"De Chica en Chica" is a difficult film to watch not due to its content but availability. If you live in the United States, it is only on VUDU as a free movie with commercials (as of the time of this review). I chose to watch it on that platform due to its interesting poster and my late-night horniess. Girlfriend wasn't home.
Ahem, back to the movie. It is a cinematic follow up to a web series from about a decade ago. Ines, the main character, is a womanizer who flees Miami when several love interests find out about each other. She returns to her native Spain and decides to crash with some friends in the suburbs of Madrid (I think). Apparently, she slept with a bunch of these women who have resentment/lust for her today.
Ines is not an appealing character. We learn she left a relationship when her lover became pregnant and has had no contact with her daughter, Candela, in ten years. She randomly shows up and still wants to grab butts and manipulate her way out of debts and into pants. Her only redeeming quality save her beauty is her storytelling. She calms Candela, the daughter, down after several guests reveal their role in Candela's paternity.
Candela's mother is having a "period party" to celebrate her first menstruation. General wackiness follows as guests arrive. Several guests have either slept together, want to, or are coming out of the closet. The film emulates the style of Pedro Almodovar without the benefit of plot or social critique. Almodovar places his characters within society that doesn't accept or understand them. The humor comes from their coping. His films are funny in how relatable they are. These characters are just gay cartoons for the sake of novelty. We can't relate to any of them because they do not seem to exist within any society. The closest example is Ines's American lover who continually stresses the role of family due to being a Republican.
A familiarity with these characters would certainly help a viewer enjoy the film more. I did chuckle a few times. The film's best gag occurs when two male characters are seen in a compromising position and everyone assumes they are having sex. They aren't of course and the other guests try to prevent one of their girlfriends from seeing them. Of course, the two characters end up actually being gay thus ruining the joke.
The film gives the impression the writer and director understand the appeal of Almodovar yet their sentiment and conventionality nullify the comedy. This film is streaming for free because it isn't worthy of a more robust release outside its home country.
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