Cited in Journal as one of the best of last year’s fall film festivals, there is an inviting wackiness to Luis Ortega’s sports comedy-thriller Kill the Jockey that anchors its most surreal and unrestrained provocations. Ortega incorporates many crescendoing eccentricities into his story, from pulse-pounding dance montages to strikingly gaudy costuming, but it never detracts from his enduring reminder that it’s never too late to be reborn.
BPM (Beats per Minute) lead Nahuel Pérez Biscayart stars as the titular jockey, Remo. Though successful in his vocation, he can’t escape the inner demons of his childhood trauma and indulges in a variety of substances to drown out his pain. His life is caught in a circular racetrack of crash-outs and come-ups, until one accident galvanizes his journey towards redefining himself on his terms.
members have already clocked Ortega’s visual and thematic influences, with Pedro Almodóvar, David Lynch, Wes Anderson and the Coen Brothers being namedropped. Justin praises it for being “a humorously surreal and silent-comedy-coded deadpan romp,” claiming that Biscayart is in full “Buster Keaton mode.” Though it can be fun to trace references and homages, Manuel assures that the film is still “one of the most bizarre and original Argentinian movies I’ve ever seen.” Ana V muses that its defiance towards easy categorization is in lock step with its central messaging: “It’s an absurdist allegory for gender fluidity… an exploration of the multitudes each person contains… it could very well be about the metamorphosis of identity, and how love always transforms to fit the new molds.” ZL
