Matar a la madre (2022) - Film Review

I don't know why but, I was just drawn by the title and decided to check this one out. When I found out it was just 20 minutes, I was worried on how good it may actually be, but I was quite pleasantly surprised.

Music

The first thing that hits you is the music. It really sets the tone perfectly and aside from 1 scene which is truly the only scene I had issues with it carries on till the end and perfectly Rounds out the Movie. It's truly surprising how well the score is for such a short film.

Cinematography

While majority of the shots are close ups of the two leads and the camera keeps going back from one to another it does add to the feel the movie is trying to portray. Besides the 3rd scene of the film the movie is really well lit and conveys a sense of unease throughout it, but also establishes a lovely sense of peace and calm. It's quite odd how this movie makes you feel uneasy while also at home at the same time, and it perfectly fits the theme as well. The final shot of the movie is done beautifully, and even though I assumed what the visual was going to do it was done nearly perfectly and does great to shed some more light on the overall story.

Acting

Everyone in the movie is acting great. The Lead Lady is amazing and truly carries the film on her back. She is calm, when necessary, mysterious, when necessary and active, when necessary. She does a great job acting not just with her voice and inflections her body language tells a lot especially on a second watch. The rest of the cast is also doing their job quite well

The Writing

While the story is actually great and compelling and the twist at the ending makes it even more, so the actual dialogue is underwhelming and leaves a lot to be desired. The lines make a lot of sense in the context the show is done, and it uses a lot of topical things quite well and the theme itself helps people feel with the characters and can easily emotionally connect with them, but the script fails to elevate the film to even greater heights.

The Story

The movie begins with our main character an Older woman probably in her late 40s early 50s or perhaps even older walking into a diner. She is dressed quite well and carrying an umbrella. While the rain is pouring down the musical backdrop immediately calms down the setting while giving us an uneasy undertone which matches the theme of a fancy lady walking into a regular diner. She meets with a younger fella who is around 17-18 and is conventionally attractive, dressed in common clothes. They introduce each other by what seems to be tinder profile names? or something of the sort and she decides she is going to buy him a kid’s meal. What follows is a weird scene which could be commentary on the whole COVID-mask thing, the ladies behind the counter are inexperienced and rather impolite giving an unsettling vibe. They tell the woman to keep her mask up while ordering while their masks are down. These scene feels weird and out of place but could be simply adding to the overarching commentary. The woman returns and begins talking with the young fella. They exchange friendly chats and overall, the dialogue doesn't do much but set up some exposition and give us more straightforward information about the characters. This isn't done too subtly either but ends up leaving us longing in either direction - subtlety or more exposition. After this we have the one scene which I didn't like and didn't understand on either of my watches. The woman gets frantic about the young fella mentioning children and she stumbles to the bathroom upon which we see scenes of her being crazed out. She goes back to the fella tells him that she is his mother, and they reconcile in a scene filled with emotion great action, most of which is done without too much dialogue. The following scenes are what really elevates the film. The lady is sitting talking with her son about already established exposition while we figure out that she actually suffers from some mental illness. We see her now in a fancy restaurant rather than the diner she was in, and she seems calm and happy in her imagination. The waiter asks if he should call someone to help her implying this is a common occurrence and the movie ends with a lovely score.

The Score

The movie is a great one, it follows its themes of loss really well. This could be in reference to people losing their loved ones during COVID with the bits of imagery shown with masks and the staff discussion, but it overall is a great showcase for how loss can affect people and how mistakes can scar us for life. There is plenty of confusing imagery and the script could be better, but for a 20-minute movie it's a definite must watch.

A solid 77/100. The Dialogue and the confusing scene are really dragging the movie down for me, but the sheer impact of the themes and their execution require a high score.

IMDb page