About Thirty

Martin Shanly's 2023 Argentine film is about Arturo, who has reached thirty. Arturo says the wrong thing constantly, turns up at the wrong moment and cannot fully form any relationship. The film catches him at a wedding and branches back from there into the preceding decade. The handling of time is its most striking feature. The jumps between March 2020 and the past are made without warning, and the viewer sometimes works out which year it is midway through a scene. That imitates the way Arturo remembers his own life. Shanly writes, directs and acts. The humour is built on embarrassment; the scenes do not cut away at the character's most awkward moment but hold on it. Some viewers find the method unbearable, and for others it is the entire value of the film. Who it's for: those who like comedy of embarrassment and Argentine independent cinema. Who it's not for: viewers wanting linear time and a likeable protagonist; the film refuses both.