Reviews by Fernando Leonel Alba

I initially wanted to watch this series two weeks ago but held it back for a while because I wanted to watch and review all the drama/thriller movies about some surgeon killing young girls to implant their skins on a relative of his who suffered some accident that I could find before this one series. Was it worth it? No, but not because of this show, but rather because most of those films were quite crappy.

Besides a somewhat similar premise though, Huang Yan goes in a completely different direction, as it starts with the main character having several surgeries done to her because of all the shit she was receiving for being ugly, and the surgeon that did them becoming obsessed with her because he can remake her as his wife that’s in a coma.
So, out of all the previous movies about the topic, La piel que habito is the one that has the most similar setup.

But that’s only the premise, as the series moves forward, it focuses mainly on the main character, as she becomes something of a voice against discrimination on the most watched television show of the moment, which is about women appearing in public after their surgeries are done.

I have to somewhat criticize the delivery of the message though, as what she says is contradicted by what she did, but at least it didn’t lead to a change of her personality, and the main character isn’t afraid to voice her opinion and confront people, and yet keeps finding trouble here and there.

Besides that, it’s interesting to see how the main character is treated despite her new appearance, and she learning that her change on the outside doesn’t mean that she’s going to become happier just because, and a lot of the series focuses on the mentality of the protagonist realizing and coming to terms with that, with a very good scene near the end where the “two of her” talk to each other.

This particular element leads to explore the themes of television industry and social media and how rumours about someone could be fabricated and believed by many people, possibly ruining their lives, and although nothing as extreme happens to the protagonist, it’s interesting to see the hardships she faces and how all of it helps in fleshing her out and completing her character arc.

The pacing is very good, the episodes are between ten and fifteen minutes long and yet the show uses its short runtime effectively by constantly moving the plot forward and exploring its themes and fleshing out the main character. Unfortunately, it also means that some of them are inferior than the others because events and characters’ apparitions together in one same place don’t happen very organically.

Something that it’s criticized about this show it’s the way it presents its messages and themes, and although I can see that, I won’t criticize the writing on that regard that much, since every bit of information is presented through flashbacks, dialogues, internal monologues and people talking on television, sending a message, doing exactly what they intended to do, so overall I find the script being excused for the way it explores its themes, and I don’t find the exposition awkward despite the handling of them being a bit in your face.

What I am going to criticize the writing for, is the way that things play out, as the starting points or resolutions of the conflicts always have to do with someone having a hidden camera or microphone to fabric something about the protagonist or expose someone when they are lying, which feels samey and repetitive, on top of the series not properly showing up the setup of those scenarios.

Besides that, there is also another problem regarding the other characters of the show, which is them essentially existing only as extensions of the main character or the themes. Although the plastic surgeon is somewhat explored to show why and how he came to be the way he is, not enough focus is given to him, he doesn’t really develop nor has a cathartic resolution. There is also the other ex-boyfriend of the protagonist, who is easily the worst aspect of the series because of how little and rushed immersion he is given and for how cartoonilishly evil he is presented. It’s a bigger problem because the plot had the chance of getting rid of him at a certain point, but kept getting him back just to antagonize the lead girl.

The same thing can be said about all the secondary cast, they don’t have an agenda and exist only as antagonists or support, effectively being a representation of the themes and messages and plot devices, but nothing beyond that, and they can all be summarized with one quick description.

Now, there are anime that focus mostly on their protagonists which I rated very highly, most of them among my favourites, which had the same issue, and sometimes I did bring the rating down because of that, or in the cases I didn’t, it was because the focus on their main characters was even better than here, and because the theme explorations and overall plots were far more complicated and meaningful as a whole.

The final issue is the resolution, which although solid and overall good for the main character and her arc, and also not idealistic to the point of resolving everything happily just because, it didn’t give a good enough closure to the other plot points, leaving them in a rather ambiguous situation, what happened with the ex, exactly? What about the plastic surgeon and his mother? What about his wife in a vegetative state? The show gives you an idea of what could happen regarding them, but not something that feels really concrete and complete.

As far as presentation goes, I’m giving a little bit of an extra point to the visuals, despite having the same plastic and fake looking look and limited motions and inexpressive facial expressions that lots of CGI donghua have. The reason why I’m willing to do that it’s because at the end of the day it does serve a narrative purpose, since the visuals end up representing clearly the lie of the title and the superficial views of the public within the show, as the script intended to do. The backgrounds are good for the most part, but don’t stand out much because the perspective is usually focused on the faces of the characters. There are also some visual metaphors to portray the emotions and visualize the inner monologues of the characters, so the directing is pretty good in that regard, it’s just that the quality of the CGI held those moments back from being as good as the team behind the series clearly intended them to be.

The atmosphere is good for the most part, not because of the voice acting, which is appropriate but nothing beyond that, and not because of the sound effects, which are fairly simple and weak for a 2022 production, but because of the soundtrack, which is effective in sounding either sad or sinister, even for the opening and ending songs, something that reminded me of the only good aspects that Aiyou de Mishi had.

Despite its issues and it not being as good as I expected it to be, I found Huang Yan to be a pretty good and rather unique and memorable show within the medium of, well, let’s not say anime, but Asian animation as a whole. Compared to the live action movies with similar premises I watched, it’s better than most of them, even the one that started it all, so I consider it a worthy one time watch, despite how unknown it is and how little rewatch value it has.


Kinda similar stuff

-Les Yeux sans visage (1960 French movie that started the surgeon drama/thriller premise, very basic in plot and writing but for its time solid in atmosphere, visuals and drama).

-La piel que habito (2011 Spanish movie and the most solid plastic surgeon drama/thriller out of the live action ones, the plot is basic but overall good for how twisted and interconnected the characters are, and the resolution is pretty great).

-Beauty Water (Aeni movie about a main girl bullied for being ugly that changes her whole body with a, well, beauty water, and she also kinda starts a relationship with someone after that, it takes a completely different direction beyond that point, but it’s the only somewhat similar thing to this donghua in Asian animation that I know of).

Normally, I would review a Spanish movie on its language, but since I’ve covered every previous surgeon thriller/horror movie that I know of in English, this will have to do.

It was actually because of this title that I watched all the previous ones and what a mistake that was because aside from the original (“Les Yeux Sans Visage”), every other movie was either disposable schlock (“Seddok, l’erede di Satana”, “Corruption”, “Les Predateurs de la Nuite”) or had the potential to be good but only managed to come off as mediocre (“Gritos en la noche”). La piel que habito is easily the best of the bunch.

Production wise is obviously far ahead of all the previous titles, despite its simple looking characters and the lack of a specific aesthetic, which most of the previous movies had. The visuals are overall good, the movements are good for what the cast had to do, there’s enough variety of locations and thus backgrounds despite taking place mostly on closed spaces, and the directing is good, something expected from this director, from what I’ve come to know (this is the first film of Almodóvar that I watched).

The atmosphere is pretty good as well, good and suspenseful soundtrack (unlike the bad and unfitting ones from all the previously mentioned titles), good sound effects, and good acting from everyone, even during the silliest parts of the movie.

The plot this time around isn’t about a surgeon killing women to take their skin and transplant it to his girlfriend, or sister, or daughter, or a random woman, it’s a very twisted premise of him using a woman as a guinea pig for the sake of developing an artificial skin after a tragedy, so it’s a more interesting scenario, even though it affects the character appeal for some by not giving the protagonist a decent goal.

But you know what? Since the movie is basically about sociopaths doing sociopathic things, and since in retrospect it meant not having all the gore schlock from some of the earlier movies, I was fine with the protagonist being the villain and having a selfish goal, especially because he was always presented as such, even while showing his motivation.

The pacing is good at every moment, with every scene progressing the plot or focusing on characterization, something which can’t be said about most of the previous examples, and in general having something happening to prevent the movie of becoming dull.

With that said, besides the changes in the formula, the plot is probably the simplest of all, especially after it was revealed to be a revenge plot. I don’t find much of a deeper meaning or message besides what’s happening on a surface level, I mean yeah, obsession and revenge, the same can be said about some of the similar movies.

The credibility of what happens is…low, from the premise itself, to the way the characters act, at times changing their behavior completely from one moment to another with not much reason, and even by having some silly moments, but at least some of them are explained quickly, thankfully (the dude wearing a leotard disguise and showing his butt cheeks).

The exposition is a bit awkward at times, which, out of all the movies I watched, only happened in the Spanish ones for some reason. In this one, the way the old woman revealed her past was weird, even more so because she is talking to a person that despises her. It’s a shame because soon afterwards another backdrop is completely shown, not told, making the previous scene even weirder.

The plot twist made the already twisted character dynamic even more impactful in a good and bad way, it was quite shocking and made the movie even more messed up, but my enjoyment, which was already low at that point, became even lower afterwards. At least, like I already said, it was shown properly, without any awkward exposition.

The conclusion was…kind of awesome, what the female lead did after her backdrop was revealed and how it flipped everything prior in the movie? And the final scene, that even cuts away at the most emotional moment instead of showing more than needed, as many films tend to do? Yeah, despite the villains falling for it too easily, it was still pretty great.

The characters, being kind of a bunch of sociopaths, sure are a memorable bunch, even if they don’t have the most complex and definitely not likeable personalities. Development is non-existent, no one changes from how they were at the beginning, but at least they are more and more interconnected through their shared backdrop stories, and the catharsis for the female lead was strong, after everything that happened and for how she flipped the whole movie. And it’s interesting how they referenced to it in “Wonder Woman”, since the female lead has a role there.

For better or worse, for all of its highs and lows, it sure is a memorable movie, is it rewatchable though? Mmm I don’t know about that, I find the plot simple and relying heavily on the plot twist for that, but for a one time experience, it is quite the solid watch and the best movie with its premise.

Ah yes, I finally got to “Les Predateurs de la Nuit”, the last of this bunch of movies I watched, and man am I thankful for that for I was so done with them once I got to it because of how many similar titles I watched in a row, well that, and because this one is by far the worst one of them all.

Despite coming out twenty years later than “Corruption”, this is even the worst looking movie by far, cheap visuals, standard and uninspired aesthetics, poorly made action scenes, and even the backgrounds are boring to look at compared with all the previous films. “Les Yeux Sans Visage” and “Gritos en la noche” had gothic vibes in them, “Seddok, l’erede di Satana had a sci-fi vibe because of all the machinery the protagonist had, mixed with some beautiful landscapes from time to time, as it was the case most prominently in “Corruption”, here, the whole movie takes place inside a building, whether the clinic, or a nightclub, or something else, or a vehicle. Even the aspect that clearly the makers put the most effort in, the special effects, are by now super cheap and outdated. Like, I know, this is essentially a low budget French-Spanish horror b-movie, and I shouldn’t judge it by being spoiled due to all the mainstream cinema from the late 80s that I already watched, but even for its time, all the intended gruesome and shocking scenes come off as silly instead for how cheap everything looks. There is a moment when a face is taken off and you can tell right away that is a mask.

Want to talk about atmosphere? The soundtrack is good by itself but doesn’t fit at times (the ending in particular was funnily off), the sound effects sound as good as the ones used twenty years prior, and despite having the misfortune of watching a horribly dubbed English version, even I could tell that no one in the cast was trying just by looking at them.

But the worst aspect was the plot, which was a step back in quality from even the worst previous films. First of all, it adds nothing to try to change the formula, it takes a step back to the most basic form of it. Second, despite having an inspector, hired by the father of a girl that disappeared, investigating from the beginning, he is not very present in the film, and doesn’t get near the villains in organic ways at any point, he just appeared where he needed to be in the third act just because.

And third, just like with the visuals, the only thing the makers cared of, with the director being the same one that made “Gritos en la noche” (the best imitator of the original premise in its decade), was the gruesome aspects. The sister of the doctor gets attacked randomly in the beginning on a terrible scene, and he kills his patients to use the skin on his sister’s face, because he has bisexual incestuous threesomes with her and his girlfriend, and assistant. Gross. Aside from that, most of the film is just that, two characters seducing people and killing them in gruesome ways, which look cheap because of the poor visuals and special effects.

Even leaving that aside, several minor characters act very stupidly throughout the film, getting killed by the main cast for basically doing nonsensical things, something that could potentially apply even to the biggest antagonists. And the writing gets really bad in the last act, why would you kidnap, kill, and take the face of a famous actress? Unlike the nobodies from before, that will lead you to be found out for sure. The scene where they take her face off yet her eyes keep moving, you notice “the face “ is a mask, and then that “face” gets instantly put over the burnt face of the sister of the villain and fits in instantly, is the worst in the whole movie.

The only major change in the plot structure was the somewhat tragic ending, but even that was ruined by bad writing and an ambiguous ending which feels sequel-baity and even lasts more than it needs to before the credits roll (think about Batman & Robin for something similar).

So, despite being the latest of these kind of films (until 2011) it was actually the worst in every aspect and even a disappointment coming from the same director of “Gritos en la noche”. “Eyes Without a Face” is the only worth watching retro surgeon thriller/horror movie, the rest are mediocre at best or just plain suck.

Corruption was the fifth movie of its kind I watch and since it’s British, you don’t risk watching an edited and poorly dubbed version with this one. Not that it makes it much better because it is overall a step back in quality from “Gritos en la noche”.

Since it came out in 1968 it means that unlike the previous titles, it has colours, which is a plus, but also now it’s more noticeable when something looks off, and in this case, that applies to most special effects and gruesome scenes, even for its time. Also, the movie tried to capture the trippy and colourful aesthetics from that time and place, and it looks and feels goofy in what is supposed to be a horror movie, even more compared with the gothic and sci-fi-ish looks of the previous films. There are wide shots which show some beautiful landscapes and places, so that’s a plus. The directing can be a bit weird, it abuses close ups to try to scare the audience but it’s not effective at all anymore.

Another weird thing from the directing is the music, also reflecting the vibe it was going for, which means that, just like the visuals, it doesn’t fit the type of movie, plus it’s not used very well, but at least it was better in that regard that “Eyes Without a Face”, which ironically was the worst at that despite being the best movie of the bunch. The sound effects are ok for its time and the acting…well, the main couple did their job fine, but everyone else wasn’t as convincing.

The plot this time is about a scientist who feels guilty to be responsible of damaging his girlfriend’s face after getting into a fight with another man, and you know the rest. He shares most of his scenes with the woman so that’s an improvement over the previous movie. What’s different now in this film is that the female lead is the actual villain, as she only cares about herself and wants her boyfriend to keep going with the killings, all for the sake of her face and career as a model, while he feels remorse for what he does and wants to quit, so that’s an interesting change from earlier titles and an interesting new character dynamic, despite the cost of character appear from her part. Another good thing is how the main abducted girl is not a clueless and helpless girl, but part of a band of robbers that was targeting the main couple the whole time, so that’s another interesting plot point.

Unfortunately the actual writing is weak since the very beginning because most things work the way the protagonist wants to purely because of luck, or you know, because the script says so, and the weak acting and the weird directing don’t help in making it feel any less worse nor make it any less noticeable.

It gets even worse in the third act of the film because characters appear out of nowhere, have some very trashy interactions, antagonists are taken stupidly one by one, and the final confrontation was just laughably bad. Plus the very ending of the film ruins absolutely everything by being ambitious and making it seem that nothing even ever happened, in a dumb attempt to make the viewer think if what they watched was real or not. If I wanted to watch a movie like that, I would rewatch American Psycho, which was a character study through and through, not this, so I guess that’s a much better alternative thing to do.

So in a way Corruption is the opposite of “Gritos en la noche”, in the sense that that one was implementing, and not exploiting, improvements in the plot and pacing, while this one wasted all of its potential in its new character dynamics. The Spanish movie remains then the second best one of its kind in its decade, after the only one that’s barely worth watching “Eyes Without a Face”, while this one and “Seddok” are placed at the bottom, though I wouldn’t know which one to choose as the worse one to be honest.

Normally I would review a Spanish movie on, well, Spanish, but since I’ve been writing about these surgeon thriller/horror movies in English, I’ll keep doing that.

“Gritos en la noche” was the fourth of its kind that I watch, first in a kind of long line of movies from its director, starring the same actor performing the same character, which I don’t intend to consume more of because I only care about movies with this kind of premise, and it’s thought to be the first Spanish horror movie, so I guess it has some kind of historical value in it, it’s otherwise not good nor very memorable nor really worth a watch, but at least it’s a vast improvement on the previous attempt of making something like “Eyes Without a Face”.

First, it was a return to the gothic aesthetic that was absent in Seddok, and second, it combines the plots from both movies from 1960, and although it also includes silly comedy from the very beginning, it improves both the plot structure and the writing by having the police being active from the beginning, and from having actual witnesses that contribute to the investigation, instead of being comic relief characters, or be completely absent in the story, making the setting to feel artificial and poorly established.

Another interesting thing is how the assistants want to take down the awful doctor for how he mistreats them, thus giving them an agenda instead of being just plot devices.
And another improvement is how the abducted girl and final victim is part of the investigation from the very beginning, as the girlfriend of the police inspector, instead of just a poor damsel in distress, or a plot device that’s used by the police. Oh, and also, the male assistant is used from the beginning, to fool and confuse the officers by making them chase after two completely different men.

Unfortunately those improvements still don’t make it a good movie, not even comparable to the first one “Eyes Without a Face”, because the original understood than simple is better in terms of execution, and there’s no point in adding elements that could make a more complex and better movie, if you don’t use them properly. This film does that, and ends up being another failure instead.

Since the secondary characters aren’t unaware of the crimes for most of the movie and are an active part of the plot, the writing had to come up with some way for the villain to not get caught, and here is the big issue within the plot of the movie. The scientist seems like a magician, somehow able to appear and disappear in a matter of seconds in front of other characters, as does his much less intelligent assistant, apparently, somehow, and that felt like a very cheap way to keep the plot from moving forward on an organic way.

But most importantly, even though its plot was better than every alternative that came afterwards, what “Eyes Without a Face” understood that later movies didn’t, is that it wasn’t the writing what was going to make it work and worth a watch, it was the human drama in it. Over there I could buy the villain’s desire to help his daughter, and she herself was the best character in that movie. Here, I got nothing, no downtime is given to flesh out the cast and no chemistry exist between them even in the few scenes that count as such. When I was watching the scientist doing what he did, and while I was seeing him talk to his daughter, I never felt that one thing was done for the sake of the other, because there’s no decent character interactions between them.

And the secondary characters, despite having an agenda on their own, are either incompetent for the sake of delaying the outcome through plot conveniences, or are left as completely passive characters with nothing to do, and it’s a shame because it ruined possible interesting character dynamics and plot points.

And the resolution was very disappointing and unsatisfactory in terms of both plot and characters, there were sequels that needed to be done, and no character was given enough importance, so the way the movie ends leaves you feeling absolutely nothing.

Despite all its wasted potential for being a proper horror movie and an “Eyes Without a Face” alternative, I still think “Gritos en la noche” is a watchable enough film thanks to its numerous improvements, over the poor attempt that was “Seddok”, and two more later titles that were on the same level or were even worse.

Some months after “Eyes Without a Face” came out, there was this movie, “The Heir of Satan”, which for some reason was changed to something completely different in the English release from what I’ve seen, and it was also edited and badly dubbed, which explains why it has such a low score everywhere.

Although most of the plot is quite the same, the premise this time around has to do with the mad scientist wanting to operate on a stripper after she got disfigured after an accident purely out of scientific interest, before obsessing over her both because of her beauty, and because of his own work. On one hand, that makes him for a bit better protagonist and villain than his French counterpart, on the other hand his selfish motivations are petty compared with those of the character from the previous movie, and the whole thing moved away from thriller or horror, to a sappy drama.

Being the first surgeon thriller after that French movie, this one adds several elements to the formula, first, it shows the accident, which didn’t happen before, it changed the female assistant to make her a villain on her own (and honestly, a disposable character for the sake of the plot), and it introduced the mute assistant that should be there to help the villain, but honestly most of the time he’s just there to be slapped around.

The improvements it went for on its own is giving some sort of scientific explanation and reasoning for what the villain is doing, it must be complete bullshit but at least is there, and aesthetically that also meant that he has all kinds of machines and special effects happening around him, which are pretty good for its time, transformation scenes included. Oh, and the music in this movie doesn’t suck and isn’t misplaced like in “Eyes Without a Murder”. On paper, these elements could have made it a better movie, but they didn’t.

First of all, the script is really weak. Nonsensical science apart, some of the lines are just plain dumb or poorly delivered, if not both, and the acting itself can’t compare with the one from the previous movie, and no, I did not watch the infamous horrible English dub, I watched the original Italian version.

Second, the pacing is very slow, half the movie is spent on setting up the premise and all that talking about science, that is pretty much nonsense anyway, so it’s a waste of time.

Third, the romantic aspect is very poorly integrated into the plot, partly because the main girl herself, who is a terrible character, jumping from one guy to the other whenever the script wants her to, and partly because the couple has close to no shared screentime, let alone any kind of chemistry.

Fourth, from this point forward, these movies thought that mixing some comedy in it would make them better, because who says there can’t be silly jokes on a supposed serious thriller, right?

Fifth, the writing of the plot becomes very trashy on the second half, and even more so in the resolution, ruining a plot twist (although it was already ruined by the cover, if you happen to watch the English version) by making it function at the will of a character in whatever way it suits the plot, and a character with no personality nor agenda whatsoever suddenly became reactive enough to defy the main villain, just for the sake of getting to the ending, which was also very poorly written and directed.

Thus, despite its few additions to the formula and its attempts to make a better movie, what you get is a very slow and poorly written soap opera instead of a thriller, which even comes off as pretentious for trying to sound scientific, and also becomes very trashy during its second half. Overall it’s a way worse alternative to “Eyes Without a Murder”, only mildly important because of its innovations to the formula, but nothing worth spending time on.

Since I want to watch two specific things with kind of similar premises, I decided to first watch the most famous surgeon thriller I know of, “La piel que habito”, which led me to find out about and watch every kind of similar title as well, and since I’ve got some things to say about them, I’m here, starting with the one movie that’s assumed to have started it all.

In terms of production, I guess it’s pretty good for its time, at no point I felt like the production was cheap and low budget, and the backgrounds add a lot to the sort of gothic atmosphere it was going for, the special effects are quite good for its time as well, noticeable in the transformation scenes, the expressionless mask that the main girl uses it’s good, mysterious and a bit creepy as well. The downside come from the characters being very plain looking, and the motions being rather bad, noticeable during the climax of the movie.

The sound effects were good for its time I guess, and everyone performed their role just fine. The music on the other hand was a big issue, mostly absent, and whenever present, it was just… misused. It was also very simple, repetitive and unfitting for the type of story, coming off as immersion breaking.

If you watched at least one of all the later titles influenced by it you know by now what the plot is about, a mad scientist killing young girls to take off their faces and using their skin on the face of his disfigured daughter. The pacing is quite good, balancing in a rather short runtime the plot progression along with enough downtime focused on the drama and characterization. I mean no character has a very distinctive nor complicated personality, or much of a backdrop, but each one is given at least some focus at some point to show their mentality during the whole thing, especially for the girl, who feels remorse for all the deaths caused because of her and has been in pain for so long that just wants to die. Since she is the character with the most focus on the film, the…kind of epic resolution and her actions in specific felt very cathartic. It doesn’t sound like much, but only one of the many movies inspired by it really gave enough attention to its characters, while every other title stopped at being passable shlock.

Every other contemporary movie that tried to copy it tried to add its own spin to the premise and plot structure, but ended up failing in the long run. That’s what makes this film half worth watching, once, even if it’s nothing special. It’s definitely not the credibility of the plot, since what happens it’s not very believable. It may have been quite the title for its time but I still think its rating everywhere is a bit too high, partly because of some movies that came before it, and partly because so many titles followed the same formula afterwards, that now it doesn’t feel special at all.

I mean, among the most famous titles, it influenced some aspects of Halloween and Face/Off, as well as La piel que habito which I mentioned at the beginning of this review, so I guess it has some sort of historical value added to it to give it a try, but it definitely doesn’t hold much rewatch value because of its simplicity.

Como este documental es y trata sobre un caso argentino, esta reseña va en español.

Este documental básicamente es un recuento, a través de los testimonios de los mismos ex criminales, así como de las autoridades encargadas de su arresto y juicio, del más grande asalto y robo a un banco en Argentina, y la dirección puede aportar bastante a veces, sumándole al material de archivo sus propias visualizaciones, a través de maquetas y si no me equivoco también animaciones por computadora, del interior de dicho edificio, y de como los ladrones se fueron desplazando dentro de él, así que en ese sentido vale la pena verlo una vez.

Por lo demás no es un producto muy logrado, ya que al no tener tanto material visual con el que trabajar, los realizadores tuvieron que recurrir a la, a mi entender, peor opción que tenían, la recreación de aquellos momentos, sea por los sujetos reales, o por actores que ni son muy buenos ni se parecen a los hombres que llevaron a cabo el robo.

Además, una parte importante del documental parece una joda, los ex ladrones aprovechan que los están entrevistando para hacerse los piolas frente a cámara y quedar como unos capos, el líder, al que llaman el artista, en especial, es bastante molesto por como actúa y habla por momentos, por como quiere presentar una especie de filosofía e ideología por lo que hizo y así parecer un intelectual profundo e inspirado, y porque al final dice que salieron todos ganando (aunque en cierto punto lo que plantea es entendible).

Básicamente, y es un problema con productos argentinos de variados medios, una gran parte del documental parece hecho a modo de chiste, algo que no se toma en serio, y que en algún punto hasta le llega a tirar flores a unos tipos que en definitiva cometieron un crimen, encima visualmente limitado y teniendo que recurrir a recreaciones pobremente actuadas de los hechos.

Irónicamente, termina siendo mejor y preferible ver la película cómica protagonizada por actores profesionales que salió dos años antes que el documental, porque ahí sabés que vas a ver una versión ficticia, y no una supuesta real y seria, que te termina tomando medio para la chacota.

Como este documental es y trata sobre un caso argentino, esta reseña va en español, más aún después de la bronca que me dio leer a unos yankees boludos (que sorpresa) ponerle un 1/10 en imdb porque no estaba en inglés o porque los subtítulos eran malos, cosas ajenas al producto en sí.

La verdad que no tiene tanto para comentar, el documental empieza de una manera típica, personificando al fotoperiodista a través de archivo y declaraciones de otros, después hace un recuento cumplidor, a través del mismo método, de su asesinato y las circunstancias en que éste ocurrió, para luego escalar al impacto político y social que tuvo el hecho, en algún punto una gota que rebalsó el vaso en un contexto de descontento social para con la corrupción política, policial y empresarial de la época.

La dirección suma unas tomas a modo de simbolismo si se quiere, a su vez reminiscente de memorables y recordadas imágenes de las protestas que ocurrieron en la época luego de aquél hecho, pero por lo demás es bastante estándar y no aporta tanto. Una queja que tengo es que en el intento de mostrar neutralidad, los testimonios están intercalados de manera algo apresurada, en rápidas sucesiones que a veces parecen acortar las respuestas de forma adrede, además de que desde el vamos no había necesidad de hacerlo realmente cuando los dos extremos protagonistas están bien claros y diferenciados por el hecho mismo en sí, no creo que se pueda lograr la presentación pretendida cuando alguien manda a matar a otra persona sólo por hacer su trabajo, sacar una foto.

Fuera de eso, al ser un caso que conocía, no es que el documental me haya parecido muy revelador ni que hiciera el más grande de los aportes, pero bueno, debe ser justamente por esto último que menciono. Sin mucha más crítica, es un buen y cumplidor recuento del hecho y sus distintas aristas, si bien su presentación es algo seca y desinspirada.

I got to know about this documentary just a few months ago thanks to a professor and finally got around to watch it some days ago after I finished Shoah.

It's a bit hard to say something about it because the other review covers it pretty well, but basically what you have here is an alleged case of pedophilia, and the documentary does a very good job in showing multiple different testimonies and perspectives from the accused, the rest of their family, the supposed victims, policemen in charge of the case at the time, judges, lawyers, and more implied, and each one of them intertwined with something said by someone else, whether complimentary or against the previous declaration, widening and improving the coverage of the matter at hand, while also not doing it too fast so it doesn't seem like one answer is cut short in favor of the other.

Another good thing is that the interviewer, whoever that may be, points out and asks for the contradictions present on the answers of the interviewed, or asks about something said by someone else, or present in the documents of the case.

These two factors are important to keep the presentation of such a heavy subject as neutral and unbiased as possible, so it's a major plus.

The whole documentary is made in a way that it's never fully clear if the accused were guilty or not, which along with the previous points, adds in letting the viewers decide on their own, proof of which is the debates over the true behind the case that continues even to this day.

The presentation is pretty good as well, combining the interviews with footage from the time the case took place and even videos from the affected family itself. Even more than that, let me talk about what I consider to be the best two aspects of the directing.

There is a sequence in the beginning when the youngest son is talking about his father as a famous figure, shown through a wide shot, but then as soon as he says something along the lines of "but then him as a husband and wife...had things that I rather not talk about", and the camera zooms directly on his face as he talks, while also cutting away at the right moment to not come off as emotional manipulation.

The other aspect is the name of the documentary itself, which combined with its beginning makes you think that it means that it's going to "show" the family that it's mentioned in the title, but as soon as the conflict presents itself and charges of pedophilia are involved, "capturing" just acquires another meaning, and even makes you rethink the whole sequence I referred to earlier (unless of course you knew about the case beforehand already, of which I didn't). Very good way to introduce the topic and conflict and subvert the initial expectations.

The aspects that aren't good about it is how sometimes videos of the family fooling around even right before the trial are shown, taking away a bit of seriousness of the whole thing. I mean, the family was screwed, it's easy to notice that, but the director could have excluded those bits.

Another bad aspect is the music, deliberately chose to come off as super sad and emotionally manipulative, something which I'm against.

And then, I saw on YouTube somebody pointing out that a major confession done by one of the accused, the older son, is not present in the documentary for the sake of making it seem ambiguous and neutral, despite him confessing everything, and apparently more important evidence was left out as well, which is a shame.

Despite those few but very important negative aspects, it's a very well put together documentary and I'm glad I got to know about it and watch it. It's very worth a watch when you want some real, serious and at best bittersweet content.