In her feature debut, screenwriter and director Ana Garcia Blaya brings us a semi-autobiographical story set in Buenos Aires during the 1990s. It was a time when she too was growing up, and “The Good Intentions” is a story about a family in the midst of a divorce told from the perspective of three children. The eldest Amanda and the younger brother and sister are torn between mother and father, a somewhat unruly and seemingly completely irresponsible guy on the verge of his forties who still behaves like a teenager. Gustavo (Javier Drolas) seems to live for three things – football or his favorite River Plate, rock’n’roll and his children. And the kids love spending time with him because he’s a cool dad who lets them do anything and with whom it’s always fun.
But the problem will arise that his ex-wife Cecilia (Jazmin Stuart) and her new boyfriend have decided to move to Paraguay and take the children with them. Given that Gustavo, who has a record and CD store with his best friend Nestor (Sebastian Arzeno), is not doing very well, he doesn’t really have any conditions to fight for custody and the children will stay with him. They go away from him. But that’s why the eldest daughter Amanda will ask to stay with her dad, and it will soon become clear that the weird old rocker is not really capable of being a dad from 0 to 24 and that it is very difficult for him to reconcile his free lifestyle with the responsibility that comes with you have to take care of the kids all the time.
“Las buenas intenciones” was not one of those sad and difficult films about divorce lawsuits and custody struggles, but an extremely dynamic and fluttering story of growing up. Occasionally, Blaya also inserts footage taken with that typical family 16mm camera that gives this film a special flair. In fact, this is a film about adults who seem to refuse to grow up and who try to stop time, and at the same time about children who act much more responsibly, maturely and maturely than their parents. He had this casual feel-good film with a solid festival life, and was nominated for Best Argentine Film of the Year while Blayi won the Best Debut Award. Rating 6.5 / 10.
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