Reviews

"Love". There has never been a more misunderstood, complex, hallucinatory, dangerous and rare word. Nothing else has made us feel joy and fear, confusion and pain, on the same level as love.

The Windshield Wiper is a short film by Spanish filmmaker Alberto Mielgo, who has worked on all kinds of projects such as "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse", "Corpse Bride", "Love, Death & Robots" and even in the visual effects of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1". From its first frame, it already invites us to give a 180 ° turn to traditional animation, which by convention is limited only to children.

In the short film we are shown different vignettes of content, narration, animation, voices, music and editing, which are based on personal aspects of the director's life: emptiness, love and relationships, and how these can influence our perspectives and longings, expectations and disappointments - a philosopher smoking in a cafe while listening to other people's talks about love, a tramp practicing catharsis with a mannequin, a suicidal woman gazing into the abyss, a couple sitting on a beach... two strangers looking for the love that's right next to them in a grocery store...

The entire short film is made up of color palettes opposed to the standard dark = bad, light = good, etc., giving its own and varied personality to the multitude of situations that, developed in more detail, could be one of the best love anthologies ever made.

To speak of The Windshield Wiper as a simple short film would be an insult. It is a work of art in which Alberto Mielgo stamped his essence, from the direction, to the script, the editing and the sound design itself.

Careful if you're reading this, cause I will talk about the ending.

First, I want to talk about the most attractive feature of this film. I'm speaking about the production values, which are heavily relied on its cinematography, at times thought-provoking, with religious imagery, art symbolisms and tilted frames, all of them full of a color palette that results, as its content, very artistic. But it's not the kind of art that we're mostly attracted to but a weird combination of close-ups and bizarre images that tell us: we're dehumanizing this man, we're taking away what makes him human: his freedom, his desires, his right to be with his family. The movie itself then turns into a piece of art itself and, as the mirror in the musem, it becomes the reflection of a reflection. A paradox, as the artist would say: PURE ART! I haven't watched such a subtle yet provoking piece of philosophy in a movie in a long time.

Secondly, I want to talk about the director, Kaouther Ben Hania, and her amazing skills, showing without hesitating once, the hypocrisy of la crème de la crème, the upper class. I want her to become a much more known director, cause her style is just so wild, so on point. Her work needs to be watched relentlessly.

Yahya Mahayni's Sam Ali is a force of nature, a charismatic man whose ambitions moved me to tears. Isn't it something we all would do? Shout how in love we are? Cry for the ones we love, who have suffered because we're not with them? I loved him, I knew I would love him since frame #1.

Koen De Bouw, Monica Bellucci and Dea Liane are all on the same place: they deliver compelling performances that make you believe they're real people all the time.

The ending though, THAT ending is what is making people love or hate this movie. I will not say people are right when they're prefering Sam dead at the end, when ISIS covers his head and shots him, but I kinda understand what kind of movie it would have been instead: all that savage imagery, all that bravura filmmaking, all that filosophy feels kinda wasted when the happy ending comes. Personally, I prefer the movie the way it is, but if you're trying to watch some gruesome, real movie that doesn't feel like a fable, then this is not your type of movie.

When it reaches the end credits, it sure feels like those typical movies that end just the same, but it is the content the one that matters here. Glenn Close is the heart and soul of the whole movie and her work the one that carries the plot. It is somehow important to tell the stories that most Americans have: the rural opportunities compared to NY or maybe LA. That contrasting gap between having easy access to school's supplies and having to steal a calculator in order to do homework. Glenn Close nails it, Amy Adams too, but we learn much more about her character's weaknesses than her talents. Adams' character feels truly painful, and that's thanks to her amazing acting method and vulnerability. Hans Zimmer does something beautiful with the score near the end during grandma's death montage, too. I feel like this movie is more about matriarchal families and only those who belong to them will understand the whole spectrum of emotions displayed during the length of it. I didn't adore it, but loved it in a very beautiful way. I cried like... a lot! I really recommend watching it despite all the reviews it may have in the future.