The Bar
I always like ‘whodunit’ type of film and was expecting The Bar (el Bar) is one of that kind. I was wrong but still, it is one hell fun film to watch in your spare time. But only, if you stop questioning how illogical it is.
The Bar is a film about a bunch of people, getting trapped in a bar in downtown Madrid while tragedy happens. These ordinary class of people, never expected their day gonna take a disastrous turn when shooting spree killed the first person who just went out of the bar. And the film starts there, with this group of misfit people consisting a crazy guy, a sacked policemen, a women’s lingerie seller, a no nonsense bar owner and her worker, a beautiful young lady with no love luck and an old gambling addict woman trying to figure out what is actually happening.
As the mystery revealed, the fun begins. We get to see the psychological effect of the revelation takes its tool on each of the character. As the effect, everyone starts to make decision out of desperation. The film shows that sometimes in desperate and dangerous time, social defense theory is totally out of order. Instead of working together, everyone starts to act selfishly as paranoia kicks in. As if, they already infected before the virus even infects them. At one point in the film, the insane Israel is the most sane one out of all people.
I see this film as another psychological thriller with a lot of fun moment. Its black comedy does make me chuckles here and there. I like the third and final act of the film, where everyone is going crazy in the sewer and at that point you stop rooting for anyone because there is no one to trust anymore. At that point, the divider that separates black and white persona of each character has gone and everyone turns grey and starting to act crazy. It is like they left their normal human’s behaviour upside at the bar and descent into lunatic human, in filthy sewer (yeah, symbolism?)
This film is far from great as it is full of plot hole and unanswered question but does offers enough dose of entertainment. Just don’t expect too much and you will definitely enjoy it. 6.5/10
The Invisible Guest
Another thriller starring by Michael Casas, The Invisible Guest (Contratiempo) is about a success entrepreneur, Adrian Doria who has been charged with murder of her secret lover. To defend his innocence, he has hired Virginia Goodman, one of the best lawyer in the country and the story unfolds as they try to find ways to escape from the allegation. This film is similar to The Usual Suspect, where the plot progress as the main character told his side of story and everything is shown as flashback.
So there is no real plot. What we see is Doria’s version of stories and throughout the film we will be served with numbers of twist. If you never watched this kind of film, you will be shocked and surprised but for me, who has seen it all, everything is so predictable. By the half of film, I already know how the film will ends after all the obvious giveaway. But the journey to unfold the real story is still interesting as we can see Doria’s character development from one state to another.
Maybe I was expecting too much from this film after heard nothing but good review about it. It is an okay-ish thriller, not a spectacular one. It is watchable and quite brilliant at times but you have to be new to this kind of genre to really enjoy it as it is nothing new, just another thriller trying to be brilliant with same old formula. 6/10
