Casa de mi Padre
One man who might be considered an unlikely bet to win an Oscar is Will Ferrell. But he certainly knows how to connect with his audience, and not even a Spanish-language title (with dialogue to match) is likely to put them off.
In Casa de mi Padre, his charcter of Armando Alvarez has lived and worked on his father’s ranch in Mexico his whole life. But as the ranch comes up against financial difficulties, Armando’s brother Raul (Diego Luna) rocks up with his new fiancée, Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez). And what’s more, this knight in shining armor is willing to settle all his father’s debts. But what he hasn’t banked on is Armando falling for Sonia, or the family finding themselves in a war with Mexico’s most feared drug lord, Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal).
But where there’s a Will, there isn’t really a way for the critics to fall for the movie’s charms. TIME’s Mary Pols makes her feelings known early on in her review: “As a test case though, Casa de mi Padre is flawed in that it wouldn’t be particularly enticing in any language.” The Village Voice is considerably more charitable, noting, “There has always been a flamboyant, sartorial element to Ferrell’s comedy, and it’s clear that he and director Matt Piedmont, a former SNL writer, love the melodrama they’re parodying.” But Roger Ebert leaves us in no doubt that Will’s casa is not his casa: “The movie is only 84 minutes long, including credit cookies, but that is quite long enough.”
NewsFeed’s Flicks Pick: It’s doubtful you’ll be Seeking Justice or Will Ferrell’s latest. So if you don’t fancy attaching to Detachment, that leaves our clear choice of 21 Jump Street.