“Audiences only want pure banal entertainment” criticises Oscar Martinez’ high-brow actor Ivan Torres. He’s trying to justify his career against opposition Felix Rivero (Antonio Banderas), you see, who is an MTV best kiss winner-type actor – sorry, Ryan Reynolds – but far more successful than his peer. It’s an age-old question, isn’t it? What defines good entertainment?
And in Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohn’s Official Competition, this question is put up for dissection in more ways than one. The aforementioned pair of actors are being made to share the screen for a film from up and coming director Lola Cuevas (Penelope Cruz) – notorious for an eccentric perm and her less than conventional work methods. They’ve all been pegged as “the best of the best”, brought together by tycoon Humberto Sanchez (Jose Luis Gomez). He’s 80 now and wants to be remembered for something other than his wealth. “Should I make a bridge?”, he ponders. “No. I’ll finance a film. This will be my legacy”.
Of course, it can’t just be any film. It has to be the very best so Sanchez acquires the rights to a Nobel-prizing book he doesn’t even read and hires a volatile cast and crew just because they’re the hot ticket in the industry at the moment and throws them into a melting pot of personalities and egos to make art. It’s a fascinating deconstruction of the film industry and the larger-than-life personalities it cultivates. Despite Official Competition mostly taking place in the fictional film’s rehearsal period and set in very few locations, Duprat and Cohn still manage to mine a great deal from their absurd premise. It’s not a film that strives for much but it does what it sets out to do and does it really well; the laugh-a-minute script has a lot of fun by putting these disparate characters into all kinds of weird situations as they embark on making this movie. It expectedly doesn’t go to plan.
Banderas’ egotistical sex symbol Felix is a particular highlight with the actor relishing every gleeful and hilarious line of dialogue he has; it feels very against-type for an actor better known for more strait-laced work and it’s a lot of fun to see him cut loose. He has a great back-and-forth with Martinez who brings a hilarious rigidity and seriousness against Banderas’ goofiness; it’s a delightful dynamic that both work really well. And Cruz’s Cuevas is a refreshing change of pace from her sombre turn in Almodovar’s emotional Parallel Mothers which also premiered at Venice Film Festival. Seeing the two a few days apart just proves why she’s one of the best. The chemistry between the trio is out of control in the best way; no one is reigning in their egos and having all of these iconic presences together in a scene, and just going for it no less, really embellishes the chaotic energy of the whole thing.
They’re not trying to be subtle and neither is Official Competition. It’s a scathing satire that doesn’t hold back but also leans into exactly what it’s criticising about filmmaking and the ‘Hollywood’ process. The script admittedly doesn’t dig at this as deep as it could – nowhere near as elegant as Duprat and Cohn’s last film The Distinguished Citizen – but it weaves its observations with sharp, funny writing seamlessly. It feels, in many ways, like an elongated skit – in fact, it’s very reminiscent of The Simpsons episode in which Mr Burns decides he wants to make a film – but it’s an undeniably crowd-pleasing and hilarious one at that. So much so that the Italian audience erupted into applause on several occasions. Maybe there’s a trick or two to ‘pure banal entertainment’ after all.
Official Competition
Summary
Undeniably crowd-pleasing and hilarious.
