Tribeca: Lovesickness
A Puerto Rican film looking at love and its complications on the island. This is less of a film and more a visual group of short stories. The film is made up of four distinct stories, which never cross, all detailing different facets of love and relationships. According to the film makers, the stories were originally presented one after another but after advice from Benicio del Toro, their executive producer, they intertwined them. It is initially a bit confusing, because we have been trained by films like Pulp Fiction and Go! to expect all the stories to eventually come together and the fact that they never do can be disconcerting. But once you get over that it works really well.
None of the stories are happy. None of them are completely sad. They all feel very real (and they should, because they are all based on things that happened to the filmmakers and their friends). They all have some absolutely hilarious moments.
This is one of the best films that I’ve seen at the festival, mostly because of its simple yet touching look at love. Five out of five.