What could be more austere than the first film directed by Alfonso Cuarón’s young son Jonás, who also takes credits for script and photography? Like Chris Marker’s 1962 film La Jetée (the only other example that springs to mind), this is a moving picture that doesn’t move, being told only through still photographs. Moreover the first 20 minutes are in black and white and it is even longer before we hear any music, playing (briefly) on a car radio. Yet this story of the tentative cross-cultural romance between horny Mexican teenager Diego and oversensitive American college student Molly turns out to be, against all the odds, as charming as it is challenging. Indeed, for long stretches I simply forgot that the images were still, so engrossing was the plot and so endearing the characters.Read More »