‘The Beloved’ movie review: Javier Bardem packs a tense, behind-the-scenes father-daughter drama that could use a little more emotional value

Movies about the film industry often seem aimed at movie fans only, to the detriment of everyone else. There are of course some great exceptions to this rule, such as Truffaut’s Day to nightFellini 8 ½ And Godard contempt – Or last year, Joachim Trier Emotional valueWhich was a huge hit at Cannes and ended up winning an Oscar.

However, this type of film is hard to break and tends to produce the same old tales of tyrannical directors, insecure actors, overworked crew members, and corrupt producers. Some, but not all, of these tropes are present in Spanish director Rodrigo Soroguín’s behind-the-scenes drama. Beloved (Sir Querido), which manages to add some welcome twists to the formula. It also displays a heavy dose of filming malaise that can be so unbearable to watch that you sometimes want to scream “CUT!”

Sorogoyen is a master of malaise, as evidenced by his 2023 thriller, MonstersThe film is about a French couple who move to a Spanish town, where they are unwelcome, outcast, and ultimately prey. He also created and directed the highly acclaimed television series New yearswhich followed the couple through good and bad times in episodes that shift from physical affection to intense discomfort.

Beloved The film mostly consists of the latter, thanks to fictional two-time Oscar-winning director Esteban Martinez (Bardem), who returns home after years of exile in New York to direct a period piece set in Spanish Sahara—a disputed region of North Africa, now known as Western Sahara, that Spain occupied until the 1970s.

The problem, in what already seems like a risky venture, is that Martinez decided to cast his estranged daughter, Emilia (Victoria Luengo), in the lead role, even if she only stars in a few forgettable TV shows. If Trier immediately comes to mind here, it’s because both films mine similar material, focusing on a respected but volatile director trying to reconcile with a child/actress he’s neglected for a long time.

But Sorogoyen’s film is a different beast in many ways, starting with the way it deflates tension and withholds key bits of information, building our discomfort to the breaking point. The first 15 minutes of Beloved A prime example of this is following Martinez as he shows up at a restaurant to meet Emilia. We have no idea what their relationship was like at first, are they ex-lovers? friends? Partners in crime? – So we know not only that Martinez abandoned Emila after she gave birth, but that he returned to his homeland to ask her to star in his ambitious new film.

The drama then moves to the film’s shoot itself, set in the deserts and beaches of the Canary Islands, in the Sahara Desert circa 1932. At that point, Sorogoyen and DP Alex de Pablo began switching up techniques and film formats — from handheld close-ups of the opening sequence to epic scenes that mix color with black-and-white shots — as they capture the wind-strewn landscapes where Martinez and his crew will be shooting in the coming weeks.

Conflict on set quickly escalates under the director’s commanding presence, who seems innocuous at first, as if he’s just another famous auteur with a big ego trying to get through a difficult production. But as filming progresses, he ends up turning into a complete dictator, culminating in a notable scene during which his treatment of the cast and crew becomes painfully — and somewhat hilariously — abusive.

Bardem is great as a hardened filmmaker with a shady past and a bad reputation who still has talent to burn, hoping to restore his relationship with Emilia when they collaborate for the first time. At first, Martinez turned on the magic with his daughter, encouraging her as an actress despite her lack of experience. But when that fails to win her over, he begins to lose his temper, berating everyone – including his French producer Marina (Marina Foix, who co-starred in the film). Monsters) – and Emilia turns completely against him.

Why is this happening where? Beloved Looks a bit familiar. In short, Emilia resents her father for decades of bad behavior, including a drinking problem that Martinez, who has been sober for several years, seems unable to acknowledge. We’ve seen it all before – the director with the dark past; The daughter who may never forgive him – and Soroguín can’t make it emotional, even if Luengo (Next room) Strong as a girl who can’t let go of a lifelong grudge.

There is another problem with the fictional movie being made, which is called desert It appears to be about the dangers of Spanish colonialism, but it remains detached from all the shenanigans going on behind the scenes. The parallel stories are never tied together, so much so that we lose interest in the project in which Martinez seems to be risking his entire career, not to mention his already fragile relationship with Emilia.

Even if its elements do not always hold together, Beloved It offers another major showcase for Sorogoyen’s art of anxiety, as well as Bardem’s talent for playing men who could fly off the handle at any moment (Martinez as Anton Chigurh strapped to the director’s chair). Godard, whose on-set antics were showcased last year in Richard Linklater’s film Mysterious novel“Cinema is the truth 24 times a second,” he famously wrote. This tense outing proves that sometimes the truth comes out once you stop rolling.