Film Movement have plugged up a hole in their VOD schedule for next February, putting their hands on Uruguayan filmmaker Alvaro Brechner’s Bad Day to Go Fishing – a title that preemed in the Cannes sidebar section Critic’s Week back in 2009.
Gist: Jacob van Oppen, a washed-up alcoholic who was the former strongest man on earth, and his crafty manager Orsini, make a good living by traveling around small South American towns, organizing wrestling exhibitions in run-down theaters. Once this oddball pair disembarks at the village of Santa Maria, business really kicks off: the local newspaper sponsors the fight, and helping hands placard posters announcing an open call for a worthy adversary. Ever so resourceful, Orsini has always known how to find the right combatant that will invariably lose against Jacob, but fishing in Santa Maria could lead to a bigger catch than he’d hoped for.
Worth Noting: Brechner who lives in Spain, was a short docu filmmaker before making his feature debut.
Do We Care?: Variety called “Brechner’s ambitious debut is something like a retro “The Wrestler” by way of the Coen brothers or Mexican helmer Arturo Ripstein, with sharp production values and a fair share of pulp fatalism”. Though we’d cry foul over this not even a one theatre, one weekend theatrical release, we’ll eventually catch up with the title on DVD.
