Jo Soy La Juani (My Name Is Juani) (2006)
Released: October 20, 2006 (Spain) Running Time: 92 min. Genre: Comedy/Drama Director: Bigas Luna Starring: Veronica Echegui, Dani Martin, Laya Marti, Gorka Lasaosa, Jose Chaves, Mercedes Hoyos, Marcos Campos, Benito Sagredo, William Miller, Ferran Madico
Here is a film where you can see why the festival folks like it but you can also feel akin to why the proletariat might not. The man who discovered Penelope Cruz etc. etc. now has a new starlet so you get interested. Like a good fish you nibble and flirt with the back of the DVD that reads like a great coming of age story for a young woman who really isn’t satisfied with her status quo life. Then you
watch it and you see gratuitous sex and arguing (not that I mind) and ever present and in your face "my life sucks" bit. I just don’t feel when I watch this film (and I watched it twice) that I see a real emancipation from the lead character. The editing does not build towards a self realization and in life when we look back we can see the build towards a self realization as we see our own narrative as a progression. Although there are many pivotal moments in plot I genuinely don’t see the arc happening. Perhaps that was the intention–I really can not say. This film is worth watching from a sociocultural perspective as you get some insight into life for young people in Spain from that village to city perspective. It’s almost universal in the sense that the film has a few common elements in that village/town to city perspective a lot of folks have even on this side of the pond. It’s one of those films I recommend you watch alone and not with company as company will most likely complain. Some things make more sense or at least can be absorbed in solitude. That’s the great thing about DVD’s I suppose.