El Critico was the second film screened at the Arthouse Film Festival this week. It’s an Argentinian movie from 2013 that we finally got to see. It’s in Spanish and French, with English subtitles.

Victor Tellez is a joyless man. He is also a film critic for a newspaper. His life is more or less drudgery. He hates most movies, and hasn’t given any film a 5 star review in years. His editor starts implying that if his behavior continues, he could be out of a job. He commiserates with Ágatha, his niece, who runs a video store that’s really a front for a loanshark. She loves movies, especially romantic comedies. Victor calls them unrealistic, unimaginative and uninspired. He rattles off the essentials of all romcoms and is unmoved and unfazed by the American movies she rattles off, dismissing them all. He is never satisfied.

After one movie screening, Victor is having coffee with the other critics, and is confronted by a director whose film Victor has recently eviscerated. The man will not let him be.

Meanwhile, Victor is being forced out of his apartment. His landlords are remodeling, which will eventually displace him. His real estate agent has shown him place after place, but he finds nothing worth living in. Eventually, he does find a perfect place, but someone else has beaten him to the punch – a mysterious woman named Sofîa, and he tries to convince her to relinquish her claim to the place. During this, his life starts to become surreal, and we, as the audience begin to notice that their relationship is starting to take the shape of those romcoms he finds abhorrent.

This is a lighthearted film, for the most part. There is some unpleasantness, but I rather enjoyed it. There were quite a few bits in the movie that went unstated, but were obvious to the audience. If they had been explained, it would have ruined what turned out to be an enjoyable experience. Recommended.