Flick of The Day: Carancho / Vulture

The recent Best Picture Oscar win for Michel Hazanavicius' critically lauded The Artist highlights the relative strength of cinema produced outside America at the moment. Increasingly over the last decade, I have been struck by how often in a given year the most challenging and entertaining pictures are those produced outside the mainstream Hollywood system. Not necessarily foreign language pictures,  just quality genre cinema made for au audience willing to think, cinema that doesn't feed me plot points like lines on a powerpoint presentation. The Lives of Others, A Prophet and The Secret in Their Eyes would stand out as some of the best work of the decade. Today's flick of the day, Carancho, is another fine film starring Ricardo Darin perhaps best known outside of Argentina for his work in The Secret in Their Eyes. Premièring at the Cannes festival in 2010, it is only now reaching Irish cinemas.

Carancho

The film opens by noting that car accidents have reached epidemic levels in Argentina and that as the number of accidents have risen so have the claims for damages. Ricardo Darin is Sosa, a disgraced former attorney who now makes his living by ambulance chasing and signing up victims for a shady operation called the foundation who pocket most of the record compensation and stiff the injured parties. While out one night working the scene of a fresh carnage, he meets a pretty young doctor named Lujan played by Martina Gusman. They form a bond amid the ups and downs of nigh time Buenos Aires perhaps driven by Lujan's dependency on prescription drugs.  Lujan soon finds out that it is no accident that Sosa is present at all of these accidents and that his is a far murkier world than expected with tragic consequences for both.

Directed by Pablo Trapero, who has previous success as Cannes with films such as 2002's El bonaerense, this is a suspenseful and dark look into the seamier side of life in modern Buenos Aires. Packed with emotional punch and surging with the raw energy of the streets, this is an excellent thriller. While not as good as some of Trapero's earlier work, it is still from the top draw. 

Ricardo Darin gives another assured performance as the conflicted Sosa. While not a bad man at heart, he is prepared to do what it takes to win back his license to practice law even if that means causing accidents for profit. That said, he is not unfeeling and his actions weight on him as the film goes on. Martina Gusman's Lujan offers him a respite from the squalor and the hope that perhaps they can both escape their current lives.

All in all, this is a worthy addition to the genre and a genuine insight into a side of Argentina that will be new to most. A fine script is given weight by some genuinely talented actors. Well worth a look.