Grown-up Pains

18th Latin American  Film Festival

Auditorium, 395 Wellington St.,

Sunday, March 30, 2014, 4:00 pm

Filmed in warm  golden skin tones and bluesy-green backgrounds, Puerto Padre captures the stark beauty of Costa Rica and its people. That beauty can be good, and can be bad. Daniel, a sixteen year old, making his transition from the country [well, island] to the city, is the perfect focal point of the tale. He is enthusiastic, inquisitive, and very green. Quite green after his initial drinking night out, and quite green as to his jumbled family past. Searching for some roots, he walks into a messy spider web that may not offer an escape. Seems everyone he encounters has an unsavoury agenda, except for a possible romantic interest, who lives in unsavoury circumstances. Coming of age stories are rife with road blocks, but as in real life, sometimes there are no detours available. Puerto Padre has a cinéma verité feel that doesn’t feel forced, nor amateurish, and works perfectly in establishing a cultural canvas that may seem foreign yet all too familiar at the same time. It’s pretty damn good.

Coming of age films