Avellaneda's Moon (2004) User Reviews

Idealism vs. Pragmatism

[rainking_es · 8/10 · 13 March 2006]

Luna de Avellaneda is a 70 years old club, in the good ol' days it had more than 8.000 members. There they teach ballet, you can play basketball, you can chat with your friends... In short: it's your family out of your family. Now, times have changed, things are getting hard and people don't have much money. The club has nowadays less than 300 members, and has lots of debts. They're going' to have to sell the facilities, they say they're gonna build a casino, they say there will be a job for everybody, they say prosperity will be back in town... they say...

This is such of a metaphor of the whole Argentinian situation. He uses this club to represent the reality of a country that's been hurt very deeply, surrounded by looters and sick of promises. A country which uses the sense of humor and the sarcasm as a medicine.

Two hours of rage, love after love, and tons of hope... (we really need that) *My rate: 8/10

Fighting for passion

[nicolas-prandi · 7/10 · 25 May 2011]

A group of people from a neighborhood come together in the midst of their many troubles in order to attempt saving a sports and social club which they have been a part of for most of their lives. Things get complicated as the economy takes a hit and people fight through their own struggles on the side. Juan Jose Campanella places us, the viewers, right in the middle of the many problems which exist in the lives of all the people who share the commonality of being on the board of the CLA. Each one of the characters is both emotionally torn due to family or relationship issues, and in big financial need. Although the club is a large part of the reason for so much financial instability, it also seems to serve as the fountain of energy and inspiration for all of the characters. The story demonstrates clearly how society has changed and how difficult it is to move past economical issues, even when it means throwing a lifelong tradition to the side. Furthermore, it does paint a beautiful picture of finding hope and passion in the memory of how things used to be and how they could be once again with some time investment and sacrifice.

Good movie but not the best of Campanella

[jmasci · 7/10 · 26 May 2004]

"Luna de Avellaneda" it's a good movie. Sometimes it reminds some Italian ones where "nostalgia" was used. The idea of the movie -talking about a social and sports club as a symbol of the Argentinian situation during the 90's is good, specially if it takes human feelings to explain the loss of some people values in the last decade. Exploring in feelings and contradictions of the human being is one of the best characteristic of Campanella's movies. Ricardo Darín, Mercedes Morán y Eduardo Blanco are very good in their characters specially Blanco. It's not a depressing movie although the topic can be sound like that. Actually, it has a hopeful message that tell us: "Never say that everything is lost". Nevertheless, "Luna de Avellaneda" isn't the best Campanella's movie. It repeats some concepts we saw in "Son of the Bride" or "Same love, same rain" -perhaps the best one.

A beautiful film, at once universal and timely

[seriousgirls · 4 June 2004]

At once universal, in its complex Dickensian portrait of a society, and extremely timely - narrating in microcosm the recent economic crisis in Argentina - Luna de Avellaneda is a beautiful, eloquent film that will resonate deeply with both Argentine viewers and audiences worldwide. Very funny and very moving, the film is rich in human drama, its characters ranging from a small boy whose braces are killing him to an old man on his deathbed, with all sorts of variations in between - a man who discovers his wife is having an affair, a son who wants to escape the catastrophic situation by emigrating to Spain, a drunk who falls in love and tries to reform, a girl from a shanty town who wants to learn ballet. Small miracles occur throughout the film. The dialogues are brilliant, the acting consistently strong. As in reality (though not often depicted in films), economic concerns are never far from anyone's mind, yet at the same time the emotional life persists. Rarely have I seen such a felicitious melding of the two, as when the central character, Roman, whose marriage is failing, goes to buy cologne to try to spice things up and, after perusing the range of possibilities, can only afford the cheapest, and most acrid-smelling, scent on the shelves. Or when a still infuriated divorcee invites her ex to a romantic dinner in a five star restaurant and, after ordering numerous bottles of the best champagne, then slips away leaving him to foot the bill. I cannot recommend this film highly enough.

One of the best movies in my life

[serge1969 · 10/10 · 7 September 2004]

I have seen the movie at the Montreal Film Festival. I am not Argentine and don't speak Spanish. It is, however, one of the ten best movies I have seen in my life. Argentines can rest assured that this will be as powerful abroad as it seems to be down there. Rarely have I seen an audience enjoy a movie so much, the

laughter, the emotion, the high sense of humanity. It is certainly one of the most, if not the most, popular movie in the Festival. Intelligent, timely, human,

incredibly witty, deeply emotional. A movie that makes you happy to belong to the human race.

Please, wherever you are in the world, if this movie shows up in your local

festival, DON'T MISS IT!!! Anybody can make movies about war and misery and

poverty, but a movie that creates so much warmth and drama from small every

day situations is a gem. It had me crying and laughing and crying and laughing again. The applause at the Festival was thunderous, and so were the reviews.

I have not seen "Son Of The Bride" which was a big hit here. I do not want to miss it now. It is refreshing to see that somebody gives us the pleasure to go back to the movies to learn and enjoy life. It's been five days since I've seen it, and I still can't shake it off my mind. I find myself laughing and tearing up in the oddest situations.

One of the best movies I've seen in my life.

The social club

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 30 May 2011]

Luna de Avellaneda, a social club in a working class district of Buenos Aires has seen better days. In fact, we are given a short peek at the place in another era. The club was full of life, a crowded place where people went to have a good time and mingle with friends and neighbors. That look to the past happens during a night when a sort of fair is going on. That is the night in which Roman comes into the world as his mother, attending the feast, gives birth to him in the club house. As a gesture, Roman Maldonado is made free member for life. Roman's fate was sealed the night when he was born. His love for the institution will never die.

When we next come to the club, years have gone by. In fact, seventy years the club has been in existence. Sadly, Aquiles, founder of the Luna, and the board of directors are told they owe forty thousand pesos in back taxes they neglected to pay. Roman, now active in the affairs of the Luna, goes to the municipality to find out what can be done. One of the problems is the dwindling membership and people not socializing as before. Alejandro, who is a member of the club has received a proposal from someone interested in developing the site into a sort of amusement park which will employ 200 workers from the club. What Alejandro proposes is to sell their beloved Luna where he stands to make a handsome profit.

It is the end of an era. To complicate matters, Roman's marriage has reached an impasse. His wife Veronica, a school teacher, wants a separation. Dario, his son, wants to leave the country to go to try his luck in Spain. The place is crumbling and no one knows the solution to bring back the Luna of Avellaneda to a semblance of what it was.

Juan Jose Campanella, co-wrote and directed this film that is laden with symbolism. One can see the parallel between the Luna and the country, Argentina. Both have seen splendor, but alas, both are going through difficult times. The back taxes from the social club stands for the money the country owes because in spite of having the potential to be great, not much is being produced. Dario, the young son of Roman, like some of his contemporaries want to leave to seek a better life, in his case to Spain, only to see the dream probably ending at present because of the high unemployment in Spain. Loyalty, as well as nostalgia, are two of the themes that come into play. Only Roman and a handful of members vote to keep the club going.

Ricardo Darin is an actor that always gives his best in everything he appears. He shows he can carry a picture as he has proved with "Son of the Bride", "The Secret in Their Eyes", "El mismo amor, la misma lluvia", all directed by Mr. Campanella. Mr. Darin is a welcome presence in any film in which he decides to appear. He shows a special understanding with the director.

Mr. Campanella always include Eduardo Blanco in his films. His Amadeo is not exactly one of his best creations and the way the character is written it does not make much sense, but he is around to give the picture some sort of comic relief. Daniel Fanego, Mercedes Moran, Valeria Bertuccelli and the late Spanish actor Jose Luis Lopez Vazquez do good work for Mr. Campanella.

Loved it!! Made me proud of Argentine cinema.

[ignaciovasque1 · 9/10 · 1 August 2009]

Campanella is great! The simplicity and humanism of this film really got to me. I have watched many movies starring Ricardo Darin and most of them I liked but with Campanella's direction he shines even more (same as Valeria Bertucelli who I believe to be the best argentine actress since Norma Aleandro). I strongly recommend it. I wish there were more films like this one. I also wish Campanella would direct more often since everything I've watched from him I liked a lot (El Hijo de la Novia, Vientos de Agua, etc). I see he's been directing or writing scripts for House M.D., 30 Rock, Law & Order, etc. I would like to see him directing argentine movies more often instead. Greetings from Cordoba, Argentina.

Club, sweet club

[La_Maga · 7/10 · 13 February 2005]

Campanella is the kind of filmmaker that will always try to reach your human side, that will try to get through you by your heart not by your head. His stories have some kind of infallible tenderness, something that goes beyond the fact that you can feel identified with a character or with a certain situation; a tenderness that's universal, that is the same for all man kind. "Luna de Avellaneda" is not at all the exception to the rule: it's just another Campanella movie. A simple plot, with simple characters, very familiar places (maybe too familiar) dialogs that can mix really damn good trivial elements with deep ones, and smart humor, all these things, create the big panoramic picture of what this movie is. Great cast (Darín, Morán, Blanco mostly) and great production (for an Argentinian movie) do the rest. Then, all you have to do is sit and enjoy this happy go lucky movie, where every bad is eclipsed by some great good, and everything is just there to reveal you a lesson to remember, an that's to keep hope, and to hold on to things that matter although time may pass them by.

"¡Bancate al amor!"

Superb film. Top-notch acting, direction and writing

[casch0101 · 9/10 · 23 October 2006]

DON'T MISS THIS BEAUTY! This is, first of all, a first-rate film and probably one of the best movies to be remembered in the 21th Century. On the other hand, it certainly is Juan Jose Campanella's BEST film till now (his last of three). You simply cannot get any better than the acting (absolutely everyone!). The film is, true, very local. It depicts a very special segment of a nearby Buenos Aires (Argentina's Capital)city, the city of Avellaneda. The perfect dosage of drama and comedy (up to the hilarious, at times) mixed by Campanella is stunning. Probably, this film will be much more felt and appreciated by those living around the "Cuenca del Plata" ("River Plate Basin"), i.e. Montevideo (Uruguay), Bs.As. (Argentina) and Asuncion (Paraguay) where I was born and live. Ricardo Darin is simply put, one of the around eight best actors in the world, just like that. Some of the best moments are just a close-up of his face switching from doubt to joy with a smile and eyes getting wet. Furtheremore, I strongly recommend the DVD since with the Director Commentary on, Campanella talks profusely about his film, all along, with every possible technical detail of both his director and his writing. I wouldn't know whether the Director's Commentary is included in a USA or non-Latin America issue.

Depressing...but good

[Snake-Charmer · 7/10 · 20 May 2004]

A good Argentinian movie...But quite depressing because of the fact that it shows the reality of Argentina,where 2 ways of thinking clash everyday:An old and romantic one...against the new defined by the modern ideas in economy and politics....This movie makes it quite clear which one is works the best.So the movie tries to give hope by showing that things can be changed by making an effort. The acting is quite good...the ambientation( does that word exist??) in the 50's is good So a good movie,a tad to long and not the best acting by Darin

6 out 10

Great movie! A sad and accurate commentary about Buenos Aires 2003

[guille-5 · 9/10 · 17 June 2004]

This movie is not an easy one. The succor and illusion of the previous Campanella seems to have gone the same way as the Argentine industry, education, sense of security, that is gone for good,at least for now. This is a suburb city, Avellaneda, in decay just as the whole society. Crossing the bridge into B.Aires, where Darin goes to reflect, will not change the situation. Argentina and Argentines are trapped, and must figure out ways to come out of yet another crisis, and as Jesse Jackson would say,¨"Keep Hope Alive". Darin asks his friend Amadeo, in a great performance by Eduardo Blanco, when he decides to stay in the country "How do you create a new social club". Amadeo responds: "We will research it and figure it out", which is what almost anyone in Buenos Aires is trying to figure out. The social crisis affects not only the economics of a country but its social and human relations, with couples breaking up, cheaters cheating friends and ex-lovers or spouses, and yet there is the hope AA gives to one of the characters, stubbornness in others who refuse to accept friends'leaving the country, and the biggest symbol of hope, the dance teacher's being pregnant, being the ultimate symbol of survival and hope. Acting is uniformly good, although Darin is getting a little stagnant in the role of the wet-eyed sensitive guy. The production is superb, well beyond Argentine standards. And as remarked above, Campanella did not sweeten the reality of this film (as I felt he did with Son of the bride). Must see to understand Greater Buenos Aires and its people.

A film that panders to its intended audience

[arisheinwald · 4/10 · 24 August 2004]

As a fan of Hijo de la Novia, I found Luna de Avellaneda to be a complete disappointment. When I voiced my mixed feelings about this film to Argentines, they invariably accused me of not understanding the film because I'm not Argentine. I can argue with them on that since I understood the references they were accusing me of missing (the importance of social clubs in Argentine society, the ill-effects of neoliberal privatizations, etc,etc.) but, at the end of the day, a film needs to speak beyond its intended audience. But this is a problem with the ghettoization of national cinemas - faced with steamrolling Hollywood productions that they can't compete with, local industries attempt to counter-program with self-consciously nationalistic productions that attempt to reach the largest possible domestic audience. It's a lose-lose situation since instead of getting challenging foreign films (at the end of the day, the best antidote to Hollywood) we get films like Luna de Avellaneda (or, even worse, Patoruzito). On the bright side, recent years have witnessed a renaissance in Argentina cinema.

The film itself is structured around a fairly obvious metaphor - the social club clearly is meant to represent Argentina. A once glorious past is faced with a brutal and uncertain future. In this sense, the film taps into the heavy nostalgia that is pervasive in Argentine culture (ie. the tango). That the social club will be privatized is a clear analogy with the brutal effects of neo-liberal policies in the country over the past two decades. The problems with such heavy-handed symbolism is, well, heavy-handed symbolism.

At the end of the day, I don't let Hollywood movies get away with cheap sentimentality, so I certainly won't let foreign films get away with it either.

Beautiful film. Spoilers

[waldosanmiguel · 27 February 2006]

First off I don't agree with some of this previous comments especially a few from Argentina that have said that this film is not the best work of Darín or Campanella or that it is a disappointment. I thought the film is a gem, a fearless reality based yet humorous human drama. There are no easy answers because it does not sugarcoat the economic problems Argentina has and yet hope is kept alive on the simple fact that they are still alive. This film celebrates life like no other film I've seen. Not since "One flew over the cuckoos nest" has there been so much joy to simply being alive even in the most oppressing conditions. The film doesn't say "Hey, listen to this, this is the solution and the best argument against the problems that plague us" The guy offering solutions to the members of the club is seeing as a "bad guy" but suddenly he is making more sense than the "good guy".

Not Darín's best work? WHAT! Just that scene when he watches the little girl dancing ballet moves me to tears thinking about it. Blanco is great comic energy. Everyone is very good. Blanco and Darín should make an all out comedy. They have the rapport that I've seen Joe Pesci and Roberto DeNiro have in scenes together. They make it seem so easy. Anyway see this film and VIVA ARGENTINA CINEMA!!

From golden past times to decadence in Avellaneda

[scmema · 9/10 · 10 February 2008]

This movie reflects the reality of a decadent Argentinean present, after the golden year when immigrants would find a land full of opportunities. "Luna de Avellaneda" is about the neighbors of a club(very popular social recreational Argentinean icons) in the suburbs of Buenos Aires trying to save it from an becoming a casino. The characters will have to decide whether they let the club (and its history of prosperity) go in order for them to have a job opportunity.

This film reflects the sad moments Argentina is going through, and the despair of a group of people trying to hold back their dignity. As an Argentinean I cannot help having a bittersweet taste after watching this excellent movie.

Unmissable

[rooroo-1 · 9/10 · 19 August 2004]

A superb movie, the best Argentine movie I've seen. The entire plot (the attempt to keep the neighbourhood social club going) is an allegory for Argentine recent history, and each character represents a strand in that, eg the old Don, the Spanish immigrant who came to Argentina so full of hope - like many - but whose time has passed. Despite the light relief and clever humour it's ultimately a tragic tale, as any good tango. I'm not sure how well it would play outside the country ie if it would resonate with people who didn't understand the allegory, but for anyone with an interest in Argentina it's a definite don't miss.

Long and sometimes slow, but still great!

[felipe-andreazzi · 8/10 · 23 June 2010]

I am a great admirer of Juan Jose Campanella's films and this was the main reason why I decided to watch this film in first place. I did watch Son of the Bride and The Secret of Your Eyes, both great films. Ricardo Darin was another reason why I decided to watch it. I think he is now the greatest actor in the Hispanic cinema. It's amazing how the Capanella-Darin contributions worked so well in this "trilogy".

What is really cool about those films is that Campanella can create from a different situation many parallel stories. Like here for example, the main plot in "Luna..." is the administration board trying to save their beloved 70 year club from bankruptcy and to avoid the club to be sold and to build in his place a casino instead. From that plot Campanella shows not just the effort that the club employees do in order to save the club but he also shows the family and love relationships in the life of those people.

The trademark in the Campanella films is that he can balance the comedy with the drama. The soundtrack is beautiful as well like in all his films always with a great presence. The chemistry between Darin and Eduardo Blanco is always moving.

Although the film could it be a little bit shorter and sometimes the story does not develop as it should, its another great film by Juan Jose Campanella and Ricardo Darin that I definitely recommend it!

what a film!

[english-express · 10/10 · 9 July 2009]

just saw it last night,at 2:30 a.m.,on cable TV.it was such an unexpected joy!i'm still digesting the film,its humor,its brilliant direction,every single aspect that makes it a superb film.had never seen anything from the director before,but while watching it,i reckoned:it's a genius,sheer,pure genius.not to tell that i kind of woke up the family laughing,terribly,laughing...his little touches of being human,that belongs ,only,to the big ones.i'll talk to everyone about it.if films are made to entertain us,it did it;if films are made to enlighten us,it did it;if films are made to make us feel that we're part of some big thing that we can and cannot discover truly,this did it!success?failure?don't we encounter those in our lives?watch it,and enjoy!