Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Bad Hair/Pelo Malo (2013) - Rondón's excellent drama of growing up different in a Caracas slum

9/05/2016

Bad Hair/Pelo Malo (2013) - Rondón's excellent drama of growing up different in a Caracas slum

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Venezuelan Movie of the Year + Best LGBT Movie of the Year

A great poster for Mariana Rondón's Bad Hair, which shows its theme of the difficulties of identity creation in a nutshell

Junior lives with his baby brother and single mother, who is struggling to get her security guard job back, in the slums of Caracas, Venezuela. This summer he is obsessed with straightening his unruly hair, which causes his mother extreme worries.

Bad Hair is a truly wonderful film, which takes us to a new place, (I and probably most audiences won't be familiar with its setting), where a little, very dear boy (played superbly by debuting Samuel Lange Zambrano) is struggling with his surroundings due to his budding homosexuality. The film is very well-acted and sweet; particularly the portrayed world of the children is funny, - but it is also realistic and grim at times. Its portrayal of Junior's mother, - played by Samantha Castillo (Le Badanti (2015)), - a stressed individual who behaves as a tormented prison guard at their home, and who doesn't really love her son, is tough. It is hard to see her as anything but a just plain bad mother.

Bad Hair is skillfully filmed (by Micaela Cajahuaringa (Postcards from Leningrad (2007))) and at times develops slowly. SPOILER It chooses to leave us with a strong scene with no sugarcoating that highlights the mined mother-son-relationship.

Bad Hair is written and directed by the great Mariana Rondón (At Midnight and a Half/A la Medianoche y Media (1999)) as her third feature. It is a beautiful Venezuelan blues that implicitly screams out for acceptance of sexual minorities.

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 2.4 mil. $ (Venezuela only)

= Unknown (but likely a box office success or big hit)

[Bad Hair premiered September 7 (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 93 minutes. It was shot in Caracas. It has reportedly played in 29 markets, including in a long line of film festivals, where it has likely been a darling. It has won 12 awards, including two at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. It was the 30th highest-grossing movie in its native Venezuela in 2014, indicating a strong national interest and support. Bad Hair is fresh at 94 % with a 7.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bad Hair?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

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Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Ray Liotta has died

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Philip Baker Hall has died

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William Hurt has passed away

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Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (6-24)