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Encanto (2021)
Encanto (2021) is a charming, heartwarming animated film that is a fantasy comedy. Three generations of the Madrigal family live in a magical house named “Casita”. Each of the family members, except the lovely Mirabel, have been gifted with special powers which they use for the welfare of their small community protected by mountains. The film available on Disney+ Hotstar is not to be missed and get a Ripe. In recent years, the quality of the animations are improving by leaps and bounds. In this, a few characters like the superhuman sister of Mirabel, Luisa Madrigal, appear cartoonish. But others like Mirabel with her big brown eyes, large round spectacles…
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Crazy About Her (2021)
Crazy About Her (Spanish: Loco por ella) is a Spanish romantic comedy. It takes the familiar story of a guy meeting a girl for a one-night stand but unwittingly falling in love with her and goes in search to win her. In this case, the girl is a resident of a psychology wellness centre – and that’s where a good chunk of the story happens. It starts off as usual but as it progresses it turned out to be entertaining. Gets a Mangoidiots rating of ‘Raw’. Available on Netflix. The lead pair Álvaro Cervantes as Adri and Susana Abaitua as Carla have done their roles well, they made the movie…
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In Family I Trust (2019)
In Family I Trust (2019) is a Spanish romantic comedy that is available on Netflix. The familiar story of a lady professional getting heartbroken returning to her hometown to be with her loving family has been told warmly by Director Patricia Font. It was a fun movie to watch and gets a mangoidiots rating of ‘Raw’. Life has been going good for the young Bea, a steady boyfriend who has recently asked her to marry him, and a successful architect career. Then she discovers he had cheated on her. In a bit of rage, she gets herself fired and comes to her mother living in a small town. Her mother…
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Carmina or Blow Up (2012)
Carmina o revienta (2012) is a Spanish comedy film that is narrated in largely a monologue format yet feels interesting. It is about Carmina who runs a bar with an eatery that has run into tough times with frequent robberies and the insurance company rejected her claims on flimsy grounds. How she gets back at them is the story. Carmina is a self-made woman, who dominates over her alcoholic husband and maintains her daughter, a single mother and the grand-daughter. After covering the problems with the eatery due to the robberies, the film moves on to show the boldness of Carmina – the way she handles the debt collector and…
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So My Grandma’s a Lesbian! (2019)
So My Grandma’s a Lesbian! (Salir del ropero) is a Spanish comedy that is available on Netflix. It takes the familiar story of a young lady getting engaged to a person not suited for her and narrating it with a new idea of a grandma getting married to her long time girlfriend. I liked the film for the beautiful scenic locations of the community it is pictured – breathtaking were the mountain terrain, the ocean and the cobblestone streets – and for these reasons, the film gets a higher rating than it deserves. Eva (played by Ingrid García Jonsson) is a young lawyer from Spain, she is getting engaged to…
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María Moliner Tendiendo palabras (2017)
Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation in association with the Consulate of Spain in Chennai is organizing a festival of Spanish films under the them “Made by Women”. The festival began with a screening of a short film Miss Wamba that was about a lady with a heavy past behind her, stealing in funerals. The main film for the day was a documentary about a lady María Moliner (2017). As the movie started, it didn’t interest me, as I was clueless – what was it about and who was this person María Moliner? Many people were speaking on camera about a lady who through her hard work and education, started her career in a male-dominated…
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Orbiter 9 (2017)
Most space exploration films focus on the science involved or the action by the protagonists. The Spanish sci-fi Orbiter 9 (2017) that came last year feels a bit different, it is about a romance between two individuals who are worlds apart, and the distance they go for each other. Helena has been living her whole life aboard a spacecraft which is on a near half-a-century journey to a distant planet, that humans are planning to colonize. After her parents died a few years ago, Helena has been living alone in the spacecraft. Due to a misfunction of the Oxygen generator, a service engineer Alex comes onboard – he is the first…
