PELADA - On DemandJune 23, 2010
Filmbuff
On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: Pelada from Filmbuff. Email your comments to Sean here.
During the World Cup, every TV commercial shoves the “soccer is universal” message down our throats so frequently that I feel if I see any more images of children of all cultures doing an “around the world,” my eyes are going to get stuck backward in my head from rolling them too hard.
Along comes Pelada, from all indications a documentary that focuses on two former college soccer kids with failed professional hopes who decide to tour the world playing pick-up soccer in culturally disparate locations which opens their eyes to the universal ability of soccer to transcend all ideologies and mend, at least temporarily, society’s ills and maybe their own as they end up regaining the fire they once had.
Someone hit the back of my head. I’m staring directly at my frontal cortex and it’s looking grey and noodley. Seriously though, all cynicism aside, that’s what I thought this film was about, but realized pretty quickly that it wasn’t.
The word Pelada is literal Portuguese for “naked” but also slang for a pick-up game of soccer, and it turns out there is no more appropriate name for this film.
The tour group consists of Gwendolyn Oxenham and Luke Boughen, the main subjects, and their friends and filmmakers Rebekah Fergusson and Ryan White (both off screen). All four share directing/writing/editing credits.
The film follows Gwendolyn and Luke’s journey, and while reality-weened viewers might be wondering when the artificial dramatic arc is coming (as was I), it will take some settling in to realize that the film doesn’t go there. It does, however, transport the viewer to some fascinating locations.
While you can see Africa coming from ten bazillion miles away, the other destinations and the specificity of their missions become the raison d’etre of this film. They tour South American countries (Brazil, Argentina, etc.) as one might imagine – but instead of monotonous street games, they focus on rooting out the unexpected. In Bolivia, they actually bribe inmates to enter the San Pedro prison because they hear that’s where the real action is. Now that takes cojones! But they don’t focus on the riskiness of their predicament. Instead, they reveal the infamous “prison society with itself” through personal interviews with the inmates.
In Iran Gwendolyn finds a way to play with a men’s team (an infraction that could yield serious charges) and they are alerted that the authorities will check their tapes before they leave. Ultimately, there is no ominous Amazing Race music with time-compressed editing to augment the potential dangers of the trip. Gwendolyn feels nervous, she says so, and they matter-of-factly state that the police were interested in how their country fared in pick up games compared to others.
They visit an old friend, a former soccer hopeful, in Brazil. She plays pick-up games when she’s not working twelve-hour days in a factory painting plastic Shrek dolls (seriously). But the woman is happy with her life. She has a job she likes that pays and she gets to enjoy soccer on the side (seriously!) It is a humbling perspective that has an effect on our two leads (and me).
In Jerusalem, a Jewish team plays a Muslim team but a disputed goal scored by Luke creates an uproar and effectively ends the game. Both sides deeply dislike each other and the scene ends with a lone Jewish spectator telling us that the myth of soccer ending ideological problems is “bullsh*t.”
These resolutions epitomize the tone and propensity of the film for favoring “real” reality over fictionalized drama. Moreover, the resolutions for Gwendolyn and Luke follow suit and the film becomes more about flexibility in life rather than a “one goal, win or lose” mentality.
The filmmaking is quality (I was surprised at what they pulled off with a couple of compact HD Cams). Their B-roll selections (and they must have had days of it) are smartly chosen. Music selections are upbeat. The leads are unassuming but not boring. The narration -- “Sometimes unexpected moments are the best ones” -- is sub par. I wish they got another shot at it but at least that too is “real.”
Ultimately, somehow, a documentary about “the beautiful game” doesn’t reinforce the mythical American dream nor is it stuffed with romantic platitudes about goals fixing souls. It’s a stark look at the reality of our shared human experience, which, with all its hellishness, sometimes ain’t so bad after all.
No more perfect time to enjoy the human-soccer experience than during the South African World Cup. See Pelada now On Demand.
Sean McPhillips is a new contributing writer to On Demand Weekly. He is a former vice president of acquisitions for Miramax Films (During Harvey's reign) and currently writes/directs for NY-based Secret Hideout Films (with two consecutive shorts in Tribeca and upcoming new material) and works as Head Programmer, Coordinator for the brand new Gold Coast International Film Festival (to make its debut in June, 2011)
