Official Competition, from Argentina's Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn is the Spanish-language answer to American satires about the follies of moviemaking, like Robert Altman's The Player, albeit on a smaller scale.
As he turns 80, Humberto Suárez (Broken Embrace's José Luis Gómez), a pharmaceutical millionaire, worries that he'll only be remembered for his obscene wealth. He decides he wants a "great movie" as part of his legacy, so he sets out to find the best director and cast money can buy. He starts by buying a Nobel Prize-winning novel to adapt, but doesn't bother to read it; he only cares that Rivalry has a prestigious reputation.
His assistant proceeds to introduce him to award-winning auteur Lola Cuevas (Penélope Cruz with a halo of tightly-coiled auburn hair), who claims she has no interest in a rote adaptation. For the estranged brothers of the novel, she casts respected theater actor Iván Torres (Oscar Martínez, Duprat and Cohn's The Distinguished Citizen) and international movie star Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas), counting on the clash their styles are sure to generate. They all finally meet after she has completed the script, an overstuffed scrapbook filled with obscene doodles and bizarre detritus.
Together, the three rehearse at Don Humberto's palatial, museum-like home. As expected, Iván and Félix clash, and when Lola isn't pleased with their performances, she chips away at their egos by having assistants wrap them in cellophane or making them run lines with a five-ton boulder suspended over their heads.
Then, she brings in Don Humberto's comely daughter, Diana (Irene Escolar), as their costar. When the middle-aged actors fail to kiss the young woman with the requisite passion—the brothers are competing for her character's favors--Lola, a lesbian, shows them how to do it, repeatedly, and with great enthusiasm.
From that point forward, it's a battle royal as Iván represents art and Félix represents commerce, though both can be petty, vindictive, and rude. Even Iván's second wife, children's book author Violeta (Julieta's Pilar Castro), gets involved, at least tangentially--it can be hard to resist the gravitational pull of a movie star. At a pre-production party for the film, however, the rivalry between the men goes too far, putting the entire project in jeopardy.
As a satire, Official Competition is a mixed success, since it's rarely as laugh-out-loud funny as intended, though it's never less than entertaining. The biggest attraction is simply the cast since the three actors rise to the occasion, Penélope Cruz above all. Even among the seven films, she's made with Pedro Almodóvar--one less than Antonio Banderas's collaborations with the filmmaker--she's never played a role as flamboyant as Lola.
From the director's bold outfits to her sacrilegious home décor to her sadistic edicts, she's a force of nature, and yet Cruz always plays Lola as a human being, however larger than life, and not a caricature. Her sparky performance makes it easy to forgive almost everything about the film that doesn't hit the same heights.
What kind of film collection would this title be suitable for?
Official Competition is suitable for International, Spanish-language, and comedy collections in public libraries.
What public library shelves would this title be on?
Official Competition would fit with other Spanish-language titles in public libraries. The filmmakers are Argentinian, while two of the actors (Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas) are Spanish. Oscar Martínez, the third lead, is also Argentinian.