'La Bola Negra' falls short of its maximalist ambitions
NPR • • entertainment
Key Points:
- La Bola Negra, directed by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo (Los Javis), is a sprawling queer literary-historical epic that interweaves three stories of gay male desire across different eras: the 1930s Spanish Civil War, 1932 Granada, and present-day 2017.
- The film explores themes of repression, fascism, and liberation, connecting its narratives through the legacy of Federico García Lorca, a gay poet murdered during the war, whose unfinished play shares the film’s title.
- While the movie has been embraced for its ambition and queer cinematic monument aspirations, it suffers from clumsy storytelling, uneven acting performances, and a fragmented, time-hopping structure that disrupts emotional engagement.
- Notable performances include Penélope Cruz’s vibrant cameo as a cabaret singer and Lola Dueñas’s emotional portrayal of Alberto’s mother, though the leads, especially Guitarricadelafuente, struggle to anchor the film.
- The film’s final act attempts poetic abstraction but ends up feeling tedious, turning what aims to be a bold statement into a cumbersome narrative that diminishes its overall impact.
