| 25 Watts | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Juan Pablo Rebella Pablo Stoll |
| Written by | Juan Pablo Rebella Pablo Stoll |
| Produced by | Fernando Epstein |
| Starring | Daniel Hendler Jorge Temponi Alfonso Tort |
| Cinematography | Bárbara Álvarez |
| Edited by | Fernando Epstein |
| Distributed by | Cinema Tropical |
Release date |
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Running time | 92-94 minutes |
| Country | Uruguay |
| Language | Spanish |
| Budget | $200,000 (estimated) |
25 Watts is a 2001 Uruguayanurbancomedy drama film directed and written by the partnership ofJuan Pablo Rebella andPablo Stoll.[1] Theindependent film picture starsDaniel Hendler,Jorge Temponi, andAlfonso Tort, as it revolves around three teenagers and their struggles in a sleazy neighborhood ofMontevideo on a summer Saturday.[2] The film received a total of ten awards and three additional nominations, including Best Feature Film Award at theRotterdam International Film Festival, Best First Feature Film Award at theHavana Film Festival.
The film follows 24 hours in the lives of three teenage boys—Leche (Alejandro), Javi, and Seba—inMontevideo. As they drift through a typical Saturday, they face the struggles of youth: school pressures, romantic confusion, and the aimlessness of early adulthood.[3] The film also comes across several unique characters, including amentally ill delivery boy, adrug addict, and aphilosophical counter clerk at a video rental store.
In the film’s opening sequence, Leche, whose parents have left for the weekend and is stuck with his ill grandmother, accidentally steps in dog waste and becomes convinced that he's cursed with bad luck. As he tries to prepare for an upcomingItalian exam, he struggles to stay focused—repeating the same phrases aimlessly, getting distracted by music, and even developingsexual fantasies with his tutor, Beatriz. In addition, Leche also tries to help Gerardito, amentally challenged friend, to find his missing dog, Ulises.
Javi has landed a job driving a sound truck that blasts the same pasta commercial on repeat all day. Though he finished secondary school, he never pursued college, and now faces constant pressure from his boss, Don Héctor, to get his act together and aim higher in life. As he finishes his shift later in the day, he meets up with his girlfriend, in which they fight over Javi feeding his pet hamster dog food and over hercassette tape.
Seba is waylaid by a handful of small-time dope dealers after recognizing he is the younger brother of their friend, Marmota, when all he wants to do is go home and watch theporno movie he rented.
The film first previewed at theRotterdam International Film Festival in the Netherlands on January 28, 2001 but was not released fully in Uruguay until June 1. The picture was screened at various film festivals, including: the Karlovy Vary Film Festiva, Czech Republic; the Helsinki International Film Festival, Finland; the Warsaw Film Festival, Poland; the Medellín de Película, Colombia; the Latin America Film Festival, Poland; and others.
The film was met with mixed reviews. Mark Peranson, a writer forIndieWire, praised Rebella and Stoll for their emotionally honest filmmaking that avoids ironic detachment and offering a more "realistic" perspective of the Montevideo youth. Jonathan Rosenbaum from theChicago Reader called it "very charming and funny derivation."[4] Deborah Young, a film critic forVariety magazine and reporting from theRotterdam Film Festival, gave the film a mixed review and wrote, "A rare offering from Uruguay,25 Watts dully portrays the dim lives of three teenage boys in a sleepy Montevideo neighborhood. With no story to tell, tyro co-directors Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll place far too much faith in hang-dog,Jim Jarmusch-style humor, emphasized by repetitious dialog, flat B&W lensing, and limited sets. Pic—which won one of the three Tiger Awards and the Youth Jury Prize at Rotterdam—lacks the spark of inspiration that would make this formula work, and most viewers are likely to run for cover well before the end."[5]
Wins
Nominations