A Real Friend (2006)

Truth be told I stumbled upon this flick by accident. I was bored flicking through my cable channels and thought the description was interesting. I could not have been more surprised at how well executed this movie was. A Real Friend is well written, acted out and directed.The choices made by the director to focus on the child and slowly bring into focus the monsters and the child's connection and then its strength: was brilliant. The mother's sex drive was odd, but the story in general was a pleasant surprise. Their are some heavy weight monster's on display towards the end, I was thrilled to see it all the elements come together, the mother's sex drive, the father, the monster relationship is was magnificently filmed and written.I would be remiss if I did not tell you in advance that this is only available with English subtitles, the primary language is Spanish. Works for me since I speak, write and talk it very well.Final Word If you do not mind subtitles, this is a spectacular movie, which is part of a bigger package: 6 Films to Keep You Awake.

Here is a film that defines the very aesthetic European cinema stands for. A Real Friend is bold, experimental, surreal, has something to say and yet retains enough conventional if not obligatory situations and scenes that get across a genuine feeling of paranoia and suspense. The film is Spanish and is part of a series of short horrors designed 'to keep you awake' but a phrase like that cheapens this experimental effort that will keep you awake, only for the reason that you may have a hard time working it all out rather than trying to get to sleep with the light on.The general feeling for contemporary Spanish cinema is that it has become too 'Americanised'. Most Spanish directors and leading Spanish actors and actresses have gone to Hollywood in the last decade or so and the influence to produce fast, post-modern, blackly comic films in Spain has been written about before. Although directors such as Almodóvar have an otherwise different say in the sense they do not submit to the temptation to appeal to a vast, overseas audience. But that is where A Real Friend steps into the fray; it sort of submits to the typical conventions that may appeal abroad. This is maybe due to its narrative revolving around a down and out ex-cop trying to find a criminal that gets a kick out of sexual assault – there are elements of noir in the plot, I think. Then there are the scenes towards the end when someone catches up with a certain character they have not seen in ages and a disturbing set of scenes arise – they feel like something out of a television serial, only done a little worse. We've seen this sort of story before.However, the film's run time and general approach (much like another film in the series 'To Let') is that of short and made for TV – it treats its material with the mindset of a 'sprint' rather than a 'marathon' so when these scene arrive nearer the end, you cannot help but feel a little under-whelmed even if the general situation is disturbing. But it is the earlier aspects and ideas the film carries that are the most interesting, not the 'Americanised' finale. The film begins with a young girl watching Tobe Hooper's 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' on a DVD while the mother is out at work (her father has long since left). Later, we see that she has some sort of unnatural obsession with fictitious antagonists with Nosferatu and Dr. Jekyll popping up at various points. It is here that I feel the film (or the director) is having a pop at the MPAA. It seems that these have no bearing on the primary narrative which is a cop trying to find a criminal but they do act as scenes that seem to try to make a point.Maybe it is writer's Jorge Arenillas and Enrique Urbizu making a point: they are pointing out how easy it is for underage children to get a hold of films they shouldn't see. Indeed, it may well be a question they are posing the people watching the film: 'Do you know what your kids are watching?' What backs up my idea is that the immediate ending of the film suggests a 'world within a world' ideation meaning that you still have an opportunity to stop what's just happened from happening. So if the film is saying 'films can fall into the wrong hands', what films are being shown as the ones to look out for? Well, the primary 'friend' the little girl makes is Leatherface himself which believe me, is very bizarre to see running around in a short Spanish made for TV film. Secondly, there is the model of Nosferatu who himself is a vampire from the famous German expressionism film of the 1920s. Finally the young girl is seen reading Dr. Jekyll, a British novel about scary goings on. The connection is that none of these monsters are Spanish; they are American, German and British respectively and I feel it is here the director and writer is making a statement about the influx of foreign ideas and, more importantly, 'content' that is infecting the Spanish culture and society. I mentioned there have already been essays on the Americanisation of the Spanish film industry but here, overseas inspiration is supposedly polluting the minds of the Spanish youth.So one influence is a film; the other is a book and the third one is a model in the girl's room. Apart from just an influence on television, the film challenges the parents: 'what are my children reading?' and 'what is that model actually of that stands in my child's bedroom?' Do you think the mother in the film knows who/what Nosferatu is? Clearly, she doesn't. But these ideas are sort of substituted for formula for the final third. The cop and the criminal have a stand off, there are some scenes later on suggesting an alternate mindset of another character and the general feeling of the avant-garde just seems to loose its effectiveness once all is said and done.A final thought on the clown. I thought that the clown was the representation of innocence; a sort of innocent mindset that dominates a young child's mind. The clown witnesses the nasty murder of a character and leans over, displaying deliberately cheesy sadness – it is the sort of reaction a child might have to an on screen death. They know it's not really real but they have a reaction where they don't know how to react. The clown's reaction is going on inside the child's mind when she watches Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and look what ends up happening to her.

Películas Para no Dormir: Adivina Quién Soy is set in Spain where a nurse named Angela (Goya Toledo) lives in an apartment with her young daughter Estrella (Nerea Inchausti). Together they manage but Estrella sometimes gets lonely & has no friends, except for the imaginary friends from all the horror films she watches including the chainsaw wielding Leatherface & a Vampire (Eduardo Farelo). However it seems that her new Vampire friend may not be as imaginary after all...Known to English speaking audiences as A Real Friend this was one of the six Spanish made-for-telly Films to Keep You Awake & so far out of the four I have seen I have only liked one, as far as Películas Para no Dormir: Adivina Quién Soy goes I thought it was simply terrible in every regard. The script by Jorge Arenillas & director Enrique Urbizu is a total mess from start to finish & feels like a cheap unimaginative Pan's Labyrinth (2006) rip-off. It's almost impossible to convey just how much I disliked Películas Para no Dormir: Adivina Quién Soy without giving away the so clichéd it's untrue twist ending which is one of those horrible 'get out of jail' type endings for filmmakers so every stupid, nonsense & downright tedious thing that comes before it is left pointless & irrelevant. I was going into this comment about to list all the plot holes, contradiction's, aspects that don't work & general sloppiness but that awful, awful twist ending really does render the whole film pointless & in a frustrating beyond conventional criticism sort of way. At only just over seventy minutes Películas Para no Dormir: Adivina Quién Soy is as boring as hell, there's so many scenes of people watching other people or acting suspiciously to raise the mystery & intrigue levels but when the ending is such a cop out as it is what's the point? There isn't one, that's what.Director Urbizu turns in a decent looking flick, there's not really much else to say about it. Like most of the other Films to Keep You Awake Películas Para no Dormir: Adivina Quielíen Soy isn't scary in the slightest, it doesn't even try to be really & the horror element is more of an afterthought. Any resemblance Películas Para no Dormir: Adivina Quién Soy has to an actual horror film is purely coincidental. If there's anyone out there who dislikes The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) remake check out the few scenes in this which are supposed to be from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) & realise just how bad it could have been! There are also some bizarre images which I imagine were meant to be subliminal, from a single large '!' on a huge bus shelter poster to a weird balloon carrying guy who turns up on a couple of occasions I really have no idea what the intention of the filmmakers was.Filmed in Barcelone in Spain the production values are reasonable if unspectacular. There are no special effects to speak of & a very limited cast. The acting seems alright, shot in Spanish the subtitles are clear enough but that guy at the end speaks quite fast so the subtitles disappear very quickly & you will have to be quick to read them. Personally I am not a fan of subtitled films simply because they are a huge distraction.Películas Para no Dormir: Adivina Quién Soy is another useless Film to Keep You Awake that as far as I am concerned is more likely to send you to sleep. The twist ending is just awful & really does render the rest of the film utterly pointless & redundant.

The lonely Estrella (Nerea Inchausti) is an intelligent teenager and good student but is outcast in school. She spends most of her time alone in school or at home, reading horror books or watching horror movies, while her widow mother Angela (Goya Toledo) works as a nurse in a hospital. Her favorite author is Stephen King and her only friends are Leatherface and Vampire (Eduardo Farelo). Angela has an unresolved trauma and has kink sex with strangers in the hospital or with the gatekeeper of her building. When a detective meets Angela and tells her that a man that raped her had not died as she thought, the frightening Angela gets Estrella at the bus stop and once at home she prepares a pizza for them. However, Estrella invites her friend Vampire to join them, and when Angela sees her daughter's friend, she feels scary, haunted by her past."Películas Para No Dormir: Adivina Quién Soy" is a surreal, intriguing and original horror movie. The story of a smart teenager that is alone most of the time and has a fertile imagination uses drama, thriller and horror, and only unravels the mystery in the very last scene. The idea of inviting a serial-killer to come home was magnificently explored in "Satan's Little Helper", but the plots of these films are totally different. The surprising and ambiguous conclusion with a medium-class family watching television discloses the reality of each character. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Amigo Imaginário" ("Imaginary Friend")