Cousinhood

Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's film begins with Diego being left on his wedding day. His two cousins take him to Comillas, the town on the Cantabrian coast where they spent their childhood summers. The idea is to distract him; what emerges is that all three of them, in their thirties, have worked nothing out. Its best quality is placing a real sense of loss inside the holiday comedy template. Diego goes looking for his first love in the town, the other two grapple with their own failures, and as the jokes accumulate what sits underneath becomes clearer: these three men have not grown up, only got older. Sánchez Arévalo leaves the dialogue open to improvisation, and the familiarity among the actors carries the rhythm. It found a wide audience in Spain and became the director's most-watched work. Who it is for: viewers who like Spanish comedy and films built on male friendship. Who it is not for: anyone bothered by female characters kept functional, since the film revolves entirely around the three men.