Navigate life as a 14-year-old boy has been a challenge for almost all who have ever tried it, but Elm (Aivan Expap) is more difficult than most. With his father Nestor (Gustavo Sánchez Parra) limited to his bed – or, on the very best days, a wheelchair – due to multiple sclerosis, he is forced to share care tasks with his working mother Cecilia (Andrea Suarez Paz) and his high school sister Ana ( Pink armydariz), who is not happy to see his social life interrupted by a malicious parent’s needs. The situation would be traumatic enough in any case, but Olmo is also consumed by the same existential horny that is filled every 14-year-old’s waking days. He is close enough to the world of high school and beautiful girls to understand that he wants to be a part of it, but free on how to leave childhood behind and embrace the so -called freedoms that come with Teenage life.
Fernando Eimbcke’s charming age film “Olmo” exists within the tension between the family’s life or death problems and the youthful misunderstandings that only seem so through the eyes of a teenager in 1980s New Jersey. With Nestor’s condition that potentially takes a trip to the worse and the family facing drafts if Cecilia misses more shifts on her waitress job, Olmo has a lot to worry about. But most days, his biggest concern is to fight for the attention of his neighbor and crush Nina (Melanie Frometa) – without ever talking to her or showing any clue that he may be interested, of course.
The contradictory demands of Olmo’s time come in the head when he and his friend Miguel (Diego Olmedo) are invited to one of Nina’s parties provided they deliver a stereo. He tries to rebuild Nestor’s broken rig under the supervision of his audiofili father, but disagreements as wires to connect turn into a painful argument that shines light on Nestor’s bitterness over his own lack of autonomy and the ways Olmo feels that his own wings have been cut of his father’s constant needs. In an attack of anger, he commits the family’s cardinal sin and leaves his father without supervision for the night – a risk that forces the young man to confront the boundaries of an idea as independence when you live within a family unit.
Imagine an alternative version of “Napoleon Dynamite” Where everyone’s situation was played for sincerity rather than cynical irony and you will have a rough idea of the vibes like “Olmo” captures. Eimbcke never shakes away from the difficulty of Olmo and Miguel’s lives, from their outdated clothing and lack of social skills to Odyssey required to produce a functioning stereo that would give them access to a party that only one high school would ever think is to think is cool. Some scenes may turn into Cringe comedy if directed by someone with less empathy for their characters, but Eimbcke keeps his story rooted in the idea that the whole family is just trying to their best in a world that never disturbs them a helping hand.
There is really a more serious story that hides in “Olmo” if the toll that a parent’s sinking health takes on a working class family. But with just 84 minutes to work with, Eimbcke and co -authors Vanesa Garnica use a light touch to suggest the situation in the situation without ever getting involved for it for immediately. By telling the story through such a young main person’s eyes, Eimbcke can minimize the efforts for certain events while inflating them from others to tell a balanced story that should leave the audience smiling. Because at the end of the day, “Olmo” is not a story about disabilities – it is about perspective and how the youth warns it, for better and worse.
Each time the movie comes close to Lampooning Olmo and Miguel’s humming attempt to fit in, Eimbcke implicitly prays our empathy by forcing us to remember how the things that were monumentally important to us at 14 now seem slippery afterwards. For all its impressive attention to cultural-specific details, you don’t have to be Latin American, from New Jersey or a child in the 80s to appreciate the movie. All you need are some Cringe inducing memories from your early teens. In other words, “Olmo” is really universal.
Rating: B+
“Olmo” premiered at 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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