25 Watts (2001)

25 Watts (JP Rebella, P Stoll) oscillates between A tu mama bien and a strange Jarmusch movie. At its wost, it conjures up the spirit of Slacker movie, the kind of thing in which young men express their alienation and sex drive. We get to follow three kids in Montevideo during 24 hours of slacktivities. They work, get laid, get drunk, get high - precisely the kind of activities we expect from a movie about teenage boys, which makes the whole affair a bit predictable. The film is shot in black and white and the dialogue is rough and erratic, something that sets it apart from the 1000 other movies on this theme. But the style of dialogue mostly follows the American prototype: talk about Fate, bullshit about girls, cool jokes. What works, most of the time, is the frame composition. A hamster scurries around its little cage while the humans engage in a strange romantic moment (involving dog food). The camera focuses on the small, everyday things and this is what makes this viewer pay attention. Dialogue-driven as this film is, you make expect profound lines about Youth and Life. Well - this is more the kind of movie in which infinitely lazy youths fight about who is to answer to door bell.