‘The Delinquents’ Trailer: Cannes Raved About Rodrigo Moreno’s Surreal Heist Movie Like No Other
Ever had a horrifically boring job, one that you would do anything to get out of? Well, how about rob your own bank?
Argentinian film “The Delinquents,” written and directed by Rodrigo Moreno, plays out like a modern (and more serious) “Office Space.” The film premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section and screened at TIFF; it will next premiere stateside at the New York Film Festival.
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In this surreal comedy, Buenos Aires bank employee Morán (Daniel Elías) dreams up a scheme to liberate himself from corporate monotony: he’ll steal enough money to support a modest retirement, then confess and serve prison time while his co-worker (Esteban Bigliardi) holds on to the cash. Soon under pressure by a company investigator, accomplice Román heads to a remote rural idyll to hide the funds. There, he encounters a mysterious woman (Margarita Molfino) who will transform his life forever. Germán De Silva also stars.
The IndieWire review applauded how the “playful three-hour reverie is so happily unmoored from the expectations of everyday storytelling,” while it’s “tempting to think Morán might not be tilting at windmills after all. It’s here, in the even more languid and abstract second half of Moreno’s film, that ‘The Delinquents’ begins to dwell upon the true cost of freedom.”
Ehrlich, who wasn’t the only critic to rave about the movie out of Cannes, wrote, “‘The Delinquents’ cleverly inverts the average heist movie by lifting the veil off its characters’ eyes and expanding their concept of what’s possible — gradually at first, and then with such delirious force that Morán and Ramón threaten to come unglued from reality. That their names are anagrams for each other reflects the film’s lightly cosmic interest in the mysteries of the universe; that it also sets up a laugh-out-loud Marvel joke reflects the film’s warm-dry sense of humor. While ‘The Delinquents’ was pointedly made to provoke active viewing and push back against the algorithmic storytelling that has choked the life out of modern cinema, its airiness and emergent sense of romance make it a delightful place to get lost for a while.”
“The Delinquents” premieres in theaters October 18 in the U.S. from MUBI. Check out the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.
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