Cine Las Americas Film Festival: La Sagrada Familia
*This review comes from new Austinist contributor Rebecca Onion.*
Despite its misleading title, La Sagrada Familia has almost nothing to do with the Gaudi cathedral in Barcelona, darling of hash-smoking exchange students everywhere. Instead, you get a family of attractive Chileans, in the process of spending Easter weekend at their beach house nestled on top of a cliff. Unfortunately for them, their little family nest is about to erupt in something other than baby birds. If you happened to see that movie The Anniversary Party a couple of years ago, you'll recognize the basic "no one's leaving this weekend unchanged" plot line. Also, both movies feature Ecstasy in prominent roles. (We had to leave the room during the Ecstasy scene in this movie—we’re way too old to watch people petting each other’s sweaters.)
The film's trying to do something with religious symbolism—in this "sagrada familia," you get mom, dad, and son, who takes on surprisingly Jesus-like traits come Easter morning—but don’t try too hard to make that all come square. You'll have more fun paying attention to the over-the-top theatrics of the son's girlfriend, who's played just this side of ham, and wondering what the filmmakers were trying to prove with the selectively mute and thus angelic young lady who lives in another tastefully wooden house on the next cliff over. There’s also a kind of padding-ish subplot involving a gay friend of the family, who has conflicts with his closeted boyfriend. At least this angry down-lower serves as the only one in the movie who’ll point out that these people are basically overprivileged yuppies, who have the luxury of working through their psychodramas in a beautiful setting, with the help of good wine and drugs.
La Sagrada Familia screens at the Cine Las Americas film festival tonight.
La Sagrada Familia
Cine Las Americas Film Festival
Tonight @ 7pm
Metropolitan Theater
Tickets
