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Too Late to Die Young (Dominga Sotomayor Castillo, 2018)
🕑 Added 2018-12-28 21:58:52 +0000 UTC
Without the context of understanding that 1990 was the year that democracy returned to Chile after 17 years of dictatorship, the larger import of Too Late to Die Young is rather illegible. This isn't to say that the goings-on don't have inherent interest value in themselves. But there is clearly a parallel being created between the burgeoning young adulthood of a character like Sofía (Demian Hernández) and the delayed "childhood" of the adults around her, who have heretofore been unable to explore their creative or nonconformist ideas. This is significant, because it separates Too Late from the dozens of other films that mock the idea of communes and hippy living arrangements, a veritable subgenre within international art cinema (at least among nations that, unlike the U.S., have historical experience with a viable left).
It becomes apparent fairly quickly that Sotomayor is chiefly concerned with Sofía's coming of age, specifically her sexual development, and much of the rest of the film is simply atmosphere. The first thing we see in the film is Sofía in a romantic tussle with Lucas (Antar Machado), her peer in terms of age. But as we know, girls mature faster, and so before long she is making out with Ignacio (Matías Oviedo), a visitor to the compound in the woods. He is cool with his motorcycle and vague disaffection, is appears to be around ten years Sofía's senior.
There is a talent show that takes up the final third of the film, a premise which serves to both distract everyone and to bring most of the principals together in one place. This is where many of the emotional crescendos get built up prior to a final cataclysmic event from which Sofía is excluded and to which she remains oblivious. I couldn't help but be reminded of Lucrecia Martel's The Holy Girl, a film that shares some vague similarities with Too Late but handles its themes with far more agility. Sotomayor, for her part, seemed to envision a more complex film, only to whittle it down to a few very basic elements.
I wish I had more to say about this film, and perhaps its (many) fans could set me straight in the comments section. I'm all ears.
