Every Song Is About Me (2010)

What a strong debut! Jonas Trueba shows great confidence in handling that tenuous place in loving someone else from a place of ego without making our hero Ramiro (Oriol Vila) obnoxious or completely pathetic. The acting is great all around. There's a nice influence of Francois Truffaut going on with a few, sparse but insightful moments via voice over and an active camera that moves to the great jazzy score by Perico Sambeat. It builds toward a wonderful open- ended finale, following a heartbreaking monologue by Ramiro to his unreachable(?) love Andrea (Bárbara Lennie), which melds nicely with Sambeat's pièce de résistance: a chaotic yet moving instrumental. One of the best endings I've seen in a long time. It also recalls (500) Days of Summer without jumping back and forth through time. There are also jabs at other kinds of relationships -- from the purely superficial to the naive to apathetic-- and, bonus, lots of great jokes about the book store world where Ramiro works. This is a rich, well-drawn out film that hardly ever slacks, as it never compromises what a complex, inner problem it's trying to express. You should come in ready to tune into that wavelength and have some experience behind you to get these moments. Maybe I'm seeing at the right time.

Ramiro, a young man from Madrid, is trying to forget his six year relationship with Andrea. According to his calculations, it takes about half that time to get over that painful reality. He works with his uncle in a bookstore, much like The Strand in New York, where all sorts of books can be found. The friends that knew him when he was with Andrea try to be kind, but he feels lost.Going over some old things he took to his mother's apartment after the breakup, Ramiro finds some poetry he wrote years ago. Showing it to friends he gets positive vibes. How about having them printed? His uncle is all for it. The modest issue for such a book is only 500 units, but to add to Ramiro's injured heart, his name is incorrectly spelled in the title! A Spanish comedy directed by Jonas Trueba, who is a son of Fernando Trueba, the director of "Belle Epoque" and "Calle 54" to name just two. Young Trueba was nominated for Best New Director for this effort, which while not being a total failure, it does not hold the viewer's attention. The film feels empty. On the other hand, young Trueba gets decent acting from his young cast.