1991, Barcelona. While the upcoming Olympic Games gives the city an economic boom, some outlying neighbourhoods remain neglected. This is the case with La Sagrera, where two young teenagers, Juanjo and Miquel, live badly in their skin. Far from the problems of everyday life, school and girls, the two companions will take refuge in a passion that will seal their friendship: metal.
Minimum drawing
After two notable series in Catalonia, Judgment and the eponymous Heavies Tendres, author of comics Juanjo Sáez Cross the borders and arrive on a large screen. The drawing is content with the strict necessary: some features with a free and rounded style, stripped of any unnecessary detail. Each image thus obtained is clear. Like a box without contours, the whole simmers in the center of the screen, without needing to occupy all the space. This overshadowing creates the sensation of a moving comic strip, in the most literal way, and offers the film a special aura. These neglected areas will allow certain actions to take immediately more size and importance at the appropriate times, playing on the scale of magnitudes. If this staggered vision of the world can deconcentrate at first glance, it quickly proves very intuitive.
In addition, each character is identified by a characteristic that makes him easily identifiable, Miquel and his mass of blonde curls, Juanjo and his long brown hair, etc.. Thus, with a palette of tools so simple and put in place early in the story, the animators can play and divert the usual rules of animation. No need to worry about a certain realism or the rules of perspective. The world is distorted according to the needs of the staging and explores territories that would not have access to more traditional animation. The two directors, Joan Tomas Monfort and Carlos Pérez-Reche, thus manage to remain at once faithful to the graphic universe of Sáez, while bringing there a sincere added value by making it plunge into the world of animation. A film that experiments at every moment and succeeds in never visually losing its spectator.
Mutal metal
However, if the image is required, the soundtrack struggles to convince. Surprisingly, diegetic music is constantly undermixed. Every time the characters listen to metal, the expected momentum of power does not come and the pieces take the dimensions of a noisy elevator music that barely vibrate the seats. A choice assumed by the directors who explained that they wanted to apply their visual philosophy of counting to the sound plane. Unfortunately, they never achieve the same success. It can work when characters play vinyl without really listening. But more central sequences, like when Miquel listens to metal for the first time, lack punch. While it is transcended by the screaming riffs the lack of power in the soundtrack keeps us away from what it can actually feel. His exaggerated reactions become totally absurd.
Transition to M(etal)urity
Nevertheless, the film does not only shoot around music. If its aesthetics the fate of the lot, it is a real Coming of Age Movie, genre dont il coche toutes les cases. Au fil des scènes, le mal-être de Juanjo et Miquel se diluent petit à petit alors qu’ils apprennent à faire face à la vie. Malgré les obstacles, ils forment une amitié incongrue et formatrice qui les renforce. Autour d’eux, un cortège de personnages secondaires colorent le petit microcosme de La Sagrera, limite de leur univers. Le premier amour, le prof affectueux, le beau-père diabolique… Le film esquive avec justesse les clichés grâce à une inspiration autobiographique qui apporte la subtilité nécessaire. La somme de toutes ces qualités permet à Heavies Tendres d’expérimenter à chaque instant, sans jamais perdre son spectateur. S’il ne réinvente pas la roue, il nous invite plutôt à l’observer et à la découvrir sous un nouvel angle, plein de surprises.
Cool, tu m’as rendu curieux avec ce film ! Merci pour ta critique 😉