusses working with Biasin and bonding with the cast during rehearsal and the shoot.  The disc also includes a trio of music videos (2:03, 2:27, and 2:31) using footage from the film, a photo reel (32:26), and "The Making of Sublime" (21:28) in which Biasin discusses the origins of the project, the importance of his relationship with producer Juan Pablo Miller and composer Emilio Cervini – with whom he collaborated on lyrics and music over WhatsApp during lockdown – having to recast the film once film production was allowed again since some of the actors had grown, footage of production meetings, as well as even footage of the actors learning to play instruments and sing with Cervini over the remote video. The disc also includes the film's theatrical trailer (2:07) as well as trailers for four upcoming Cinephobia titles (Sublime has a spine number of one). 
Overall
Although a bit overlong for its understated approach and perhaps rather cliched in the context of Argentina's well-circulated current crop of LGBTQ+ cinema, Sublime does hit some of the right notes for the patient viewer.
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